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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Redacted Mueller Report Comes Out Today; Democrats Ready to Issue Subpoena for Full Report; North Korea Wants Secretary Pompeo Out of Future Talks; How Firefighters Beat the Notre Dame Inferno. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 18, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:19] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Ready for redactions? Bill Barr's version of the Mueller report goes public today. The AG will face the media, but only before it's even released.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking overnight, North Korea demanding Mike Pompeo be replaced as top diplomat to restart nuclear talks. This coming just hours after word of a new weapons test.
ROMANS: A man is arrested in New York for bringing gas cans and a lighter into St. Patrick's Cathedral. This, just days after the inferno at Notre Dame in Paris.
SANCHEZ: And the biggest opioids bust in history. Sixty medical professionals, eight states, 32 million pills and some lurid details.
Plenty to get to this morning. Good morning, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Boris Sanchez in for Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. Nice to have you here this week. It is Thursday, April 18th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.
Now the world will learn Robert Mueller's findings today, most of Robert Mueller's findings anyway. Attorney General Bill Barr's redacted version of the special counsel's report goes public this morning. CNN has learned the section on obstruction of justice is expected to have relatively few redactions. That's because the obstruction probe is based on investigative work, unlike the Russian interference probe which relied on secret grand jury testimony.
SANCHEZ: Yes. The "Washington Post" reports the obstruction section will also detail analysis of tweets, private threats, and other incidents. A White House official tells us the president is, quote, "not worried, not fuming, and that any attacks on William Barr will backfire."
Listen to President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You'll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a press conference. And maybe I'll do one after that, we'll see, but he's done -- he's been a fantastic attorney general. He's grabbed it by the horn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: In the end, the public may see less of the report than Congress. There will be two versions, one for all of us and one that will eventually go to select members of Congress with fewer redactions. And in a curious move, the attorney general will hold a news conference today before the report becomes public.
SANCHEZ: And he's going to be joined by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Let's not forget, his letter firing FBI director James Comey famously made this accusation, quote, "The director ignored another longstanding principle. We do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation."
That might be a good indicator of what we may hear at that press conference today if there's any embarrassing information about the president or his allies.
We turn now to senior White House correspondent Pamela Brown. She begins our coverage from Washington.
PAMELA BROWN, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Christine and Boris.
It is a very busy day ahead with the impending release of the redacted version of Robert Mueller's report. But before that happens, the Attorney General Bill Barr is expected to hold a press conference at 9:30 this morning, a couple of hours before the report goes to Capitol Hill around 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, raising the question of why the attorney general is holding this press conference with reporters who haven't even seen the report yet.
Now a person familiar with the matter says that the attorney general will be answering reporters' questions about his thinking, why he made certain redactions, and overview of the report, and so forth. But certainly the reporters who will be asking him the questions won't be informed on what's actually in the report because that comes later.
The report is expected to be released around 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, 400 pages with redactions. And we could certainly learn a lot in this because more than two dozen current and former White House officials were interviewed by Robert Mueller and their names could very well be revealed in this report. Some are even concerned that this could hurt their business.
Some of these former aides who are now out of the White House but able -- but their business model is about influence and access to the White House are concerned that they're going to be on the outs because of this report. So there is a lot of anticipation and anxiousness to learn more about it.
"The New York Times" also reporting that there has been back and forth in the last several days between the White House and the Department of Justice about some of the report's findings and that has helped the White House and the president's legal team prepare for a rebuttal. Rudy Giuliani has said that he is expected to come out with a rebuttal after the report is released. So we'll have to wait and see how this day unfolds.
Back to you, Christine and Boris.
ROMANS: All right, Pamela. Thank you so much for that.
Some Trump aides who cooperated with the special counsel now are having second thoughts about that decision. They now believe if they fought the request for an interview they would have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury anyway, and that information would still be secret under grand jury rules.
[04:05:04] That secret grand jury testimony is something Democrats desperately wants to see.
Manu Raju has more from Capitol Hill.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Christine and Boris. House Democrats are expecting this Mueller report to come back today heavily redacted and then expect a subpoena fight to intensify. They have not issued the subpoenas yet because they're trying to give the Justice Department a chance to come back in what they hope was going to be limited redactions or the full report.
Now Bill Barr has made very clear the full report is not going to be provided to Capitol Hill. There will be some redactions but nevertheless Democrats have subpoenas authorized by the House Judiciary Committee to ask for the full Mueller report as well as the underlying evidence that includes grand jury information.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): Attorney General Barr is not allowing the facts of the Mueller report to speak for themselves but is trying to bake in the narrative about the report to the benefit of the White House. And of course he's doing this just before the holiday weekend so it's extraordinarily difficult for anybody to react.
