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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
House Democrats Want Six Years of Trump's Tax Returns; Did Bill Barr Go Easy on Trump?; Officials Release Findings on March Crash of Ethiopian Jet; Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin Meet Ahead of Israeli Elections. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired April 04, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Democrats now requesting six years of the president's tax returns.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Is there more to the Mueller probe than meets Bill Barr's eye? Some of the investigators say their findings were more damaging than the AG is letting on.
BRIGGS: And is this teenager found in Kentucky the same boy who vanished from Illinois nearly eight years ago?
ROMANS: That's really so troubling.
BRIGGS: A lot of layer to this one.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Good morning. Good morning.
BRIGGS: Good morning.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour. House Democrats angling for their next fight with the president. They're going after his tax returns. CNN first to report that House Ways and Means chairman Richard Neal sent a letter to the IRS on Wednesday. He is citing a little known section of the IRS code to request the president's personal tax returns from 2013 to 2018. He also wants tax returns from eight of Mr. Trump's business entities.
The president reacting with humor and a familiar excuse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, the chairman of the Democratic House Ways and Means Committee moments ago asked the IRS for six years of your tax returns. How do you --
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Is that all?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: That's all.
TRUMP: Oh. Usually it's 10, so I guess they're giving up. Until such time is I'm not under audit, I would not be inclined to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The president first said he was under audit back in early 2016. Democrats insist the request is about oversight. Republicans see it as political escalation. The ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, Republican Kevin Brady, sending a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin saying, "Weaponizing our nation's tax code by targeting political foes sets a dangerous precedent and weakens Americans' privacy rights."
ROMANS: All right. Did the attorney general go easy on President Trump when he summarized that Mueller report? "The New York Times" reporting this morning some of the special counsel's investigators have been complaining to associates that Bill Barr did not fully convey just how damaging their findings were for the president.
The "Times" quotes government officials and others saying investigators are concerned Barr was able to shape the public's initial views before any version of the report comes out. Those interviewed by the "Times" declined to fully explain what they believe was held back. It's also unclear how widespread this frustration is on Robert Mueller's team.
BRIGGS: Barr wrote in his four-page summary to Congress last month Mueller did not establish anyone connected to the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. Barr also quotes Mueller saying he did not have sufficient evidence to prove obstruction of justice but did not exonerate the president either.
The "Times" reports the lack of a firm decision frustrated the attorney general and his team. Barr said last week a redacted version of the Mueller report will be released to Congress and the public by mid-April if not sooner.
ROMANS: The House Judiciary Committee voting along party lines to authorize a subpoena that would compel Attorney General Bill Barr to release the full unredacted Mueller report. Committee chairman Jerry Nadler indicating he will give Barr time to change his mind about releasing only a redacted version but Nadler says a subpoena will be served if Barr does not voluntarily comply. Nadler making it clear there is no room here for compromise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Are you willing to negotiate any middle ground in terms of redactions of the Mueller --
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): No.
RAJU: You're not?
NADLER: No. The committee must see everything. Not willing to let the attorney general who after all is a political appointee of the president make that -- substitute his judgment for ours.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: One senior White House official called Nadler's subpoena threat, quote, "ridiculous," insisting it's not oversight, it's overreach.
BRIGGS: Happening right now Ethiopian officials releasing their report on the deadly crash of a Boeing 737 MAX passenger jet last month.
These are live pictures from a news conference in Addis Ababa, the capital there. CNN's Melissa Bell is tracking all of this live from Paris.
Melissa, good morning, what are we hearing there?
MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. The headline this morning, we've just been hearing from the Ethiopian Transport minister, this is the preliminary report into the contents of those black boxes. The information had been extracted from the black boxes here in Paris just a few weeks ago, then transferred to Addis Ababa. These are the preliminary findings and they are damming for Boeing.
What we're hearing is that essentially all the procedures were followed by the pilots as instructed by the manufacturer. Have a listen for yourself to what Ethiopian's Transport minister just said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAGMAWIT MOGES, ETHIOPIAN MINISTER OF TRANSPORT: The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer but was not able to control the aircraft.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL: What this means is that they followed by the letter what Boeing said they should do in the case where this automated flight system kicked in. That very system, Dave, that was at the heart of the Lion Air crash just a few months before.
