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Former House Speaker Accused of Hush Money Cover-Up; Carter: 'Extremely Important' to Involve Sunnis; Flash Flood Emergency in Dallas. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 29, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The question is why. So CNN is going to take on both of these stories fully. We begin with senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns live in D.C. This morning.

[07:00:10] Joe, what do we know?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, when FBI agents started investigating mystery transactions involving the former speaker, they wanted to know, among other things, if he was paying someone off as a cover-up, if he'd been a victim of a crime, perhaps extortion. Or even if there was some innocent excuse for big cash withdrawals from four different bank accounts. The federal indictment, however, tells only part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENNIS HASTERT, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The president of the United States.

JOHNS (voice-over): The former speaker of the House, once second in line to the presidency, now facing federal charges, accused of making false statements to the FBI and trying to hide large financial transactions that the government alleges was hush money.

According to the indictment, Dennis Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to someone only identified as Individual A after meetings between the two five years ago. Payments meant to compensate for and conceal Hastert's, quote, "prior misconduct."

The indictment does not describe what that misconduct was but does say Individual A knew Hastert most of Individual A's life and was a resident of the Illinois town where the former speaker of the House was high school teacher and coach for years.

HASTERT: In consultation with the White House...

JOHNS: In December of last year, the FBI launched an investigation on the payments and whether Hastert was trying to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements, as well as using the cash to cover up past misconduct.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That's why they would be looking into this. If there was a pattern of withdrawing around $10,000 from the bank without another explanation. JOHNS: Hastert told FBI agents that the withdrawals were because he

did not trust the bank system. The government alleges that was a false statement.

It's a stunning turn for the former Republican leader who was House speaker from 1999 until he stepped down in 2007. Since then, he's been a lobbyist at this Washington firm, which quickly removed Hastert's biography from its website after the indictment was announced.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Hastert is expected to have to stand in front of a federal judge at some point for his initial court appearance, likely next week. Our attempts to get a statement from him through his former law and lobbying firm have so far been unsuccessful, Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA,CNN ANCHOR: Still so mysterious what the origin of all that is. Joe, thanks for that.

Now to that sports scandal overseas. The president of FIFA, the world's soccer governing body, making a pitch to keep his job after vast corruption charges brought by U.S. authorities.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, has more from Switzerland. What's the latest there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, yes, 209 people to vote on whether Sepp Blatter or his challenger, Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan will be the new FIFA president. Right now the money is on Sepp Blatter. He is campaigning on transparency. He says that it is the action of only a few individuals of wrongdoing, that it shouldn't tarnish the whole organization, that he alone cannot watch and look out over the 1.6 billion people who play football all around the world.

And, you know, it is he alone would like to be leader, but he will need support to do that. What Prince Ali is campaigning on he has said that he'll increase funding for some of the football associations around the world, up to $1 million. That's up from a quarter of a million each for them. There will be 36, not 32 teams taking part in the World Cup.

But of course, this is a huge scandal that's engulfing FIFA right now. A hundred and fifty million dollars' worth of bribes and kickbacks over the past 24 years. That's what the U.S. Department of Justice is accusing and has indicted 14 people for. Nine of them current members of the FIFA executive committee here. Seven arrests here so far.

And of course, the sponsors, as well, concerned about it. The sponsors Visa, Hyundai, Coca-Cola, very concerned about the tarnishing of FIFA's image. Visa perhaps voicing their concerns most strongly, that something needs to be done here -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And everybody around the world watching this story because it affects so many different nations. Nic, thanks so much for that. We'll keep on top of that story.

Meanwhile, the White House is fine-tuning its ISIS strategy. That could mean bringing Sunni tribes into the fight in Iraq with the Pentagon arming them directly. Let's get the latest from Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Good morning to you, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

The words you just used arming them directly, those are the words to watch for.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter is looking at western Iraq. Let's look at the map for a minute. Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, the Sunni heartland. You have to get the Sunni tribes in the fight against ISIS if you're going to hold onto Anbar. If you're going to keep ISIS from going to Baghdad.

[07:05:02] So a lot of focus out there. We saw Ramadi fall just several days ago to ISIS. Now what Carter is saying -- and I want to quote his most recent comments about trying to arm the Sunnis. Carter's saying, quote, "We can enhance, hasten, train and equip. I think one particular way that's extremely important is to involve the Sunni tribes in the fight. That means training and equipping them.

What he is talking about is how can you get the arms to the Sunnis faster. Right now they go through the Iraqi government in Baghdad. The Sunnis feel they're not getting them. Could the U.S. possibly arm the Sunnis directly? It's a big problem if you do that. Are you sort of beginning to incentivize a new sectarian fight against the Shia government? No answers yet. No decisions made, we are told -- Chris.

