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France and Britain Increase COVID-19 Restrictions; California Republican Party Refuses to Remove Ballot Collection Boxes; Robert Mueller Investigated Trump Ties to Egyptian Bank. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 15, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that is because the figures here have been spiraling out of control, and that is having an incidence (ph) on ICU units.

The French president spoke to the nation to announce these restrictions yesterday, and made it very clear, explaining that this second wave threatens to be even worse than the first because, he explained, this time, the virus has spread out all over France rather than in some regions more than in others.

Also because, he explained, there simply are no more reserve beds this time, they're at full capacity as they are and simply will not be able to cope should the figures continue to climb. And just to give you an idea, we're seeing regularly now daily increases in the number of new coronavirus cases above 20,000. The French president said that needs to come down to three or to 4,000.

From Saturday though, those curfews come into place. France enters a state of sanitary emergency, which really gives local authorities the powers to bring in other restrictions should they be needed -- Jim and Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: OK, let's hope they're not, Melissa. Thanks for the reporting.

Let's go to Phil Black, he joins us in London. Good morning to you, Phil. The U.K. health secretary says London will move to a high coronavirus alert level, tier two. What does that actually mean for people in their day to day?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Poppy, Jim, it's not a lockdown, but it is a really significant increase in restriction on people's personal lives, on their ability to maintain relationships. Because as of Saturday morning, people are not going to be able to mix with others who they don't live with indoors.

So you can't meet up with people in homes, bars, cafes, restaurants. People are going to find it much harder to draw on the friendships, the family and the support that has been giving them in recent months. People can still meet up outdoors in parks and gardens like this, but the days are getting colder and shorter, so it's going to be harder for people to embrace that as the winter deepens.

Why now? Well, as with other parts of the U.K., we're told that here, the virus is now moving pretty freely right across the capital. All the key indicators are moving in the wrong direction: the number of cases, the number of people moving into hospital, the number of people moving into intensive care, and of course the number of deaths as well.

And it is not just London. As of the weekend, they estimate somewhere around half of England's population will be moving into tougher restrictions, making it harder for those people to see the people they care about most as they move into the winter period -- Poppy, Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Phil Black, thanks for keeping on top of it for us.

[10:32:34]

Back here at home, Republicans in California say they simply will not comply with an order to remove unofficial ballot drop boxes. Despite a growing controversy, despite the law, Democrats say. We're going to get the details.

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SCIUTTO: All right, now to the latest on this election when it comes to your vote. In-person early voting is now under way in the key swing state of North Carolina. In Virginia, a judge has reopened voter registration there until midnight tonight, this after a computer outage took that system down on Tuesday, which was the original final day for registration. So good news for voters who still need to register.

Plus this, Republicans in California say they will not comply with the state's cease and desist order calling for the party to remove what are unofficial ballot drop boxes.

HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE) joins us this morning with more. So what does this mean? Like, so the state of California says you cannot have these boxes, they're not official. The California Republican Party says, no, we're keeping them. So now what?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a good question. In case you're wondering what the Republican Party of California is thinking, the spokesperson said in an interview, "If they want to take us to court, then they can go ahead and take us to court." So likely a big political showdown, just in the weeks ahead of November 3rd.

But let's talk about what's going on here, because not only did the California Republican Party refuse to comply with the cease and desist, they actually had officials saying that it was going so well, they might add new drop boxes.

As we know, the party had started putting up these unofficial drop boxes in at least four counties in California. Some of them were falsely labeled as official boxes, and many of them were unsecured with no one nearby.

Now of course, this alarmed state officials who, as you said, issued this cease and desist, saying that they had broken the law in two ways. One, that the only person who could put out a drop box was an actual election official. And two, while California does have a third party law -- meaning that someone else can cast your ballot for you -- both parties have to sign the ballot, which obviously can't be done if there's just a random drop box sitting out there, no one nearby to sign.

This is what the Republican Party had to say. They said, "The program you now falsely claim to be illegal is a perfect example of what you," quote, "'proudly' stated to be permissible just last year. In this case, voters have decided, for themselves, that they trust the staff and volunteers at their local political party headquarters or their church or a business that they patronize, to securely deliver their completed VBM ballot to the appropriate election official."

Now, I want to point one thing out here, the letter also showed that it looks like they're taking steps to comply with the law. They said they're removing any boxes that were falsely labeled official, as well as having people man the boxes to sign those ballots.