[04:35:05] In the wake of that, both Boeing and the FAA had put out statements and got in touch with airlines to talk about the necessity of proper training for the pilots and how best to deactivate the system if it were activated.
The question now is that given that these pilots did follow those instructions, given that these pilots did all that they could, why was this particular kind of Boeing allowed to fly again after the Lion Air crash? These two pilots were unable to prevent it from crashing and what that means, really, Dave, is that this flight as it took off from Addis Ababa last month was essentially doomed.
BRIGGS: 346 people died in those two crashes. Melissa Bell live for us in Paris. Thank you.
ROMANS: We'll continue to monitor that press conference as well. Now the FBI is investigating that alleged security breach at Mar-a-
Lago over the weekend as a possible espionage effort. A woman with Chinese passports, four cell phones and a thumb drive containing malware, she was able to enter the president's Florida retreat. A top House Democrat has asked for a briefing on the security at the Palm Beach Club. The president says the Secret Service and the club's receptionist had it all under control.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: No, I'm not concerned at all. I have -- we have very good control. We have extremely good, and it's getting better. I think that was just a fluke situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Yujing Zhang told a federal judge Monday she works as an investor and consultant for a Chinese company. Prosecutors called her a flight risk. The Chinese embassy in Washington has not responded to our request for comment. Later today President Trump will meet with China's vice premier to talk about trade.
BRIGGS: An Illinois boy missing almost eight years has apparently turned up alive in Kentucky. A teenager identifying himself as Timmothy Pitzen telling police he just escaped his kidnappers by fleeing a red roof inn where they were staying. Authorities say it appears the young man kept running until he ran across a bridge into Kentucky. The teenager has not been positively identified. CNN spoke to a woman, though, who saw him outside her home and took these photos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARON HALL, RESIDENT, NEWPORT, KENTUCKY, WITNESS WHO SAW MISSING BOY: A boy was leaning against one of my neighbor's cars that -- we've been having some crimes here -- with crime here. So I called her to tell her but -- you know, hey, let's look out here. I took the picture in case he did something and, you know, ran off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: This case has confounded law enforcement for years. Timothy was 6 years old when he went missing in May 2011 after his mother took him out of his Aurora, Illinois, school citing a family emergency. She then took him on a three-day road trip with stops at zoos and water parks. She was later found dead in a Rockford, Illinois, motel. A suicide note was found saying Timmothy was safe with people who would love and care for him. The note added, quote, "You'll never find him."
BRIGGS: Wow. More trouble for Facebook today. Security researchers found hundreds of millions of Facebook user records exposed to the public on Amazon's cloud service. Two third-party companies were found to have stored the data without a password, allowing anyone to access it. Facebook permits third party developers to integrate apps and Web sites with its platform. In a statement Facebook says once alerted to the issue, it worked with
Amazon to take down the data bases. This is the latest example of the social network struggling to protect data collected from its more than two billion users. There is no evidence the data has been misused, but Facebook is investigating.
Another day, another PR nightmare for Facebook.
ROMANS: Another mea culpa from Facebook every single day.
All right. A battle between allegiance to the law and allegiance to God. One state legislature could demand priests inform police about sexual abuse reported in confession.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:43:16] ROMANS: Top U.S. CEOs are voicing serious concerns over a border shutdown. The business round table of powerful business lobby asked President Trump's top economic officials to rethink plans to shut down the southern border. The lobby said it supports efforts to modernize our immigration system but a shutdown would in its words significantly harm American workers, businesses farmers and consumers.
The members added closing border would back up thousands of trucks, impact billions of dollars of goods each day, cripple supply chains and stall U.S. manufacturing and business activity. The letter comes after the president acknowledged closing the border would hurt the economy but said security is more important to him than trade.
Truck and rail routes carry $1.7 billion of goods every day, back and first across the border, supporting five million American jobs according to the Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. exports more to Mexico than it does to China and those imports Mexico are parts and tools that feed American factories.
The shutdown would injure American manufacturers and farmers already reeling from the effects of the president's trade war with China.
