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At This Hour

UK Police Investigate Downing Street Lockdown Parties; GA Prosecutor Granted Special Grand Jury In Trump Probe; NYC Mayor Unveils Plans To Curb Crime, Gun Violence. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 25, 2022 - 11:30   ET

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


[11:30:00]

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing at this hour, London Police are now investigating. The British Prime Minister announcing today they have opened a probe into several parties held at Downing Street held during the height of strict COVID restrictions. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is live in London with the very latest on this. Salma, the Prime Minister did speak just a short time ago, what did he say?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, let's start with the fact that allegations of partying in the highest office in the land in Downing Street are now a matter for the police. And this is a serious escalation of the party, Kate. It makes Prime Minister Boris Johnson's position more precarious than ever. But the Prime Minister, of course, stiff upper lip said he welcomed the news. Take a lesson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I welcome the Met's decision to conduct its own investigation because I believe this will help to give the public the clarity it needs and help to draw a line under the matter.

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ABDELAZIZ: Now, Kate, this came about after another inquiry. This is an inquiry led by the Cabinet Office that has for weeks now been looking into allegations of partying. I'm talking Christmas parties, Garden Parties bring your own booze party.

The latest allegation is that the Prime Minister held a birthday party when other kids couldn't even have their birthday party during the country's first lockdown. And it is that escalation now of these multiple accusations of parties that were being shared with the police. The police now saying that some of these events may potentially have breached COVID rules, they might be, Kate, a criminal offense.

[11:35:00]

ABDELAZIZ: Now, the Prime Minister says this will draw a line and bring clarity to the public, but it's also going to bring clarity to his own party, the Conservative Party. And it could be that if they turn against him if this implicates the Prime Minister directly, that's it. He could be pushed out of office, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Salma, thank you so much. So many updates always coming with this, appreciate it. Also developing right now, the West African country, Burkina Faso, is now under lockdown after a military coup. The country's military seized power yesterday, ousting the Democratically-elected President and suspending the Constitution. The U.S. State Department in response says that it is "deeply concerned by events in Burkina Faso, and is closely monitoring the situation."

Coming up still for us at this hour, Georgia launches a new investigation into Donald Trump's election interference. What does a special Grand Jury now means to all of this? That's next.

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[11:40:00]

BOLDUAN: Donald Trump facing renewed scrutiny in Georgia right now after an Atlanta area District Attorney got the green light to launch a special grand jury investigation into Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election in that state. At the center of the investigation, moments like this one.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All I want to do is, I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more that we have.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: This special grand jury will allow the DA to issue subpoenas for people like the Georgia Secretary of State who was on the receiving end of that now-infamous phone call. Joining me now for more on this and much more, Chief Legal -- CNN Chief Legal Analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. Let's start there, though, Jeffrey. I mean what does this step mean for the Fulton County DA? I mean, what would you expect to happen next?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, this phone call has, of course, got a lot of attention and it's deserved. But to do a full criminal investigation, you need to understand the full context. Who else was on the phone, who else was involved in communications between Trump and his allies and the Georgia election officials?

There's another side of this story involving the still unexplained departure of the United States Attorney in Atlanta during this period right after the election. All of these needs investigation and it needs subpoenas, both for testimony and documents. And that's what the Georgia -- the Fulton County District Attorney is going to get now that she has a grand jury.

BOLDUAN: Let's turn to the Supreme Court, Jeffrey, because yesterday it announced it's going to take up two potentially monumental cases challenging affirmative action in college admissions could add this to the list of really divisive and charged issues that the court has already decided to take up, abortion rights, affirmative action, as I just mentioned, gun regulations, COVID mandates. Looking at the current makeup of this court, what story does this tell you?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, this conservative agenda is not some secret. No conservative judges, academics, politicians have been talking about what they want to do on the Supreme Court for decades. And now, that there are six conservatives on the court they can do all of these things.

They can eliminate Women's Constitutional Right to Abortion, they can ban Affirmative Action in college admissions, they can limit or eliminate the ability of states and localities to exercise -- to implement gun safety laws regarding guns or ammunition. All of this is part of the conservative agenda but the conservatives have never had enough votes. Now they have enough votes, and it does appear that they're moving quickly across the board.

BOLDUAN: There's also a new and interesting interview today -- just today with Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the Today Show. She was asked if the justices worried themselves about public perception of the court, public concern that its credibility is falling. I want to play for what she said.

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SONIA SOTOMAYOR, JUSTICE, SUPREME COURT: One of the hardest things about our work is that there are no easy answers. Reasonable people can disagree. In fact, we only take cases when there are circuit splits. I shouldn't say only but largely most of our case docket is when the courts below have disagreed.

And because of that, obviously, just as the larger society disagrees about the answers to some of our problems, so does the court. And if you bear that in mind, perhaps the public can be more accepting of the kind of work we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you think of that, Jeffrey?

TOOBIN: You know, I think what's so interesting about that is that all the justices without regard to politics have this tremendous desire, not to what they call foul the nest. They never want to damage the institution of the court, even as they disagree so passionately. I mean, compare what Justice Sotomayor said today on the tape -- Today Show to the dissent she's been writing about the Texas Abortion Law --

[11:45:00]

BOLDUAN: Right.