This is wrong. It is not the proper role of the attorney general.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: The House Intelligence Committee moving on a different front trying to look into the classified information that they hope will be provided as a road map to look into potential areas of compromise that the president has with foreign governments.
The question is, will they get any of this? Will this end up in court? There's an expectation that some of these subpoenas could end up in court, and how long will those court fights take and will they ultimately get the information back to Capitol Hill -- Christine and Boris.
SANCHEZ: All right, Manu. Thank you for that. We're following breaking news overnight. A big red flag in
denuclearization talks with North Korea. Pyongyang is demanding that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be replaced in any future talks. This, coming just hours after North Korea state-run news agency reported the test fire of a new tactical guided weapon.
CNN's Will Ripley is monitoring the developments. He joins us now live in Hong Kong.
Will, great to see you. What are we learning about this new demand to have the secretary of State replaced.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think there's a lot of red flags right now, Boris, just because things are not headed in a good direction between the U.S. and North Korea. You have this new demand in North Korean state media that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be replaced as the primary negotiator in denuclearization talks.
Secretary Pompeo has invested a lot in building a relationship, building trust with the North Koreans. He's traveled to Pyongyang, I believe it was four times, and he's met with Kim Jong-un repeatedly. And he has been the go-to person but obviously after Hanoi broke down, things have changed. His negotiating counterpart on the North Korean side, Kim Yong-chol, no longer the lead negotiator according to sources.
And now the North Koreans are saying that Pompeo should be yanked out as well. They were particularly angry about his congressional testimony which they felt was an insult to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Meanwhile, Kim who was humiliated at the Hanoi summit when President Trump walked out, he is now trying to project strength both to his own people and to the world.
He oversaw what North Korean media is describing as a tactical weapons test, not a missile launch, not a nuclear test, but enough of a provocation for the North Koreans to get the attention they hope of President Trump. And of course just the day before that, he also oversaw a combat readiness test of his air force pilots.
This is North Korea sending a not-so-subtle message to the U.S. that if things don't change they could go right back to that militaristic posture, and all of that tension that we saw during the fire and fury days of 2017 -- Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yes. It will be interesting to see how President Trump responds given that in recent history his talking about North Korea has been so measured and within the boundaries of normalcy, we can say.
Thank you, Will.
ROMANS: All right. A 37-year-old man is in police custody for bringing gas cans into St. Patrick's Cathedral last night. The suspect is described as emotionally disturbed. Media reports identify him as Marc Lamparello of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Police say he was carrying two containers of gasoline along with lighter fluids and lighters when he was stopped by a cathedral security officer. Authorities tell us they're not sure of his intentions but there was great concern given the recent fire that devastated Notre Dame Cathedral. No one was hurt in this New York incident.
SANCHEZ: Bells ringing across France yesterday afternoon marking two days since the Notre Dame inferno. French police are back at the iconic gothic cathedral stepping up their investigation into the exact cause of the fire. French media report that investigators are examining the electrical systems as a possible cause.
Meantime we're learning more about how firefighters managed to get ahead of a fire that threatened to bring down the whole building.
CNN's Michael Holmes is lives in Paris for us this morning.
Good morning, Michael. Do we know why investigators are so keen to look at that electrical system?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes. It is. It's fascinating, Boris. There was no permanent electrical wiring up in the top of Notre Dame precisely because of the fear of fire risk in those ancient 800-year-old timbers that were up there.
[04:10:10] But this renovation had been going on or just about to get underway, restoration of the spire. So there was electrical put up there temporarily for welding and also elevators to run materials and people up to where that work was about to be done. So investigators are now looking into the possibility of whether there was a short circuit of some sort up there due to that.
There have been forensic teams pouring all over the building the last couple of days, also engineers going in there and making sure that the stability issue is dealt with. There are a couple of areas of Notre Dame that they are a little bit concerned about in terms of structural stability, so they're shoring up what they can. They're also trying to cover up the roof.
Yesterday we saw a whole lot of wood being taken up there to the very top to cover up what is now a hole in the roof to protect the inside of the cathedral from the elements and also those valuable, priceless stained glass windows that survived the fire. They don't want air coming in through the open roof and the outside and rattling those windows around. So a lot of work being done and the investigation continues. Dozens of people being interviewed by French prosecutors. That continue today -- Boris.
SANCHEZ: Yes. Plenty of work ahead, Michael, not only in the investigation but really to replace something that is so iconic.
Michael Holmes, reporting from Paris. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right, 60 people including doctors, pharmacists and nurses busted in the largest illegal opioid operation ever conducted by the Justice Department. The crackdown taking place across eight states -- West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Louisiana. All the medical professionals charged with illegally prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN A. BENCZKOWSKI, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, CRIMINAL DIVISION: As charged, these cases involve approximately 350,000 opioid prescriptions and more than 32 million pills.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: They called them simply drug dealers in white coats. These medical professionals. The Justice Department says one physician who branded himself the "Rock Doc" prescribed powerful and dangerous combinations of opioids and other drugs in exchange for sexual favors.
