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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Judge's First Order in Docs Case Since Trump Arrest; Washington Post: Trump Rejected Idea of Deal with DOJ; Putin Addresses Ukraine with Military Bloggers; Western Allies to Deliver New Air Defense to Ukraine. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired June 15, 2023 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:02]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: You can mark it down, next year, there will be a parade down Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. Brianna, you're invited. We're going to party.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: I'm going to be there. Did they find the trophy?

SANCHEZ: They did. Fortunately, they did. We should give you an update. He found his trophy.

KEILAR: Yeah, we just need to really close the loop on that.

And THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.

SANCHEZ: Go heat.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We just heard the first official comments from the judge overseeing the Donald Trump classified documents case.

THE LEAD starts right now.

New today, Judge Aileen Cannon setting a new deadline for federal prosecutors and for Trump's lawyers. Why? These decisions could have a real impact on the timing of the case against Donald Trump. We are going to talk to former Republican U.S. attorney general.

Then, another Republican candidate jumping into the presidential race. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez running for the GOP nomination and his ad literally running. But with an already crowded 2024 field, is he really running for vice president?

Plus, agencies of the U.S. government, victims of a global cyberattack. Why this means your banking info, personal info, medical records and more may have been exposed.

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We're going to start today with law and justice. And our law and justice lead, as we hear for the first time from Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointed judge who will preside over the federal criminal case against the former president.

Today, Judge Cannon gave attorneys five days to notify her on the status on the necessary security clearances they need for the classified material in the case. This, as "The Washington Post" reports, that one of the former president's attorneys proposed a plan to Trump last fall, to attempt to stave off a potential indictment, planning to, quote, quietly approach the Justice Department to see if that he can negotiate a settlement that would preclude charges, hoping Attorney General Merrick Garland and the department would want an exit ramp, to avoid prosecuting the former president.

Trump reportedly rejected that approach, "The Post" says, at the urging of some of his more combative outside advisers. But one source is casting doubt on the practicality of that proposal, telling CNN it wasn't a real opportunity to avoid charges.

Donald Trump continues to lash out at special counsel Jack Smith, and at the Department of Justice, calling Smith on his social media site, deranged. And blaming, quote, misfits, mutants, Marxists, and communists for, the criminal charges, that's a quote, which while not necessarily helping his legal case, is apparently helping his campaign's coffers. His team claims it has now raised more than $7 million since his federal indictment was announced last Thursday.

We're going to begin with CNN senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid, who is following all the latest developments hope for us.

Paula, why is this order from Judge Cannon significant?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: One of the big tensions right now in the case is timing. How long will it take this to get to trial? Special counsel Jack Smith says he is pushing for a, quote, speedy trial. We know the former president and his attorneys have every incentive to try to drag this out at least until after the election. Now we know where they stand on this, but the judge has a lot of control over how quickly this moves. And this is the first scheduling order she has issued.

And it's going to move along pretty quickly here. Two days ago, we had the arrangements, saying, look, five days now in an update on where you are with your security clearances. That's an important issue here, right? Because we're dealing with classified information.

But she's under a lot of scrutiny, and a big question here is, how quickly will this move? Now in order to get the security clearances, the Trump team needs to know who exactly is going to be on the team. So that's another sneaky way that this could get dragged out a little bit, right? They have to find the lawyers, and then it will take a few weeks to get the clearances.

But, Jake, all this feels a little bit in the weeds white. Sort of minutiae, but the minutiae matters in this case.

TAPPER: Yeah. REID: Because these little, tiny decisions on our how this can get extended and extended. And these little, tiny decisions have an impact on the case, that could have an enormous impact on the country, depending on when it is brought.

TAPPER: The security clearances also underline the fact that you need to clear security clearances to see this information, which is kind of interesting.

Whether this plan, that we read about "The Washington Post" from the Trump attorney, to negotiate with the Justice Department. Whether or not it would have succeeded or, the Justice Department would have even been amenable to it, it does raise questions about all the choices Donald Trump could have made it differently since leaving the White House, to avoid the indictment and the arrest and such.