[10:40:06]

HARLOW: Thank you for that. I guess maybe to court this goes for California? Not sure. We appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Again, let's pull this on-screen so you can see. If you have any questions in your state, your county, where you vote, polling information, registration status, go to CNN.com/vote.

Now to a CNN exclusive, we have learned that federal prosecutors including Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent more than three years investigating whether money flowing through an Egyptian state-owned bank could have backed millions of dollars Donald Trump donated to his own 2016 campaign.

SCIUTTO: Ultimately, the Mueller team was simply not able to obtain all the information it wanted, nor could the U.S. attorneys in D.C. who continued the probe until this year, and decided then not to pursue charges. CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez joins us now.

Evan, this was not publicly know. I'm just curious, did they conclude there was nothing here or did they just get to the point where they couldn't give a hard answer on this?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It's the latter. Look, this is an investigation that was conducted with utmost secrecy, given the sensitivity. It started soon after Trump won the presidency back in 2016, it continued until this summer. And it's never been described publicly. We spoke to more than a dozen sources familiar with this effort in

addition to what we learned from some of the newly released court documents and hints in public records. Two of those sources told CNN that FBI investigators first became interested in the case after intelligence including from an informant suggested that Trump's last- minute $10 million injection into his campaign, less than two weeks before the 2016 election, could have been backed by money that came from overseas through an Egyptian state-owned bank.

Now, it's not clear that investigators ever had concrete evidence of a relevant bank transfer, but multiple sources told us that there was more than enough information to justify seeking a subpoena in court, and to keep the investigation open even after Robert Mueller's probe ended.

The investigation of a potential campaign finance law violation began with the FBI and the U.S. attorney here in Washington before Mueller took it on, and it was largely conducted by Mueller's investigators. And when Mueller was done, the investigation continued.

It was handed back to the U.S. attorney here in Washington who, soon afterwards, told a court that it was still a robust probe but they felt that they never got all of the records that they needed from that Egyptian bank. It was just this summer that the case was closed with no charges filed.

And among the chief questions, guys, that prosecutors sought to answer but never did was whether Donald Trump was supported by or indebted to a foreign power. Mueller had no comment when we reached out to him, and a senior advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign, Jason Miller, told CNN, quote, "President Trump has never received a penny from Egypt."

HARLOW: OK, there is a lot there but there's a lot more, Evan. So if we could just go through what else is here, whether there were discussions of trying to get to the bottom of this by subpoenaing the president's financial records?

PEREZ: There was. Multiple sources tell us that last year, federal prosecutors here in Washington proposed pushing for the president's financial records. The decision went to the then-U.S. attorney, Jessie Liu, who, after weeks looking over the investigative records, decided to reject the subpoena request.

Sources told us that Liu decided that there wasn't enough to meet the standard for the subpoena. But interestingly, she did not close the case. By the way, the Justice Department, we reached out to them.

A senior Justice official told CNN in response to this reporting, quote, "The case was first looked at by the Special Counsel investigators who failed to bring a case, and then it was looked at by the U.S. attorney's office, and career prosecutors in the national security section, who also were unable to bring a case. Based upon the recommendations of both the FBI and those career prosecutors, Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney, formally closed the case in July."

HARLOW: OK. SCIUTTO: All right, so the special counsel's office, it was known -- you and I have talked about this a lot -- for keeping their various investigative threads under wraps. But there were never any leaks about this even after the case was ultimately closed. How did they manage to keep it secret?

PEREZ: Well you know, that's one of the enduring things about Mueller. The Egyptian investigation was never mentioned in the Mueller report. It is listed among 11 cases that Mueller transferred to other prosecutors when his investigation ended, but that entry was redacted.

The only public indication was this secretive court proceedings over a subpoena that Mueller's team issued to an unnamed foreign company for records, and neither the company nor the details of what prosecutors were looking for was ever publicly discussed. But CNN was told that it was a fight with this state-owned Egyptian bank.

A spokesman for the Egyptian president did not comment when we reached out to them.

[10:45:03]

HARLOW: And also, Evan, this investigation continued under Bill Barr's Justice Department. Did prosecutors explain why?

PEREZ: Yes, that's one of the interesting things. We know that they told the court that the investigation was continuing robustly and (ph) quote, "Very much a live issue."

We know about the consideration of a subpoena last year, but that's about it until it was closed. The fact of the matter is that the case was closed without investigators really getting an answer to their ultimate question: Was Donald Trump supported by or indebted to a foreign power -- Poppy and Jim.

HARLOW: Such important reporting, Evan.

SCIUTTO: Absolutely.

HARLOW: Yes, thanks very much.

