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The Global Brief with Bianca Nobilo

Mar-a-Lago Affidavit Released; Fed Sparks Market Selloff; Back On The Grid. Aired 5-5:30p ET

Aired August 26, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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


[17:00:38]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. And this is THE GLOBAL BRIEF.

CNN has been pouring over the newly released affidavit leading up to the FBI search of Donald Trump's Florida home. What we're learning this hour.

And the Dow Jones closes down 1,000 points after the Fed chairman issues a bleak outlook.

And Ukraine's embattled nuclear plant has reconnected to the national electricity grid, but President Zelenskyy says the danger isn't over.

CNN is combing through the just released version of the affidavit the U.S. Justice Department used to get a search warrant on Donald Trump's Florida

home. The document shows us the scale of this investigation into the former president's handling of classified material.

And says there is potentially evidence of extra obstruction.

CNN's Jessica Schneider gives us the details from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Startling new details about the hundreds of pages of documents former President Donald

Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago for months, as the National Archives tried to get them back.

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: The top secret stuff and compartmental can get people killed. It is completely alarming.

SCHNEIDER: The now unsealed affidavit revealing 14 of the 15 boxes the Archives retrieved in January 2022 contain classified information, 184

unique documents in all, 67 marked confidential, 92 marked secret, and 25 marked top secret, including documents with markings like HCS, particularly

alarming to intelligence experts.

STEVE HALL, FORMER CIA RUSSIA STATION CHIEF: The HCS stuff basically means there is information in those boxes in the basement of Mar-a-Lago that

pertain to human sources. They usually get imprisoned and if it's in a place like Russia or any other authoritarian society, they oftentimes are

simply executed. That type of information is just incredibly sensitive.

SCHNEIDER: The Justice Department redacting pages of information from the affidavit, in order to protect witness information and other key details

from the ongoing criminal investigation into classified material at Mar-a- Lago.

In particular, prosecutors writing in their legal memo to the judge, information in the affidavit could be used to identify many if not all of

these witnesses. If witnesses' identities are exposed, they could be subjected to harms, including retaliation, intimidations, or harassment,

and even threats to their physical safety.

ROBERT LITT, FORMER GENERAL COUNSEL, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: At the end of the day, this is probably a net plus for the government. The

judges found that they have excised all information that would compromise sources and methods that the Justice Department would be concerned about.

SCHNEIDER: But left unredacted is an email Trump attorney Evan Corcoran sent to the National Archives in May claiming Trump had the authority to

keep the papers at his Florida home after he left office, saying Trump has absolute authority to declassify documents and presidential actions

involving classified documents are not subject to criminal sanction.

But DOJ investigators weren't deterred saying there was probable cause to believe additional documents that contained classified NDI, or national

defense information, or that of presidential record subject to record retention requirements, currently remain at Mar-a-Lago and there is

probable cause to believe evidence of obstruction will be found.

HALL: What is a good explanation for why really anybody, certainly, former president included in that group, would want this stuff or have this stuff

stored in the basement?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: That was Jessica Schneider reporting.

Now, I want to bring in senior crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz in Washington D.C.

Great -- Katelyn, great to have you on the program.

So, tell us, what were your key takeaways from what we've learned and I guess what's key is what we haven't?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Bianca, there is a lot of meat in this affidavit. We didn't know what to expect. We

thought there was a possibility. Almost everything would be blacked out. The justice department said they were really going to react redact so much

that what would be left with gibberish. That is not the case.

What we did see is saw an unusual amount of transparency for an ongoing investigation. Specifically them describing both why there was a need for

this investigation, a criminal investigation into handling of classified records to begin with. And also why there was this need to go to Mar-a-Lago

this month. To go and pick up any sort of additional evidence or even classified records still movie kept their.

[17:00:01]

So, when you look at the way this was laid, out today, in the affidavit, the and redacted portions, maybe a little less than 50 percent of this 38-

page document, and the backstory is described here. Basically, the National Archives, this agency that gets all the presidential records after a

president leaves office, they realized that they got some documents back in January of 2022 this year, they realized there was a lot of classified

material in there as Jessica put in her story, 184 unique documents that were marked as classified in that box.

That was so concerning. The designations on those were so concerning, human intelligence, really highly classified stuff. That is when the Justice

Department got involved and after that the Justice Department realized that they had probable cause to believe there was still evidence of these

possible crimes that Mar-a-Lago up until this month. They decided to go back in there.

One of the things that is striking, that investigators, noted is that whether or not this is the home of former president, or at one time use as

the location for the presidency, it is no longer secure. It is not a place where documents that are classified should ever be kept.