REID: Yeah, the best way to make a good choices to make sure your advisers have all the information, right? According to the indictment, the former president was not only trying to hide documents from the feds, he was also trying to hide them from his own lawyers. And I'm told by sources close to the legal team that that was one of the reasons why he wasn't always getting the best advice. They didn't always have the full picture.

For example, that recording of a conversation where he said he has classified information, his lawyers didn't even know about that until a few months ago, when it came up in the grand jury. But we know throughout this process, Jake, he's been getting conflicting advice. Some people have been encouraging him to be more cooperative, more conciliatory with the Justice Department.

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Others were saying no, fight, fight, fight. It's clear right, which philosophy won out. And that's partially how he got himself.

TAPPER: Interesting, and Trump appointed Judge Aileen Cannon, she is going to preside over this case. She won't ultimately be deciding Trump's guilt or innocence. That will be a jury.

But are there ways that prosecutors might be concerned about decisions she makes, that could influence the case?

REID: Yeah, and they have reason to be concerned, because the one decision that she has made in a matter related to this case, relating to the search of Mar-a-Lago, was roundly criticized by legal scholars on both sides of the aisle, and eventually overturned. She is a young, inexperienced federal judge, and this is arguably the case of a lifetime.

So she's going to be under a lot of scrutiny. And Jake, there are so many ways that she could influence this case, everything from jury selection right, which jurors get struck for cause. Two bigger questions like which evidence will those jurors eventually get to see.

And I think that's only going to be the first test for her. Because we know the Trump legal team, they want to revisit all of these fights that they've already had in D.C. about evidence that got in. And they want to revisit those in front of Cannon.

But she's going to be a major storyline here, because of the power she wields over this proceeding.

TAPPER: All right. Paula Reid, thanks so much.

Joining us now to discuss, Alberto Gonzales, former attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. We should know that in 2008, a Justice Department report concluded that Gonzales handled classified document in an insecure fashion in his home, and in an insufficiently secure space at work, but found no evidence of any unauthorized disclosure or statute violation.

Thanks so much for being here, Mr. Attorney General.

"The Washington Post" reports --

ALBERTO GONZALES, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL, GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION: Thanks for the reminder, Jake.

TAPPER: Well, I feel like we do need to disclose it, and also, we don't want anybody overhyping what happened, since you are not referred for any charges at all. So we want this, the full --

GONZALES: And the lesson is, and people take this seriously.

TAPPER: Yeah.

GONZALES: We need to take this seriously, so that's the lesson from that, from that whole incident.

TAPPER: Yeah. "The Washington Post" reports that Donald Trump rejected this plan from one of his attorneys, in the fall of last year. To quietly approached DOJ to arrange a settlement in the classified docs case, give them an off ramp so that they wouldn't have to be put in the position of prosecuting the president.

Is that something you think the DOJ would have entertained?

GONZALES: Well, it certainly would've I think, entertained the conversation, to see what the offer really is. And the timing would have been critical, quite frankly. If it was before the search, certainly, I think the chances would be greater, about serious entertainment of such a request or offer. After the search, probably not so.

But, always be mindful of the fact that this is an unprecedented search, an unprecedented prosecution, and you know, you want to -- you want to get it right. You also want to be fair, you want to be fair to the former president.

And so, yeah, it's hard to tell or say whether or not something would be a serious consider, we might have, depending on the circumstances. TAPPER: Yeah, I mean, when you look at the actual indictment, the

president is now charged for documents that he did turn over. And that, that leads one to conclude that if he had maybe just turned over everything when originally asked, then there wouldn't be any charges at all.

GONZALES: Jake, I feel that would be the case. I really do, because it's not -- it really isn't good for the country to have a former president charged and run up on federal charges. And so I think -- listen, there is mishandling of classified information, Pence, Biden, Clinton. And so it happens.