SANCHEZ: We are 12 minutes past the hour. Ahead, a judge temporarily blocking the release of surveillance video that allegedly implicates Patriots owner Robert Kraft in a prostitution sting.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:16:39] ROMANS: The tit-for-tat on tariffs between the U.S. and European Union continues. The E.U. has threatened now tariffs on $20 billion worth of U.S. goods because of a long running dispute over subsidies the E.U. says were given to Boeing. The list includes ketchup, cheese and fish.
Now this comes after the Trump administration hardened its trade stance against Europe last week, threatening tariffs on imports worth as much as $11 billion over what it says are subsidies for Air Bus. The two sides trade more a trillion dollars worth of goods a year. But Europe exports significantly more goods to the U.S. than the other way around. That's been a sticking point for President Trump who is still considering whether to impose tariffs on European cars.
All of this comes as the U.S. trade deficit declined for a second month in a row. New data from the Census Bureau shows the trade deficit fell a little over 3 percent to $49 billion in February. That is the lowest in eight months. The trade deficit with China also decreased as the U.S. continues to negotiate a trade deal with Beijing. That deficit now $30 billion.
SANCHEZ: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft getting a legal reprieve. A Florida judge has temporarily blocked prosecutors from releasing surveillance video that allegedly shows Kraft receiving sexual services at a Florida day spa. His lawyers filed an emergency motion after the Palm Beach County state attorney's office said it would release the video.
Kraft's legal team accuses them of gross prosecutorial misconduct. They claimed that releasing the video would damage his chance for a fair trial. Kraft is being charged with soliciting prostitution.
ROMANS: All right. About a half million students in and around Denver will be back to school today thankfully after that heightened security -- with heightened security this morning. Sol Pais, the Florida 18-year-old who was said to be infatuated with the Columbine massacre, was found dead yesterday. Officials say she shot herself with a gun she bought when she arrived in Colorado.
SANCHEZ: Yes, Now the FBI is looking into a Web site they believe is connected to her. The Web site which CNN is not identifying had scanned, handwritten journal entries signed Sol Pais. The entries include crude drawings of firearms and knives, and a person in a trench coat holding what appears to be a weapon.
Well, he helped save an entire youth soccer team stuck in a cave, and now one of those rescuers needed some rescuing himself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:23:27] SANCHEZ: A British diver who helped rescue a Thai youth soccer team from a cave needed a rescue of his own. Josh Bratchley went missing on Tuesday. He was exploring a cave in Tennessee with four other people and just didn't come out. Specialized divers from Arkansas and Florida were called in to help with the search. One of them, Edd Sorenson, found Bratchley the next day. He had been trapped in an air pocket inside the flooded cave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDD SORENSON, RESCUE DIVER: I came up to the air pocket and shockingly there he was calm as could be. He just said, "Thank you, thank you. Who are you?"
DEREK WOOLBRIGHT, EMA SPOKESPERSON: He was awake, alert, and oriented. His only request when he got to the surface was that the wanted some pizza.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Pretty fair request. The other cavers in Bratchley's group stayed at the scene to try to help with rescue efforts.
ROMANS: By now we've all had a chance to binge Beyonce's homecoming on Netflix. We're learning the superstar's struggles to perfect her now iconic 2018 Coachella performances. In the film, she reveals she was still rebounding from a difficult pregnancy when she began rehearsing. She had doubts about her comeback.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEYONCE, PERFORMER: There were days I thought, you know, I'll never be the same. I'll never be the same physically. My strength and endurance would never be the same.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Beyonce talked about breastfeeding her twins on top of demanding rehearsals and a strict diet. The film and live album also revealing her 7-year-old daughter Blue Ivy may be a superstar in the making. [04:25:15] That is sweet. Beyonce made history at Coachella becoming
the first black woman to headline that event. She's just awesome.
SANCHEZ: She makes it look so easy, too. In a couple of years, Blue Ivy is definitely going to headline Coachella.
ROMANS: She -- you know, she makes it look easy but she works hard.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
ROMANS: She works hard.
SANCHEZ: The big question, what will Bill Barr reveal. The attorney general's redacted version of the Mueller report goes public in just a few hours and there may be fewer redactions than we originally thought.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Are you ready for redactions? Bill Barr's version of the Mueller report goes public today. The AG will face the media but only before it's actually released.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, North Korea demands Mike Pompeo be replaced as top diplomat to restart.
[04:30:00]