NOBILO: Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

Now, stocks closed down sharply in the U.S. an hour ago, with the Dow tanking more than 1,000 points. Here's what worry investors, straight from

the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Reducing inflation is likely to require a sustained period of below trend growth. While higher interest

rates, slower growth, and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Exactly how severe that pain will be is where weighing on investors. This is our markets and in the week on Wall Street.

Now let's get more from CNN's business correspondent Rahel Solomon in New York.

Rahel, I mean, how are investors responding to this? And tell us more about how it's being received?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianca, inspectors investors are spooked. You pointed to the Dow closing down 1,000 percent.

To put this in perspective, Bianca, we haven't seen a day like this since mid June. Every sector in the S&P 500 closed lower. Nasdaq among the major

averages was the worst performer, closing lower almost by 4 percent, as investors really sort of parse through every word of that speech this

morning.

Bianca, it was a short speech but it was a clear speech by the Federal Reserve, that the Fed is on a path of lowering inflation by raising

interest rates and will not stop until it is clear that we are on that path in terms of lower inflation, the chairman says we will keep at it until we

are confident the job is done. The job, of course, being lower inflation.

But the concern is when it is said and done, the U.S. economy, the world's largest, will look very different on the other side of this in terms of

consumer spending, in terms of the labor market, the U.S. consumer is the backbone of the U.S. economy. It makes two thirds of economic activity.

So, what you're seeing in the markets, there is a real concern that we could be heading toward a recession. We are not there yet, but there is

clearly some concern that the threat is rising as the Fed becomes aggressive in terms of interest rate hikes. Every time, Bianca, the Fed

becomes more aggressive with these interest rate hikes, it increases the likelihood of a policy misstep. That is what you're seeing in the markets

today.

NOBILO: Rahel Solomon, always great to talk to you, thanks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains dangerous. Even though it's been

re-connected to the national electricity grid, he's urging the world to speed up efforts to secure the Russian occupied plant, saying that Russian

shelling triggered fires Thursday that could've led to a radiation disaster.

Let's bring in CNN's Sam Kiley. He's live tonight in Zaporizhzhia.

Sam, so power is being restored, that particular nuclear crisis averted. Surely things aren't getting more safe. Monitors haven't been in. The power

sources are very fragile, presumably the staff charged with responding to crisis are underneath immense stress and strain, too.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, the staff who put out this fire, or reconnected the one cable that was bringing power

into the power station, did so on the front line of a war zone. They were putting out the fire and connecting the cables as a result, Ukrainian say,

of shelling. The Russians say the cable had suffered a short circuit.

But, nonetheless, this is the sort of technical doomsday scenario that comes on top of the military threat that is already there. This is how all

unfolded in the last 36 hours, Bianca.

[17:10:01]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (voice-over): Ukraine's biggest nuclear power plant is making history that no one wants to read. Its six reactors are the first ever to

have fallen into enemy hands, and the first to have the main power source for their cooling systems cut during combat. They're also the first to have

triggered the emergency cooling system, to avoid meltdown and a radioactive disaster because of war.

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): If the diesel generators hadn't turned on, if the automation and our staff on the plant

had not reacted after the blackout, then we would already be forced to overcome the consequences of a radiation accident.

KILEY: Its only source of mainline electricity from government-held territory was cut. The government here says by Russian shelling. Russia

captured the plant in March and has been using it as an artillery fire base for a month. It has been hitting civilian towns west across the Dnipro

River.

Civilians have been fleeing to the town closest to the plant in fear of war and of a radioactive disaster brought on by it. Russian troops, they said,

were ill-disciplined and dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We tried to keep away from them because it was scary. They walked around with machine guns and who knows

what they could do? At night, they would get drunk, shoot in the air. People were scared.

KILEY: The power to cool the systems was restored yesterday, and the reactors eventually reconnected to the Ukrainian grid on Friday, supplying

up to a fifth of the country's electricity.

But Kyiv fears that Russia may cut powers to the cooling system again as part of the alleged plant to steal its output, and that would risk a

meltdown.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is only about 20 mile away from where I'm standing. There's a powerful easterly blowing at a moment. If there was a

disaster there, radioactive material would be carried into the sun and into Europe.

International demands that Russia removes its forces from the plant and allow nuclear inspectors in are increasingly strident. And in Ukraine,

nuclear decontamination drills are just another part of war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (on camera): Now, there are hopes from the IEA that they may be able to get into that planting contempt inspections, perhaps even install

monitoring equipment in the next few days. But they will have to do that at a frontline position. Ultimately, this cannot be solved while the nuclear

power station is also a military installation that is also being used as an artillery base -- Bianca.