CUOMO: But to be sure, Barbara, that is the question and the concern. Let's discuss. We have Senator Ben Cardin. He's a top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator, thank you for joining us. Let's deal with all the big headlines this morning. You were in the Senate since 2007. Before that you were in the House. That's when Dennis Hastert was there. You know him. What is your reaction to the indictment?

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D), SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Well, Chris, obviously we don't know the details. All we know is what we see in the report, which leaves more questions than answers. I think we're going to give Mr. Hastert an opportunity to defend himself. But quite frankly, it raises a lot of questions.

CUOMO: Absolutely. Do you agree by reputation this is a surprise from those who knew Mr. Hastert?

CARDIN: Yes. Dennis Hastert and I were elected at the same time to the United States House of Representatives in 1987. I've known him for a long time. I think we're all surprised by this.

CUOMO: All right. Thank you very much for your comment on that. Now we go to the headline about whether or not to arm the Sunnis. Do you agree with Ash Carter that it is time to be more active in helping the Sunnis and maybe even arming them?

CARDIN: There's no question that the Sunni tribal organizations need to be able to defend their communities against ISIS. They have to have a better opportunity to actually engage ISIS. They have to be better trained and better equipped.

However, you really need to do this with the cooperation of the Iraqi government. The success of Iraq depends on a central government that has the confidence of all of the different ethnic communities. So if you start to work around the central government in the long run that's going to cause a real problem in stability in Iraq.

So yes, we do need the Sunnis engaged in the fight against ISIS, but we also need to do it and work through the Iraqi government.

CUOMO: Here's the rub that I need you to help me understand. A big reason we have ISIS is because of the Ba'athists, the Sunnis that were disenfranchised or felt that way under the reconstituted government with Maliki after the U.S. did the war battles there.

And they left. They wound up joining ISIS. They feel disenfranchised. The Sunnis are there. That's fueling the sectarian violence. Why is that being ignored to the extent that it is by the coalition efforts? Clearly, the Sunnis being disenfranchised is at the root of all this. Isn't that a good reason to either force the hand of the Iraqi government or to exactly go around them?

CARDIN: There's no question that ISIS gets support when there's a vacuum, when people feel like they're not being treated fairly by their government, the Sunni population. There's no question they get support from that.

But ISIS does not represents the Sunnis in Iraq. It's an extreme element that is extreme terrorist organization. The majority of Sunnis want to defend themselves against ISIS. We need now to get a government in Iraq that's sensitive to the needs of the Sunni tribes, that understands that they have to be able to defend themselves. You also need the Sunnis to have confidence that the Iraqi military will work to protect their communities. That trust level is not where it needs to be today.

CUOMO: If you're going to talk about dealing with terrorism over there, we might as well talk about it back over here. The NSA deadline looming.

You are a supporter of the USA Freedom Act. It seems that Section 215 is overshadowing the entire act. Do you think you'll get something passed?

CARDIN: Well, I sure hope we will. These tools are important in order to keep us safe. We know that. We want to balance it with our civil liberties. That's exactly what the House bill does. It passed the House by an overwhelming majority. We have a majority in the Senate that supports this. It's supported by all the stakeholders. This should be an easy decision for the United States Senate. We should get it done. We should have gotten it done well before now.

We're coming in on Sunday. I hope we can get it done on Sunday.

Again, we should not put Americans at risk. We have the right balance. The Democratic process should go forward. I would just urge leader McConnell to allow us to vote on the House compromise. Let's get it to the president. Let's get it signed. Let's not put Americans at risk.

[07:10:18] CUOMO: Quick take, do you believe that 215 is being painted wrongly by people like Senator Rand Paul saying, look, the courts just said it's unconstitutional? No, they didn't. They said that the program is illegal, because it exceeds the boundaries set out by the statute present in 215. Which means it can be corrected by law, it's not unconstitutional. Do you think it's been unfairly smeared and that both data should be considered?

CARDIN: Well, you're exactly right. The court did not hold it to be unconstitutional. They said Congress had to be clearer in giving the authority for data collections. And that's exactly what the House bill does, the compromise does; it makes it clearer.

And yes, I do think that it's important to have tools available so that we can discover what terrorists are up to and keep America safe, but it needs to be balanced with civil liberties. And that's exactly why the compromise bill is what we need to do. It reforms the Patriot Act. It is sensitive to the concerns that we have oversight, that we have court supervision, that we comply with all of the not only constitutional tests but reasonable tests to protect the privacy and rights of Americans.

But it does give the tools necessary for the intelligence agencies to collect information that could be very important in stopping terrorists from acting here in the United States.

CUOMO: People want privacy but they also want government a step ahead of the bad guys. Senator Cardin, thank you very much for being with us this morning -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, we have more breaking news to tell you about this morning. Another round of massive flooding in Texas. This time Dallas is under water.