Most of the time, it's a burden. You know, people aren't as careful as they should be, but as soon as you are made aware of it, they fully cooperate and turn the documents, return the documents or make them available to the National Archives.

For whatever reason, Donald Trump didn't do that here.

TAPPER: Yeah.

GONZALES: And that's the reason why he is facing these indictments, precisely because he was unwilling to provide the information.

TAPPER: There are very few lawyers who like it when their client talks publicly about the case.

I want you to listen to what Donald Trump said to his donors at his Bedminster fundraiser about this on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hadn't had a chance to go through all of the boxes. It's a long tedious job, it takes a long time. Which I was prepared to do, but I have a very busy life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, isn't that essentially a confession of guilt of sorts from the former president? He's admitting that he had the documents. He's admitting that he didn't turn them over.

GONZALES: Well, I did hear him say that, he really hadn't gone through all the boxes, and he perhaps maybe wasn't sure. I think I may have heard somewhere that, what he said was in many of the boxes were, you know, clothes and shoes and things of that nature.

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I don't hear anybody from the Department of Justice, who has gone through these boxes, confirmed that in fact, there were personal effects of the former president. So, you know, it's I think President Trump has really gotten himself in a very difficult position.

Again, if -- he is entitled to a fair trial, presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But the evidence, I mean, what's -- the assertions, the allegations, and it's really quite compelling. And I have to believe that there is more that wasn't included in the indictment, that may be even more damning, more dangerous for the president.

So, if I were advising the president, I would really tell him that as my colleague, former Attorney General Barr says, even if just half of this information is proven true, the president is in some -- in some big trouble.

TAPPER: I think Barr said toast, but yeah, I hear you.

GONZALES: He did, yeah.

TAPPER: Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, thanks so much for your time today. I appreciate it.

There are now 13, yes, 13 Republicans vying for the 2024 presidential nomination. Why Donald Trump is probably not mad about that.

Then, maybe you could get better seats to concerts such as Taylor Swift, if the fees did not cost you an arm or leg. The big changes coming to concert tickets.

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TAPPER: And we're back with the 2024 lead, and yet another Republican candidate officially jumping into the race today. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is set to speak at the Ronald Reagan Library this evening. He will be the first major Hispanic candidate to join the already crowded Republican field in 2024.

CNN Kyung Lah joins us now live from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.

Kyung, Suarez leaned heavily into his family roots in his campaign launch video, to say nothing of all the very impressive running. What do we expect to hear from him tonight?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he won't be physically running, although he is announcing that he is running for president. We are expecting, based on the remarks that we've gotten, the advance remarks that he we've gotten from the campaign, that he is going to talk much more about his immigrant roots. Details that you heard growing up in the Cuban American family, and how his family and his political success really embody that American success story.

He's going to talk about the success in Miami and how that stands in contrast to partisan rancor in Washington, D.C. But his essential message is that it's time for the Republican Party to pick a new generation leader, in someone who is talking and not shouting or lecturing. So that's the thesis of his running.

What you will not hear him talk, about is Donald Trump. His argument is that it's time for this party to stop talking about Donald Trump, and it is something that is very difficult, given that Trump is the pace setter for this entire Republican primary. What he is going to be asked about on this campaign trail though, is his late entry into this race, how he did not vote for Donald Trump, and how he is going to make the debate stage. Those are the challenges Jake, that lie ahead for this mayor in Miami.

We are anticipating his speech will take place starting later this evening -- Jake.

TAPPER: Very interesting. Kyung Lah, thanks so much.

Let's discuss. That's interesting he might be the only Republican nominee, correct me if I'm wrong, who is running for president right now, who admitted, or admits publicly that he didn't vote for Trump.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, and that will put a pretty significant ceiling on the amount of support he'll be able to get. But, I think he's a fascinating candidate. I don't think it's likely that he will be the Republican nominee, it specially saying, I didn't vote for Trump, and he didn't vote for Ron DeSantis, really limits the amount of Republicans who will say okay, you are my guy.