NOBILO: Sam Kiley in Zaporizhzhia, thank you.

As the world struggles with energy shortages and soaring energy costs spurred on by a war in Ukraine, an image such as this one could be views as

a torrent. This is Russia reportedly burning off natural gas, worth $10 million a day, close to the finish border. Exactly why they're doing it,

remains a mystery.

Burning off gas can be part of the normal procedure. It usually happens in the summer months when facilities run out of storage page, however research

company Rystad Energy says this is going on for weeks now and perhaps could be a message to Europe.

Coming up on THE GLOBAL BRIEF, one giant brief leap for mankind. We'll have details on the new American mega rocket sent to lunch on Monday to the

moon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:16:28]

NOBILO: Latvia has destroyed a Soviet era monument in its capital city, the almost 80 meter obelisk was erected in 1895 to mark the Soviet victory

over Germany in World War II. Latvia has stepped up efforts to remove reminders of its Soviet past since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Latvia's

foreign minister said taking down the monument was closing another painful page of the history and looking for a better future.

Countries around the world are facing humanitarian disasters because of severe flooding. In the U.S., parts of the south are struggling to recover

from record rainfall. The severe rain caused flash floods, washing away roads and even derailing a train.

And across the world, Pakistan's climate minister says that floods that are impacting some 33 million people. In the past two months, more than 900

people have died, and many more have lost their homes.

In the debrief: cyclical crises that compose a problem for the climate change fight, extreme weather and an energy crunch, but seeing extreme

droughts and wildfires around the world and the kinds of unprecedented floods that we were just talking about. At the same time, those warnings

that Europe could be facing its coldest winter yet due to energy shortages. That means that governments might have to rethink their commitments to

fighting climate change.

One activist group is taking direct a controversial action, it's calling itself Just Stop Oil. You see the latest protest right here. Dozens of

supporters demonstrating at petrol station across Central London on Friday, vandalizing pumps and blocking entrances.

CNN's Becky Anderson has more on the aims of this group.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is climate activism reimagine, a man and a woman gluing their hands on to the frame of a

Constable painting at the national gallery in London, hoping to make their message stick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When there is no food, what use is art? When there is no water, what use is art?

ANDERSON: Protesters performative art repeated over and over again and galleries across the UK and other parts of Europe this summer against the

backdrop of a brutal heat wave. The people behind this movement are supporters of a campaign called Just Stop Oil. A coalition of groups

including extinction rebellion and insulate Britain that came together to start this very new fresh campaign.

INDIGO RUMBLELOW, JUST TO STOP OIL SPOKESPERSON: Its focus is to demand that the UK government stops issuing new licenses for fossil fuel projects

within the UK.

ANDERSON: As you understand it, how many new licenses are pending?

RUMBLELOW: There are 14 new licenses pending, and this is a death sentence. New oil is a death sentence. I know it. Your viewers know it.

Scientists know it. Oil execs no. We all know we must come off oil.

ANDERSON: But coming off oil is not that simple. There are monumental political and economics considerations as to how to transition along with

how to pay for it, especially in these developing worlds. Changes being resisted worldwide, many still denying climate change is even happening.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year has caused a serious global energy crisis, with European countries scrambling to buy and store as much

fossil fuel as they can ahead of the winter.

[17:20:00]

The war is also putting planned energy transitions at a crossroads, propelling big energy producers like Saudi Arabia back into the

geopolitical driving seat.

But for people like Rumblelow, it's exactly this crisis that makes a transition to clean energy so important.

RUMBLELOW: So, we are being posed a question by this moment in time which is to stop licensing new fossil fuels projects and use the reserves that we

currently have to make a transition on to a renewable society. Or we will see the death of billions of people, and we will subject future generations

to an inferno. That is the choice that we have. Governments around the world are pursuing new fossil fuel projects with full knowledge of this

information.

ANDERSON: For Just Stop Oil, traditional means of politics no longer work and they want to take action. They've stormed the Bafta Awards, invaded F1

tracks and football pitches, and even blocked major motor ways, halting thousands of people's daily commute.

The group calls these methods nonviolent forms of civil resistance. Others call them just plain disruptive.

RUMBLELOW: Since January, start of the Just Stop Oil campaign, over 1,200 people have been arrested for their actions.

ANDERSON: So, ultimately, is this working?

RUMBLELOW: We are opposing the government to dilemma. What happens is when they lock us up. More people come to join us. So they just putting the

problem off.

And, yes, there is disruption, but this is such a small amount of disruption to the disruption we are seeing with wildfires in London, 40-

degree heat, record breaking heat which pushed off fire brigade close to breaking point. This climate crisis will destroy the infrastructure on

which our civilization depends.