Several inches of rain in and around the city are prompting a flash- flood emergency. And Houston is trying to recover this morning, but the city faces even more rain.

CNN's Dan Simon is on the ground for us just outside of Houston.

Wow, look at that, Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Alisyn.

We're in an area known as the banana bin, where you've got several subdivisions that are under water. About the only way you can get around is by boat. Now, the homes are on stilts. They're used to flooding in this area,

but you really can't get in and out of some of these houses. That as authorities are continuing to keep a close eye on the town of Wharton, which is southwest of Houston. About 300 people there under a voluntary evacuation order as the Colorado River continues to rise.

And also more rain could cause even more problems for the town of Wimberley, which saw so much tragedy earlier in the week, as crews there continue to look for some of the bodies. We know about 12 people still missing in the Wimberley area.

The rain now continuing to fall in the Houston area. We're also, as you talked about, seeing a lot of rain in Dallas. So it appears that all of this misery we've been seeing over the past several days in Texas still not over.

Michaela, back to you.

PEREIRA: All right. We're glad you're there to show us what is happening right now. Thanks so much, Dan.

We have some breaking news just coming in to us here at CNN. At least four people reportedly been killed in an explosion outside a Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia. This is the second attack of a Shiite mosque in the span of a week. Last Friday a suicide bombing attack killed 21 worshippers. ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack.

CUOMO: A volcano erupting without warning on a luckily sparsely populated island in southern Japan. Still, about 140 people forced to evacuate when it let loose overnight. No injuries or damage being reported at this hour. But several people are still unaccounted for.

CAMEROTA: Well, the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is facing new criticism this morning. What's wrong with the Australian-led search? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:17:32] CAMEROTA: This morning Australia's search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is under scrutiny. Critics pointing to inappropriate technology and inexperienced personnel.

Let's bring in sea operation specialist and president of Tiberion...

TIM TAYLOR, PRESIDENT, TIBURON RESEARCH: Tiburon.

CAMEROTA: Tiburon, thanks. Sub-sea Research, Tim Taylor; and CNN analyst and PBS science correspondent, Miles O'Brien. Great to have both of you. Tim, I want to start with you. What's wrong with the equipment that the search team is using?

TAYLOR: There's nothing exactly wrong with the equipment. They seem to be, according to the critics here, stretching it. Stretching the resolution, trying to push the machines to do more than they actually can.

CAMEROTA: So the equipment is not as sophisticated as they need.

TAYLOR: Correct. If you want a quick analogy, if you said go out and comb the desert with a fine-tooth comb, where they -- their teeth in their combs are much wider apart as the beams of their sonar extend, so there's gaps they could miss.

CAMEROTA: Wait a second. I thought that this big piece of equipment, the go Phoenix, is like the best in the industry.

TAYLOR: Best -- best if you stretch it and try to get as much out of it as you can, there could be possible errors in the data. If there's errors in the data, all the work you're doing could be for naught. You could be missing it.

CAMEROTA: Miles, is the fear here that the team that was hired is using shoddy practices in order to save money?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, they are the low bidder. Let's not forget that. Now, this is a company that made its bones in oil and gas exploration technology, looking for places for people to put underwater cables. That sort of thing. They don't have a lot of experience doing just this. A lot of companies that specialize in this area were underbid by this company.

And so a lot of the criticism happens to come from these companies that didn't get the bid. So we should take that with a bit of a grain of salt.

I think the most important thing, like everything in the case of MH- 370, is some transparency. How accurate has this search been to date? Let's open the books. They've looked at 60,000 square kilometers. We need to know one way or another whether we can check that box off and say that part of the ocean has been searched.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: OK. Well, we have one little bit of information this morning. This just came out late last night. And this is from the Australian version of the NTSB. Their ATSB. And here's the statement: "We are continuously reviewing the search data as it comes in, and we are satisfied that the coverage and detection standards we have specified are being met or exceeded. This is why we remain very confident that we will find MH-370 if it is in our search area."

That sounds pretty definitive, Tim.

[07:20:26] TAYLOR: Well, I mean, they're going to stand behind their work, I would imagine. But if there's a better way of doing it, as Miles said, shouldn't there be a little bit more transparency? Is their data being checked by someone.

CAMEROTA: Why did they go with the lowest bidder? Just to save money?

TAYLOR: I would imagine.

CAMEROTA: But in other words, there were other bidders more qualified with better equipment.

TAYLOR: Right. And I believe these guys are using some of those guys as contractors or as some of the equipment as contractors. But, you know, your guess is as good as mine. This could be very political. The United States, a lot of these companies are U.S.-based. Maybe China is -- plays a role in this and sort of big contributors to the cost of this expedition.

CAMEROTA: Miles, how do they even know they're looking in the right place now?