On the other hand, he is certainly not afraid to be different. And so I'm very excited to see, can he spark some interesting conversations on the right about, what do we do about emerging technologies, start- ups, the economy of the future. These are the kind of conversations we are not having a lot of right now, because we're talking with the former president having been arrested, and a whole bunch of other things.

But Francis Suarez I think could lead to some interesting conversations, if he makes it to the debate stage.

TAPPER: Yeah, because mayors do deal allowing those issues on the frontlines, even if you're not the most powerful mayor.

I want you to take a look Paul, at this part of Mayor Suarez's campaign video launch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In Miami, we stop waiting for Washington to lead. America's so-called leaders confuse being loud, with actual leading. All Washington wants to do is fight with each other, instead of fighting for the people that put them in office. My dad taught me that you have to choose your battles, and I am choosing the biggest one of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, he is an outsider in that sense. I mean, like he hasn't been in Washington. I'm trying to think of the other candidates, and only one or two others have spent no time in Washington. PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I think he could be an

interesting voice for the party. I think it's good for the Republicans to have a Latino in the field, and possibly in the debates, although I'm not sure he can make the threshold. I think it's good that he is young, although he is older than Ron DeSantis.

TAPPER: Is that right?

BEGALA: I think he's like a year older than Governor DeSantis. But I do like the idea of a lane for somebody who voted against Donald Trump, and against Ron DeSantis. I suspect that's a quite narrow lane, in the Republican Party, since he is already cast votes against. He endorsed Andrew Gillum, the first time DeSantis ran, the Democrat.

TAPPER: He did?

BEGALA: He did.

TAPPER: He was a fellow mayor I suppose.

BEGALA: Yeah.

TAPPER: But that's odd, I mean, Gillum's career didn't end up in the best place.

ANDERSON: Florida politics is a lot of fun, Jake, it's about fun.

Look, one of the things that's, when I have seen Mayor Suarez speak to say rooms full of Republican donors, he always gets people talking. And part of it is the story that he tells about how he was going to try to bring these companies from Silicon Valley to Miami, setting up that contrast that Republicans really like between Florida and California, as beautiful sunny places that have very different approaches to governance and taxation, and housing affordability and what have you.

And so, Mayor Suarez was going to make Miami the crypto city, the crypto capital of the world, those sorts of things, while the crypto industry has fallen a little bit of hard times et cetera.

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So there are some questions I think about how much resonance that particular story will have with a Republican base audience. But again, I think he raises some interesting questions about, what does the Republican Party of the future look like? And even if it's not Francis Suarez right now, I think he's an interesting addition to the mix.

TAPPER: One thing I want to ask you about, Paul, Biden's campaign manager is now being forced to defend the decision by the Biden campaign to not fund-raise off of Trump's indictments and arrest. Julie Chavez Rodriguez told CNN, quote, it's so important that we restore the integrity of the department of justice and insure that they're an independent entity and agency, and that they continue to do their job in these most critical moments. And so for us, that separation and independence is core, and it is not something that we will second second-guess or deliberate.

On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who has raised nearly $7 million since his indictment was announced Thursday evening.

What do you make of that?

BEGALA: Trump no longer has any power over the Justice Department, and Biden does. And I think that's the right decision.

How are freshening to have a president who's not actually politicizing the justice system and the Justice Department. It's, of course, I think absolutely the right decision.

I would have no problem with a member of Congress or the Senate. They don't -- they don't really control the Justice Department. I really don't have a problem with other politicians raising money off this.

But I think the president has got to be separate from this completely. He needs to not talk about it. He shouldn't raise money off of it. By the way, we will see on the June 30th report how much money he raises. He should race plenty of money, and he already has Donald Trump to raise some money for him.

In other words, a lot of Democrats are terrified of the notion of Trump coming back, and they are going to give money to Biden. So, he's going to raise plenty of money without it. It would really be awful if they were to try to raise money off of this.

