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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Assange Facing Extradition To The U.S. Where More Charges Could Await The WikiLeaks Founder; More Legal Trouble In Chicago For Empire Actor Jussie Smollett; The U.S. Budget Deficit 15 Percent Higher Than A Year Ago; Two New Polls Revealing Democratic Hopeful Pete Buttigieg Is Gaining Ground In Some Early Voting States. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired April 12, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, EARLY START HOST: Assange facing extradition to the U.S. where more charges could await the WikiLeaks founder.
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PETE BUTTIGIEG, MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND: If he wanted to clear this up, he could come out today and say he's changed his mind.
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DAVE BRIGGS, EARLY START HOST: South Bend, Indiana Mayor, Pete Buttigieg, taking on the Vice President of the United States and surging in two new 2020 polls.
ROMANS: More legal trouble in Chicago for Empire actor Jessie Smollett. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Early Start. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning, good morning to all of you. I'm Dave Briggs. Friday, April 12, a masters Friday. 5 a.m. in the east. We finally made to Friday. We start with the immigration battle ongoing in this country. CNN confirming last night the Trump administration pushed the department of Homeland Security to release detained migrants into so-called sanctuary cities. Sources tell us the aim was partly to retaliate against democrats who opposed President Trump's plans for a border wall. The president personally pushed then Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, to follow through on the plan. Sources say she resisted. An analysis by DHS lawyers concluded the plan would be illegal and that ultimately killed it. A DHS official confirmed there was such a proposal telling CNN, quote, "these are human beings, not game pieces."
ROMANS: Meantime, Vice President Pence touring the border in Arizona exclusively with CNN. He says the Trump administration has no plans to return to separating families as a way to deter immigration.
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MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president made if very clear this week we're not rethinking bringing back family separation.
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ROMANS: Pence's comments contradict multiple sources who tell us the president was considering more extreme measures to enforce a zero- tolerance immigration policy. Among the proposals the president considered to deter migrants, once again separating children from their parents at the border.
BRIGGS: Julian Assange in custody in Britain this morning. Police in London yesterday dragged the WikiLeaks founder out of the Ecuadorian embassy where he's been living under asylum for seven years. He's been charged with jumping bail and now awaits extradition requested by the United States for more on the events leading up to the arrest and everything that's happened thus far. Let's go live to London and Isa Soares. Good morning.
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Dave. That's right. After more than 2,400 days confine hold up in a small room behind me at the Ecuadorian embassy, Julian Assange has gone from one confined space to another. Waiting to hear his fait and he'll find out fait, in fact, in the next three weeks as they say also on the 2nd of May. There is one charge against him, one charge of the U.S. extradition, and that is his role in conspiring in 2010 with the U.S., with Chelsea Manning to really steal military secrets. The DOJ went onto say that more charges are forthcoming, but this one in particular relates to him assisting Manning - those are the words they use - assisting Manning in cracking a password at the infiltrated Pentagon computers that went on, as our viewers will know, to really - to really see what we really saw was the largest ever leak of government secrets. Now, if he is found to be guilty of that, he will be extradited to the United States where he could face as many as five years, but of course with the DOJ saying that more charges could be coming. In the meantime, we have heard from the lawyers for Julian Assange and we've also heard from the editor of WikiLeaks, and this is what they had to say in related - in relation to these charges. Take a listen.
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KRISTINN HRAFNSSIN, WIKILEAKS EDITOR IN CHIEF: Legally, of course, the extradition will be fought in the courts here. That's with every - every means possible. It will be exposed that this is a politically motivated prosecution, and therefore a persecution.
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SOARES: Now, prosecutors have a total of 65 days to hand over or to present the case and hand all the materials to U.K. authorities. And then on the 2nd of May, Julian Assange will hear his fait. Dave, Christine -
BRIGGS: All right, just past 10 a.m. in London. Isa Soares live for us. Thank you. So what about the president's relationship with WikiLeaks? Well, during the campaign you might remember the president routinely applauded WikiLeaks for its role in dumping stolen documents from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign. Listen to what he said back then.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks. This WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable. It tells you the inner heart. You got to read it. It's been amazing what's coming out on WikiLeaks. This WikiLeaks is fascinating. This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove.