O'BRIEN: Well, I think we can pretty much agree that the MRSAT data sends us to that region. But you have to remember this MRSAT satellite, which is a communications satellite, it was some amazingly clever engineering, which allowed them to even figure out roughly where this plane might be. It's not very accurate.

So the assumption that this 60,000-square-mile box is the place where the aircraft is, is not a good one. It's going to take some time. It took two years to find Air France 447, and we had wreckage on the surface within five days.

Now, one of the things that's interesting is what if this aircraft, what if there had been some sort of hacking attempt on this aircraft? What if they got into the electronics bay and spoofed the satellite data somehow. This is all information that could have changed significantly where the aircraft might be. And makes it all the more important that we find this aircraft to see if there's some sort of breach.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. I mean, it's such an enduring mystery. Everyone wants to find it, and yet the clock is ticking, Tim, because some of the equipment's going to pull out.

TAYLOR: Right. And that's really the big question. I know Miles believes this should be found no matter what, but there is a point of diminishing return or return on investment if you're a business person.

CAMEROTA: How much have they spent looking for this?

TAYLOR: I have no idea but it's in the millions and millions of dollars. And it's still -- the families want answers, but there are lots of incidents in the world from like World War II, where families never know what happened to their relatives. This may be the case that these families never find this plane. This could be a mystery that goes on for generations.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, let's hope not. Tim Taylor, Miles O'Brien, thanks so much for the information. Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie taking on the educational standards known as common core. What does it all mean for Christie's 2016 plans? John King will take a look, "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:26:32] PEREIRA: Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert accused of paying hush money to an unidentified person and lying to the FBI. According to the federal indictment, Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million to a person identified only as Individual A. The nature of the alleged misconduct is unclear.

CUOMO: Another huge scandal brewing this morning, FIFA president Joseph "Sepp" Blatter facing an uphill battle today as he runs for a fifth term. The vote at the FIFA conference is about two hours away. And it's going forward despite corruption charges against 14 people. Many of them top aides to Blatter. Now, Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan is Blatter's only challenger. He already has support from several countries including the U.S.

CAMEROTA: Jurors in the murder trial of Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes, see him on video describing his thoughts and feelings as the debate rages over whether he was insane at the time of the rampage. In the 2014 video, a psychiatrist asks Holmes about his parents' emotions during visits and then his.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. REID: What brings tears to your eyes sometimes?

JAMES HOLMES, ON TRIAL FOR MASS MURDER: Just regrets.

REID: Regrets? Can you tell me a little more?

HOLMES: Um, usually it's before I go to sleep.

REID: Regrets about?

HOLMES: About the shooting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, that same psychiatrist testified that Holmes was sane, that he knew what he was doing and the consequences for it when he went on the 2012 killing spree.

PEREIRA: An Iowa couple whose proposal photo has gone viral and sparked major criticism is now setting the record straight. You have to follow the bouncing ball a little bit with me here, guys. OK? This photo was posted on Reddit with the headline "Any Girl's Wedding Nightmare." It seems like the best man was stealing the bride's thunder, proposing to his girlfriend.

CUOMO: Oh.

PEREIRA: But the wedding, apparently it was the bride's idea. The new fiancee is the bride's sister. More pictures provide more context. Interesting how that works out. The newly married couple group hugged the bride-to-be after she said yes and they all celebrated. Apparently guys celebrated with a fist bump.

CUOMO: Still behind the back of the bride, though. Literally.

Aw, look at the bridesmaids holding hands.

CAMEROTA: I like that.

PEREIRA: I know. So great.

CUOMO: So we're OK with it?

CAMEROTA: We're good. We're good.

PEREIRA: Something we're just OK with today, right?

CUOMO: More love, more better.

PEREIRA: Yes, more love, more better.

CUOMO: No one personifies that better than the next man to come on your screen. "Inside Politics"...

PEREIRA: Really? More love?

CUOMO: ... John "Amore" King.

PEREIRA: Happy Friday.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now that we got the cute out of the way, let's get to King in Washington. That's how we do that.

CUOMO: No, no, no, quite the contrary.

KING: Happy Friday all. Busy day to go "Inside Politics." So let's get started. With me to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's Tara Murray (ph); Jonathan Martin of "The New York Times."

Let's start -- I guess in today's politics we call this an evolution. We used to call it a flip-flop. Chris Christie is the governor of New Jersey. If you needed any proof that he's planning to run for the Republican nomination for president, as governor he has implemented the common core national educational standards. Conservatives, especially base conservatives, don't like it. Yesterday Chris Christie said it's time for New Jersey to pull the plug.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: It's now been five years since common core was adopted. And the truth is that it's simply not working. It's brought confusion and frustration to parents. I've heard it every day. It's brought distance between our teachers and the communities where they work.