PEREZ: Thank you.

HARLOW: So many families have been torn apart by this pandemic. Coming up, the heartbreaking story of an Arizona family who has lost eight of their loved ones. Also, their message this morning to the president.

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[10:50:19]

SCIUTTO: Listen, you've seen the numbers, they're on our screen every day. Nearly 217,000 American lives lost, more than 1 million have died around the world. These are all real people with families, real loss. HARLOW: Totally right. But for one Arizona family, the heartbreak is

almost unimaginable. They have lost eight family members from COVID, and their livelihood. Our national correspondent Miguel Marquez joins us this morning with their story.

Good morning, Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It's so hard to make that connection between those numbers and real people because many of those deaths have been behind closed doors, they happened in hospitals. Here's what devastation looks like from the inside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICARDO AGUIRRE, LOST FAMILY AND BUSINESS TO COVID-19: I don't want to cry just because I'm -- I know God has something better for me --

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Ricardo Aguirre.

AGUIRRE: -- but it's hard not to it's just -- you know, the --

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The coronavirus killed his father and seven other family members, he says. It took his business, it sickened him, his wife -- who was then four months pregnant -- and two of his kids.

AGUIRRE: I feel very incompetent, a man not being able to go back to where it was. I lost my dad. It's very hard, it's hard.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): He doesn't know how they contracted the virus. They wore masks and used sanitizer constantly. It swept through his family in May. His father fought the virus for months.

AGUIRRE: My dad, unfortunately, you know, he passed away on September 11th in my arms at 3:30 in the morning. It was very hard because we did everything together, 42 years being by his side.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): His mother is home and still fighting the effects of the virus. Now, he spends his days shuttling her to hospital visits, helping his wife -- now eight months pregnant -- dealing with an ever-increasing pile of bills, all this with little income and no health insurance.

MARQUEZ: You don't have medical coverage?

AGUIRRE: I don't have medical coverage at all. It's just too much, it's --

MARQUEZ: Even Obamacare, even --

AGUIRRE: No.

MARQUEZ: You just can't afford anything?

AGUIRRE: I can't afford it, it's just too much. Literally, another house payment. MARQUEZ (voice-over): Aguirre and his family built Tacos y Tamales

Puebla. He had a food truck, a prep kitchen in downtown Phoenix, and a long list of corporate and wedding clients.

AGUIRRE: This is what's left of 10 years of hard work.

MARQUEZ: You were living the American dream?

AGUIRRE: Yes, I was.

Come visit us. As you can see, we are busy.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): When COVID-19 cases in Arizona jumped and the economy shut down, Aguirre watched all his catering jobs scheduled for the next year evaporate. His food truck was repossessed, he couldn't pay rent on his prep kitchen.

MARQUEZ: When did it all come to a halt?

AGUIRRE: March 17th.

MARQUEZ: COVID?

AGUIRRE: Yes.

MARQUEZ: Overnight?

AGUIRRE: Yes, just like that.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Aguirre would like the president to understand just how devastating the disease is for some.

MARQUEZ: When he says, "Don't be afraid of COVID, don't let it dominate your life," what do you say to him?

AGUIRRE: May God continue to bless you and your family.

MARQUEZ: But how does the real world deal with COVID?

AGUIRRE: It's bad, it's bad.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Aguirre is now looking forward to the big day in November, November 7th, the day his first daughter is due to be born.

AGUIRRE: We felt that we were ready financially and we were ready, you know, emotionally, you know, to take care of another human being. Now, with this going on, I just ask God for strength to get me by another day.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The real toll of the coronavirus on one American family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now, since we shot that story a week ago, Mr. Aguirre has had his van repossessed, he is -- the story, thankfully, has helped I think, and he's trying -- he's raising some money. Also the name of his daughter, Guadalupe (ph) de (ph) Jesus (ph), named after the Virgin Mary and Jesus. despite everything he's been through, his faith? Completely intact -- back to you guys.

[10:55:03]

HARLOW: Unbelievable, Miguel.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: What a story. I don't know if you could send us where people could donate to help if they are raising some money, but we'd love to put that out there. So we'll try to do that, Miguel. Thank you --

MARQUEZ: Will do, will do.

HARLOW: -- thank you for that reporting.

MARQUEZ: You got it.

SCIUTTO: Just too much for any family to bear, heartbreaking to hear it.

HARLOW: And yet still has blessings for everyone else.

Thank you for being with us today. We'll see you back here tomorrow. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. NEWSROOM with John King will start right after a short break.

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