TOOBIN: -- She has been furious. She has been outraged. She has said the court's credibility and reputation is going to suffer because of the way they are allowing Texas to ban abortion before Roe v. Wade is even overturned. Yet, at the same time when she's speaking in public, she's really soft-pedaling the differences on the court. That's a very common pattern among the justices. I can't say I understand it completely, but that they all do it for their own reasons.

BOLDUAN: It's so interesting. Good to see you, Jeffrey. Thank you.

TOOBIN: All right, OK.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us. New York's new Mayor defending his plans to combat gun violence. A former NYPD Commissioner joins us on what he thinks of the plan.

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[11:50:00]

BOLDUAN: New this morning, New York Mayor -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams defending his new plan to curb the devastating rash of gun violence in his city, including bringing back NYPD controversial anti- crime -- Anti-Crime Unit. Listen to this.

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ERIC ADAMS, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: We go to reinstitute an Anti-Gun Unit, where police officers will have a modified version of police uniform apparel. They're going to be better trained. We're going to use technologies with cameras to video every interaction. And I'm going to make sure the right officers are assigned there with precision policing to go after those who are dangerous gangs and carrying guns in my city.

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BOLDUAN: This move and others come after the tragic killing of 22- year-old NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, another officer critically wounded in that same shooting last week. Police say the shooter used a stolen gun and the Mayor has said that it could have been even worse revealing police found an AR-style assault rifle under the gunman's mattress.

Joining me right now for more is former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. He's the author of the book, The Profession, A Memoir of Community Race, and the Arc of Policing in America. Commissioner, thanks for being here. What do you think of Mayor Adams' plan?

BILL BRATTON, FORMER NYPD COMMISSIONER: I'm Very pleased with it. It's very comprehensive. But by now it's a plan and we're going to have to see how it works going forward. You talked about what he's doing with the anti-Crime Unit, right move, make those arrests. However, the devils in the details, will those prosecutors, will those judges, will those state legislators put those people in jail? That's the problem. There's nobody going to jail for gun violence in New York City. If there are, there are too few of them, considering the amount of violence they're having. BOLDUAN: And the number of guns that they're turning up. They're getting off the streets, but they're finding. Let me ask you because you mentioned the devils in the details and we'll have to see because I think that is an interesting question. How soon until it should be able to show this plan -- should be able to show results do you think? I mean, meaning at what point do you think you will know if it's working or not and need to -- need to course correct?

BRATTON: The good news is over the last several weeks, they've been actively recruiting the officers to go into the shooter when they don't necessary screening, starting the training. The key to it is the selection of the officers and the training. We had a very effective unit back in the 90s, 80 highly trained officers. They grew the unit too fast back then after I left to 400. He had up the Diablo shooting immediately after that.

So Eric clearly understands the importance of training and selection. So they're going to do a better job of getting guns off the street. But again, it's going to be up to the prosecutors to put some of these people in jail. 6000 guns were taken off the streets last year, only 100 trials of the parceling 6000 people carrying those guns, that means there's over 5000 of those people still walking in the streets in New York awaiting trial. So that's going to be the other half of the equation that Eric is going to need a lot of help on.

BOLDUAN: You're hitting something -- you're hitting at something pretty important because Adams is defending this move. And but I want to read for you some criticism coming from a group of New York City Public Defenders about this move, they write. Reinstating the NYPD's Anti-Crime Unit without also addressing the culture and policies that drove that unit's decades-long pattern of harassment and violence targeting black and brown New Yorkers is a mistake.

They say the Mayor must focus on addressing long-standing problems with NYPD's culture of impunity before he doubles down on strategies that will only perpetuate the harms of that culture. You know, they say they're -- what they're saying here is, they think there are deeper problems here that aren't being addressed in this plan. I mean, what do you say to that, Commissioner?

BRATTON: They're out of nowhere. Eric understands the situation more than anybody in the sense of his own experience, both being beaten by police, and that was ironically motivation to become a cop in the first place. These people have been beating that drum for 30 years and what's it getting for New York, more violence, more disorder, more racial tension.

The reality is that crime is occurring in minority neighborhoods. Minorities are not being targeted, police go to where the crime is, where the victims are. So weirdly, New York has a mayor that understands this issue and can push back against the tide refrains of all these casts of characters that have the 30 years of beating up in the NYPD.

And what happens when you beat up on the cops to the extent that they are not policing effectively? You get what's happening in the streets and subways in New York right now, rising crime rates.

BOLDUAN: That just seems to be what we're looking at right now. Just a reflection really quickly on the fact that you lost another officer who seems to be just the best of what you want in an officer.

[11:55:00]

BRATTON: Isn't that the case that he has shot two Latino officers that join for all the right reasons and then the third officer, the third officer, an immigrant from India, who desires to become a police officer. 15 years ago, he came to this country. That is the face of the New York City Police Department that all these Public Defenders are attacking.

All three of these offices live in New York City. The city has a minority-majority police force, over thousand Muslim officers, 20 percent female. Give it up. The NYPD is New York City. So the old tired refrain of all the cops living out in the suburbs. These three young kids that basically were willing to sacrifice their lives, one of them has, another is basically used to be --

BOLDUAN: Fighting for his life.

BRATTON: -- Injury.

BOLDUAN: Fighting for his life right now.

BRATTON: So --

BOLDUAN: Commissioner, thank you so much.

BRATTON: Things you have to find in prison. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sorry for the connection. Thank you so much, sir. INSIDE POLITICS with John King starts after this.

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