TAPPER: The counterargument -- I understand what you're saying. The counterargument might be, the Republicans are already accusing Joe Biden of pushing to have his chief rival arrested and jailed. I mean, they are already saying that, and not just fringe people, but U.S. senators and people that you might like.

And I'm wondering, you know, if they're going to do it anyway, one at least make some money off of it?

ANDERSON: I think that in this one Paul is not entirely wrong. I have to say it, I had to get it in.

TAPPER: We're getting mugs made.

BEGALA: Tattoo.

ANDERSON: Look, I really think that in this case the stakes are too high for our republic, for the prosecution of Donald Trump to be politicized anymore than it absolute minimum level that it will be. And for Biden to add anything to that mix would be devastating, especially for Republicans that right now are kind of taking the position articulated by Nikki Haley, which is, I think that the prosecution's political, but I'm also troubled by the allegations.

You do not want to put any fuel on the fire of the first part of that statement, if you are President Biden, because that's what's going to wind up making it harder for Republicans in that field to make the second part of the argument. TAPPER: Yeah, and it makes complete sense, but I wanted to poke you

guys and get you to say something.

Kristen and Paul, thanks so much for being here.

New cyberattacks target several agencies, and has similarities to a series of hacking attacks going after banks and oil companies, and even universities.

Stay with us.

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TAPPER: Just into THE LEAD, a federal judge has set a trial date for another lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. This one is a defamation lawsuit from E. Jean Carroll, who is just successful in suing Trump for defamation in a separate case. This one is set to head to trial on January 15th, 2024, right around when first in the nation Iowa is going to hold its caucus.

Trump is also set to go on trial and criminal charges relate to hush money payments in March of next year, that's going to be a busier.

Exclusive CNN reporting tops our tech lead now. Several U.S. government agencies have been hit with a global cyberattack, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. This comes after a hacking spree over the last two weeks crippled major universities and even hospitals, including high-profile attacks on Johns Hopkins health system, and the University of Georgia's statewide system.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand has more information.

Natasha, tell us more about this latest cyberattack, and how many govern agencies might be affected, do you think?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Jake, the exact number of government agencies impacted by this is still unclear. But, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did tell my colleague, Sean Lyngaas, that it is providing support to, quote, several federal agencies who have experienced intrusions and infecting their Move It applications. And they added that the agency is, quote working urgently to understand impacts and ensure timely remediation.

Now, Move It is a widely used file transfer software that hackers appear to have found a vulnerability in the earlier this year. And they began exploring that in late May. Progress, which is the U.S. firm that owns the Move It software has urged victims to update their software packages, and has issued security advice.

Now, the Department of Energy is actually so far the only federal agency to confirm publicly that it was hit, saying in a statement that records from two of its entities were compromised, and that the department is investigating the incident. Now, the hackers have used its vulnerability to target not only

federal agencies, but also state governments. And as you said, academic institutions, Johns Hopkins University and its health system said in the statement this week that, quote, sensitive personal and financial information, including health billing records, may have been stolen in this hack. And Georgia's statewide university system, also confirmed that it is currently investigating the scope and severity of the attack, Jake.

TAPPER: Natasha, who do experts think might be behind this?

BERTRAND: Well, a Russian-speaking hacking group known as Clop last week actually claimed credit for some of the acts, which have also affected employees at the BBC, British Airways, oil giant Shell, and state governments in Minnesota and Illinois among other victims.

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But Clop ransomware group is one of numerous gangs in Eastern European and Russia that are pretty much exclusively focused on extracting money from victims. They're a ransomware organization. But while the Russian hackers were the first to exploit the vulnerability, experts also said that other groups may now have access to software code that is needed to conduct attacks and are basically just taking advantage of it.

So, Jake, what this hacking campaign shows is that the widespread impact that a single software flaw can have is huge, if it's exploited by these kinds of skilled criminals, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much.