BRIGGS: Former Vice President Joe Biden addresses the recent controversy over his touchy feely style of politics. He says he'll be more mindful in the future of respecting personal space.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Social norms have begun to change. They've shifted. And the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset. And I get it, I get it. I hear what they're saying. I understand. And I'll be much more mindful. That's my responsibility. My responsibility and I'll meet it. But I'll always believe governing, quite frankly, life, for that matter, is about connecting. About connecting with people. That won't change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:45:03] BRIGGS: The Biden camp has been in damage control mode since former Nevada lawmaker Lucy Flores, a Democrat, said the then vice president smelled her hair and kissed the back of her head during a 2014 campaign event. Flores is glad Biden acknowledged making women feel uncomfortable but says he still has not apologized.
Biden alluded to his 2020 plans in that video saying he'll be talking to Americans about a whole lot of issues in the coming months.
ROMANS: All right. The embattled chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party announcing he is staying on as the party's leader but will give up the day-to-day operations. An Robin Hayes has recently been indicted on federal bribery charges. In indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses Hayes and three others in an alleged scheme to bribe the state's insurance commissioner for favorable treatment of certain businesses. Hayes had already announced he would not seek reelection as chairman.
BRIGGS: Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta grilled by lawmakers at a house hearing over a plea deal with billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The deal for Epstein was negotiated in 2008 when Acosta was a U.S. attorney in Florida. Epstein pleaded guilty in a state court to felony prostitution and served just 13 months of an 18 month sentence.
On Wednesday, Acosta was asked whether he could still lead the Labor Department which is responsible for combating child labor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): How as secretary of labor can you tell this panel and the American people that you can responsibly oversee this budget, the Department of Labor, and including human trafficking? Is there no answer?
ALEXANDER ACOSTA, SECRETARY OF LABOR: Is that a question?
CLARK: That was a question.
ACOSTA: So as I was saying, the Department of Justice for the past 12 years has defended the actions of the office in this case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: A federal judge in Florida recently ruled the Department of Justice broke the law by failing to confirm Jeffrey Epstein's victims about that 2008 plea deal.
ROMANS: Victims were underage at the time of the crimes.
Prosecutors in the college admission scandal say they plan to seek jail time for every one of the defendants. That includes actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman. They face between six and 21 months in prison and they are among a dozen people who appeared in federal court Wednesday in Boston. All of them implicated in Operation Varsity Blues.
Parents, allegedly paying a college prep business to cheat for their children on standardized tests and to bribe college coaches to help get their children into highly competitive universities. In some cases putting them on the rowing team or the soccer team even though they didn't row or play soccer. Loughlin signing autographs for her fans outside court. She and Huffman waived a pretrial hearing and were free to leave.
BRIGGS: Aunt Becky.
Flood waters are receding in Nebraska finally revealing the scope of the devastation. Aerial footage shot by the Nebraska State Patrol showing wide paths of damage and debris. The Spencer Dam destroyed. The Highway 281 Bridge washed out. The state estimates $1.3 billion in infrastructure, livestock and crop all losses. Farmers have more crops in storage than ever before, especially after lost sales from the Trump administration's trade war with China.
ROMANS: California lawmakers hoping to reverse centuries of tradition in the Catholic Church by forcing priests to report confessions of child sex abuse. Senate Bill SB 360 would make it required by law. The California Catholic Conference of Bishops claims the measure would put clergy in an impossible position. They say it would force priests to either violate the law or their oath to God.
There are also concerns the measure would put clergy at risk of being excommunicated from the church. Current law exempts clergy from reporting crimes they hear during confession.
BRIGGS: Boy, you would like to think that safety of children would be first and foremost.
ROMANS: All right.
BRIGGS: Maybe not.
ROMANS: Yes. 48 minutes past the hour. Verizon launching the first 5G network and phone in the U.S. There have been growing concerns about using Chinese built 5G networks. CNN Business is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:53:43] BRIGGS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, just days before Israel's elections.
Matthew Chance is live in Moscow. Matthew, good morning, what is this meeting pertaining to?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, actually both the Kremlin and the Israeli side are being pretty tight- lipped about the specifics of what's going to be discussed. And they had a telephone conversation a couple of days ago, it's the second meeting they've had in just five weeks.
But the fact that it's taking place just, you know, days, five days before the Israeli elections where Benjamin Netanyahu faces a really serious challenge for his prime ministership, I think shows or suggests to us that this is all about really Benjamin Netanyahu underlining the international contacts he has, his ability to, you know, act on the international stage diplomatically.