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BRIGGS: That was then. This is now.
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TRUMP: I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It's not my thing. I know nothing really about them. It's not my - it's not my deal in life.
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ROMANS: All right, Hillary Clinton also reacting to Assange's arrest. Here's what she said at an event in New York City last night.
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HILLARY CLINTON: He has to answer for what he has done at least as it's been charged. I do think it's a little ironic that he may be the only foreigner that this administration would welcome to the United States.
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ROMANS: Clinton adding this is not about punishing journalism. It's about assisting the hacking of a military computer to steal information from the United States government.
BRIGGS: President Trump seizing on the attorney general's claim that his presidential campaign was spied on and carrying it much further. Refresher, here is what AG Bill Barr told a congressional committee on Wednesday.
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BILL BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. I think there's - spying did occur. I think spying did occur.
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BRIGGS: Barr later said he was not claiming there was improper surveillance, only that he was concerned about it. But on Thursday, President Trump seemed to blow past that distinction, entirely embracing the spying claim.
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TRUMP: I think what he said was absolutely true. There was absolutely spying into my campaign. I'll go a step further. In my opinion, it was illegal spying, unprecedented spying, and something that should never be allowed to happen in out country again. And I think his answer was actually a very accurate one.
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BRIGGS: Meantime, former FBI Director James Comey said at a cyber security conference he was baffled by Barr's use of the word spying.
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JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I really don't know what he's talking about when he talks about spying on the campaign. It's concerning because the FBI, the Department of Justice conduct court ordered electronic surveillance. I have never thought of that as spying, and the reason in mention to know what he means by that is if the attorney general has come to the belief that that should be called spying, wow.
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BRIGGS: Comey said that Barr's reference to spying will make it harder to presume he is standing up for truth and facts.
ROMANS: Eye-popping numbers from the Treasury Department. The U.S. budget deficit 15 percent higher than a year ago. The deficit was $146.9 billion in March alone. It now stands at $691 billion for the fiscal year. That is roughly $100 billion more than where it was this point in 2018. The deficit has ballooned as the government spent more on the military, veteran's affairs, and interest on the debt. And President Trump's 2017 tax cuts means the Treasury is taking in less money. The White House view was that huge corporate tax cuts would supercharge economic growth enough to reign in the deficit, but that hasn't happened. Treasury is projecting the deficit will surge over a trillion dollars by the end of the fiscal year in September and aging American population will drive up Medicare and social security spending sharply in coming years. Within a decade, interest payments on the national debt will be larger than discretionary spending.
BRIGGS: The city of Chicago suing actor Jussie Smollett in an effort to recoup $130,000 for the investigation of what police say was a staged hate crime attack. The civil suit comes after the actor refused to pay the bill to cover the cost of police overtime. The suit says more than two dozen police officers and detectives spent more than 1,800 overtime hours working the Smollett case. The city also wants Smollett to pay $1,000 for each false statement he made to police and cover attorney's fees and other legal costs. No comment from Smollett's attorney.
ROMANS: More legal trouble for attorney Michael Avenatti. He's be indicted on 36 counts of embezzlement and fraud. Federal prosecutors allege Avenatti stole millions of dollars from clients, including one, a paraplegic from whom Avenatti withheld a settlement payment of $4 million.
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NICK HANNA, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA: As it turns out, within months after receiving the settlement proceeds in early 2015, Mr. Avenatti had drained the entire $4 million payment from his trust account using significant portions of these funds to finance his coffee business, his auto racing enterprise, and his own, personal lifestyle.
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ROMANS: Avenatti says he intends to plead not guilty to new federal charges. Just last month he was named in a scheme to extort as much as $25 million from Nike.