Turning to our world lead, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a wide-ranging meeting with pro-Russian military bloggers this week, where he admitted his army is running low on high precision ammunition and drones, contemplated if he should attempt another attack on Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, and pondered withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal.

CNN's Matthew Chance is in Russia's capital for us.

Matthew, how typical is it for Putin to speak at length and publicly with these bloggers?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's pretty atypical. I mean, I've certainly not seen it before. It just shows you how influential these bloggers, these military bloggers, who are very pro-war, of course, have become in this country. They've been routinely criticizing the Russian military, and the Russian authorities, but not doing enough to win the war in Ukraine, and for being too soft if you'd like.

And so, this wasn't part Vladimir Putin sort of pandering to some of their views, but also trying to moderate them as well. He spoke about a number of issues. You mentioned them there, he spoke about mobilization. He said there were some public figures who were calling for a million, or even two million more men in uniform to fight the war in Ukraine. He said that that wasn't necessary at the moment. He said the mobilization of the country, that wasn't necessarily at the moment.

But then he had the sort of very public puzzling cryptic remark that he made about Kyiv. He said that the question was, should we return there or not? And obviously, there have been lots of calls amongst these military bloggers in Russia to have another go at taking the Russian capital, which of course it attempted to do at the beginning of the conflict in February of last year. And he said, only I can answer this myself.

So, he held out the possibility that there could be, you know, he was at least considering a further escalation in Ukraine, in the future, and another attack on the Capitol, Jake.

TAPPER: Matthew, I'm really fascinated in learning what you think about what's going on with the mercenary group, Wagner. The chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says that he's not going to be signing any contracts with Russia's defense ministry now. He's been very publicly critical of how this war has been waged.

How are the leaders of Russia responding?

CHANCE: I mean, I think this is fascinating. Because I mean you're right look. This idea of contracts being signed, this was Vladimir Putin's demand now. Saying that with all these mercenaries like Wagner and the other sort of freelance mercenary groups that have sprouted up over the course of the past 15 months or so. Should now effectively sign contracts with the Russian military and become part of the Russian military.

And, Prigozhin has been against that for some time, since the idea was first floated by the defense minister, Sergei Shoigu. But now, Putin has come out and said, no, you've got to do this by July the 1st. And Prigozhin, for the first time, has basically defied the Russian president, and said, no, I'm not going to do that. My men are not going to sign these military contracts.

And so, on one hand, Putin has in this battle between Prigozhin and the Wagner mercenaries in the defense ministry. Putin has come down on the side of his defense ministry, and it's not clear at the moment what the consequences for that will be for Yevgeny Prigozhin.

At the moment, he's being defiant, but it's going to be extremely interesting to watch just how long that defiance lasts, or just how long he lasts in that kind of situation, with Putin.

TAPPER: All right. Matthew Chance in Moscow for us, thank you so much.

Now to Ukraine, where a big battlefield delivery is on its way. Hundreds -- hundreds of short and medium-range air defense missiles from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Denmark, as Ukraine makes, quote, steady progress in its southern offenses, according to top U.S. General Mark Milley. Let's go right to our senior international correspondent in the ground

in Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sam Kiley.

Sam, General Milley, the chairman of the joint chief of staff, he also concedes that this is a very difficult and very violent fight.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. This isn't a surprise counteroffensive being launched by the Ukrainians. And if we look at what's going on in the southeast of the country, on that front line with Zaporizhzhia, running from Zaporizhzhia to Donetsk, it is probably the most heavily fortified of the Russian frontlines, at least three different lines going back in depth.

Jake, they've also got air defenses, and that is really where it's so important for the Ukrainian, at this stage anyway, to have the short medium range air defenses, because the sorts of weaponry that the Russians have had, have been using, ranges from cruise missiles designed to fox air defenses, decoys, they call it (INAUDIBLE) that flies all over the place, through to surface to surface Iskander missiles, that carry half a ton of explosives, and, of course, the aircraft themselves, and delivering dumb and smart bombs on the frontlines.