In recent weeks he's been meeting with of course President Trump, the United States. He's hosted the Brazilian leader as well. And now he's here in Moscow speaking with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president. Obviously there's the usual issues being discussed, the situation in Syria, Russia, of course, a major backer of Bashar al- Assad, the president of Syria. Russia -- Israel rather is deeply concerned about how entrenched in the foothold Iran is getting inside Syria. So it's been speaking with the Russians over many years about that issue.
[04:55:02] There's also one other issue that may well be what they'll discuss. It's this issue of an Israeli soldier who was killed in Israel's war in Lebanon in 1982. The remains of that soldier were recently repatriated to Israel, and there's a suggestion that Russia may have played a hand in locating the remains of the soldier, speaking with its Syrian ally, working with the Israeli Security Services to make sure those remains were located and repatriated back to Israel so it may be a sort of sense of some gratitude expressed by the Israelis to the Russians for that as well -- Dave.
BRIGGS: OK. Israeli elections Tuesday, the 9th. Matthew Chance live for us in Moscow. Thank you, sir.
ROMANS: All right. New evidence of just how much Kim Jong-un wanted a nuclear agreement with the United States at the failed Hanoi summit in February, CNN has learned the North Korean leader ordered his generals not to carry out any unplanned activity in the days and weeks before that summit. He was worried any movement in military units would raise tensions.
North Korean forces returned to their regular deployment status after the failed summit. Senior U.S. military officials say there's no sign Kim is planning any missile or satellite launches or nuclear tests.
BRIGGS: Kidnappers in Uganda holding an American tourist, demanding a half million dollar ransom. Police say four armed men took the woman at gunpoint at Queen Elizabeth National Park in southwest Uganda. Authorities have dispatched an elite squad from the tourism police to the park actively pursuing the kidnappers. They say they've closed all exit routes across the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Global markets are mixed as investors wait for new developments in the U.S.-China trade talks on Wall Street. Futures are slightly lower right now. U.S. markets posted steady gains Wednesday. The Dow closed up about 39 points. The S&P 500 closed up a little bit and the Nasdaq advanced for the fifth day in a row.
Computer chip stocks helped spur that rally. All three major averages are trading less than 3 percent. 3 percent or less below their all- time highs. Continuing their recovery from last year's big decline. Talks on ending the U.S.-China trade war today with both sides inching
toward a deal, Chamber of Commerce's Myron Brilliant saying we're getting toward the endgame stage. But there are still several hurdles here. The Chinese wants the U.S. to drop all tariffs. Washington wants guarantees on implementation and enforcement and a potential border with Mexico could sour any optimism about U.S.-China trade progress.
President Trump will meet with the Vice Premier Liu at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon to talk about progress on the China trade situation.
All right. Verizon has pulled ahead in the race -- the U.S. race to launch 5G. The carrier became the first to launch a 5G network on a smartphone Wednesday. The network now available to customers in select areas of Chicago and Minneapolis.
There's a catch here. Customers have to buy the Moto Z3, the first 5G enabled smartphone to hit the U.S. market, to access that network, and the $200 attachment to connect to the network.
All of this comes as former U.S. military leaders warn of risks to future combat operations posed by Chinese built 5G networks. In a letter the leader said their concerns fall into three main categories -- espionage, future military operations and democracy and human rights.
BRIGGS: Remember this claim from the president on Tuesday?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: And they say the noise causes cancer, you tell me that one. OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Didn't go over well with some, including Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, a supporter of wind energy in Iowa. He called the claim idiotic. Stephen Colbert had roughly the same sentiment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's like a graveyard for birds.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: If you love birds, you'd never want to walk under a windmill because it's a very sad, sad sight. It's like a cemetery, we put a little -- we put a little statue for the poor birds.
(LAUGHTER) STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Yes. Yes, it's a -- it's true. Donald Trump grieves for the birds. Here he is attending a wake for a beloved chicken. The --
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
COLBERT: The funeral was open bucket.
(LAUGHTER)
COLBERT: Rest in 12-piece.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Cause cancer, by the way.
BRIGGS: Let's just be clear about that, that is not true.
EARLY START continues right now.
ROMANS: Pilots did everything they were supposed to but could not keep the plane in the air. Officials in Ethiopia with sobering revelations into the second of two Boeing crashes.
BRIGGS: Oversight or overkill?
[05:00:00]