ANDERSON: And that is why the group says the threat of retribution does not discourage them from carrying on.

GRACE MCMEEKIN, "JUST STOP OIL" SUPPORTER: It absolutely terrifies me, the concept that I might have to be arrested, or give up my liberty, but with

terrifies me more than that is the very real possibility that nasty months of this planet will become uninhabitable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes me angry that we are still not making that progress. It does not make me feel like we should keep trying.

HARLEY BREWER, "JUST STOP OIL" SUPPORTER: Our government said they're going to do need zero by 2050, which means they're going to make it worse

for the next 30 years. That is not progress. That's the opposite of progress. Progress would be we stopped it. We are starting to repair the

harm we've done.

RUMBLELOW: This is life's, like my life, your life, like our communities that are directly threatened by this climate crisis. I hope that people

decide to wake up and take part in the resistance against this.

ANDERSON: How do you go on?

RUMBLELOW: I will continue this campaign until the government concedes to our demand. I will just keep continuing, because I cannot imagine anywhere

else that would rather be than standing up against this really vile horror that is being inflicted upon us.

ANDERSON: Becky Anderson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: France is reaffirming its relationship with the United Kingdom after comments by the women tipped to become the next prime minister. When

asked about her thoughts on French President Emmanuel Macron during the leadership debate, this was the response from the British Foreign Secretary

Liz Truss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MODERATOR: President Macron, friend or foe?

LIZ TRUSS, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: The jury is out. If I --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Mr. Macron has since insisted that Britain is a friend of France, even if he did seem to throw a little shade when quizzed by journalists in

Algeria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCE PRESIDENT: I say the British people, Britain is a friend of France. They're a strong ally, no matter its leaders, and

sometimes despite its leaders. All these small mistakes they can make all speaking in public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Truss made these comments because she said she will judge Mr. Macron on his deeds, not his words if she becomes prime minister. We will

find out who on September the 5th.

NASA is preparing another giant leap for mankind by launching a mega rocket to the moon. Artemis I is NASA's biggest launch in 50 years and as NASA

administrator Bill Nelson says, it could pave the way for more ambitious journeys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: About 50 years ago, we went to the moon for a day, a few hours, three days max. Now we are going back to the moon

to stay, to live, to learn, to build.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: CNN's space and defense correspondent Kristen Fisher joins us now with more on this very exciting launch.

Kristin, what is most significant about this, and what could potentially lay the groundwork for going forward?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think perhaps the biggest most significant thing about this launches it has just been so

long, Bianca, since NASA has had one of its own human rated rockets or its own astronauts to fly on.

[17:25:08]

It's been 11 years since the last space shuttle launch. During that time there was a huge gap where they had to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets to get

their own astronauts up there to the International Space Station. And SpaceX came along. But that's a private company.

So what you're looking at right there, is a fully government funded rocket. It is the most powerful rocket ever built, and if all goes according to

plan, it is going to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday at about 8:30 in the morning. It is going to embark on a 42-day

mission around the moon. It's going to really test the capsule that is on top of that rocket.

That's the SLS rocket. The Orion capsule is on top. That's where astronauts will be on future missions. It's going to go around the moon. We will get

incredible videos and pictures, 4K high definition pictures, which we did not get back in the `60s and `70s of the moon's surface.

This capsule will go 60 miles above the moon. It will come back and really test a heat shield of that capsule, and prepare it for Artemis 2, because

that's when NASA hopes to put astronauts inside the capsule, and if all goes according to plan, Artemis 3 should have been sometime in 2025, and

that will be the Apollo 11 of the Artemis program, where you could get American boots back on the moon. This time, the first woman and the first

person of color, hopefully, by 2025.

Then the other really significant thing about this launch, Bianca, is that we have -- the United States is a different competitor now. Back in the

`60s and `70s, it was the Soviet Union. Now, it is China. China is trying to do the exact same thing that the United States is doing, which is build

a lunar base on the moon. They want to leave more than flaxen footprints. They want to stay there.

So, this is really a chance for NASA to really take the early lead in this second space race with China, and the NASA administrator said back in July

that he believes that the U.S. is indeed in a second space race with China, Bianca.

NOBILO: And, Kristin, are you going to be there for the launch?

FISHER: You bet. I would not miss this.

NOBILO: Amazing!

FISHER: With my daughter and hopes that she could see her first launch.

NOBILO: Oh, that's fantastic. Hopefully, we will check in with you than. Have a great weekend. Thank you for joining us, Kristin.

And thank you all for watching. That was THE GLOBAL BRIEF. Have a nice weekend.

"WORLD SPORT" is up next.

END