BRIGGS: Wow. OK, ahead the blizzard that struck the Rockies all the was to the Plains has turned deadly. The latest is next.
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ROMANS: Ohio Governor, Mike DeWine, signing a so-called Heartbeat Bill into law, banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. In many cases, that is as early as six weeks before many women even know their pregnant. Courts have consistently struck down all such laws most recently in Iowa in January. DeWine acknowledging the same fait awaits this law, but he says he hopes the U.S. Supreme Court uses this case to overturn Roe versus Wade.
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MIKE DEWINE, GOVERNOR OF OHIO: The purpose of this bill is really to have a vehicle for the United States Supreme Court so that should it be ready to do so it could revisit some of those prior rulings. The United States Supreme Court will ultimately make a decision.
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ROMANS: A previous Ohio heartbeat bill was vetoed just last December by former Governor John Kasich on his way out of office. He is now a CNN contributor.
BRIGGS: That monster spring snow storm that knocked out power for tens of thousands now hovers over the Northern Plains and upper Midwest. Parts of South Dakota and Minnesota could see as much as 30 inches of snow before the storm shifts north to Canada. Schools are closed today in Minneapolis. Fargo, North Dakota has closed all non- essential city offices due to the blizzard-like conditions, and in Denver a pickup truck driver was killed on Wednesday when police say he lost control of the truck and slammed into a snow plow.
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ROMANS: A Minnesota state trooper got a sense of the treacherous conditions created by the storm as he responded to a jack knifed tractor trailer. A passing wind gust knocked the trooper to the ground as he was trying to direct traffic. The state patrol says he was not injured, but they say the video's a reminder of the conditions caused by this snow storm. Those conditions will slowly wind down across the Midwest today just in time for some possible severe weather in the south. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the forecast for us.
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BRIGGS: OK, Derek Van Dam, thank you, sir. Two new polls revealing democratic hopeful Pete Buttigieg is gaining ground in some early voting states. A Monmouth University poll likely Iowa caucus goers find support for the South Bend mayor at 9 percent and he registers 11 percent in a poll of New Hampshire voters. Joe Biden, who has yet to formally enter the race, and Senator Bernie Sanders at the top of the pack, but analysts say the new polls show Buttigieg has managed to emerge from the crowded field. Buttigieg who is gay and married is set to appear on Ellen later to today. He has more to say about his state's former governor, Vice President Mike Pence.
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BUTTIGIEG: I'm not critical of his faith. I'm critical of bad policies. I don't have a problem with religion. I'm religious, too. I have a problem with religion being used as a justification to harm people, and especially in the LGBTQ community.
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BRIGGS: Pence is fighting back. He said mayors should know better than to criticize him and his faith. He says Buttigieg is just calling him out in a big for attention.
ROMANS: Democratic president candidate Elizabeth Warren rolling out a plan to make sure big corporations don't pay zero in taxes. The new tax would hit America's 1,200 most profitable companies including Amazon. The online retailer earned a record $10 billion last year but it paid no federal income tax because of deductions it can carry forward from it's money losing early years.
BRIGGS: Warren blames relentless lobbying for all the corporate loopholes. Under her plan, corporations would pay an additional 7 percent tax on earnings above $100 million. For Amazon, that would have been about $700 million just last year. And one round in at the Masters and Tiger Woods is in the hunt once again for another green jacket. Corey Wire has all the highlights in the Bleacher Report.
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BRIGGS: All right, the first major of the year underway, and Tiger Woods could be making run of another green jacket. Coy Wire has the story in the Bleacher Report. Look, I'm all for the Tiger drama, Coy, but the beef of Brooks Koepka, the brains of Bryson Dechambeau, both top six on in their 20s? Sign me up for that. (SPORTS)
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ROMANS: All right, thanks guys. Sources say President Trump wanted to punish democrats who opposed his border wall. Wait until you hear how. That's next.
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