[16:35:27]

And it's going to be on those frontlines, I think, where most of the shorter range in medium range missile systems are going to be deployed. But that doesn't mean that the rest of the country doesn't need protecting to. Yes, there's Patriot, there are other systems here. But Russians have been trying to overwhelm them here, the air defenses for some time. Everything from the very cheap Shahed drone, costing some $20,000 or so manufactured in Iran, right through to the Kinzhal, the hypersonic missile that have been proven to be vulnerable to the Patriot missiles. So, all of this, very intensive efforts on both sides, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Sam Kiley in Kyiv, Ukraine, thanks so much.

The jury has to start deliberations in the death penalty trial of the deadliest antisemitic attacker in American history. We're going to go outside of the courthouse, next.

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TAPPER: Also in our law and justice lead, jury deliberations are underway in the trial over the deadliest antisemitic attack in the history of the United States. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the gunman who killed 11 people during an attack on the tree of life synagogue in Pittsburgh, in October 2018.

As CNN's Danny Freeman reports for us, this has been an emotional and intense trial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A sacred house of worship turned into a hunting ground. That's how federal prosecutors describe the Tree of Life Synagogue as they began closing arguments, Thursday morning. The prosecution detailed the brutal executions of each of 11 worshippers, six of whom were shot in the head, and recalled the chaotic morning captured by 911 calls and body camera video.

All to prove their case that defendant Robert Bowers killed Jewish people just because they were Jewish. The prosecution brought up a testimony of worshipper Dan Leger, the nurse who said he instinctively rushed toward the gunfire that morning but was shot in the stomach. He lay on these stairs pretending to be dad and prayed his yarmulke falling off his head. Body camera evidence showed first responders carrying Leger to safety.

The prosecution also spoke about 97-year-old Rose Mallinger, and how the grandmother had with her daughter Andrea underneath the pew, Bowers sought them out and deliberately shot both of them, killing Rose. The prosecution said motive stemmed from years of anti- immigrant, in antisemitic online posts, made by Bowers, leading up to the shooting. And his admission to police that day that, quote, all Jews had to die.

In his closing argument, the defense did not dispute that Bowers killed the 11 worshippers and wounded six other people. Instead, Bowers' attorneys attempted to reframe his motives, saying Bowers killed these worshippers not because they were Jewish, but because one congregation supported a refugee resettlement group. The defense argued, hatred of immigrants motivated the attack, while acknowledging his statements to police about those motives were unexpected, shocking, and irrational.

While the most graphic pieces of evidence were not made public, the pictures released tell the story. Bullet holes in a memorial wall, shattered windows, a gun near a bloody children's book. And this prayer book, pierced by the gunman.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN (on camera): Now, Jake, as jury deliberations began, we've actually got a statement from one of the congregations who lost three members that day almost five years ago from New Light Congregation, I would like to read part of it.

It says: There can be no forgiveness. Forgiveness requires two components that it is offered, by the person who commits the wrong, and that it is accepted by the person who was wronged. The shooter has not asked, and the dead cannot accept.

Now, if convicted, the death penalty phase would come next -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Danny Freeman in Pittsburgh, thank you so much.

She helped blow the whistle on Facebook, linking documents that show the company put profits over people, and now, this former Facebook insider has a new warning for us about social media.

Stay with us.

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[16:47:52]

TAPPER: In our tech lead, calls for accountability and transparency among social media companies are growing, including, now by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. In late 2021, you may remember, Haugen leaked documents that showed how Facebook, now called Meta, prioritize profit over people, and allowed its algorithms to harness political divisiveness, and hate speech, and diminish children's self-esteem both here in the U.S., and around the world.

Now, Haugen is out with a new book detailing all of it, "The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook".

And Frances Haugen joins us now.

Congratulations on your book.

Fascinating stuff. Throughout the book, you talk about how Facebook got away with so much because it's software is closed off to the public. People have no idea what's going on there and how is Facebook unfairly influence national elections, even tackled governments in different parts of the world.

Do you think we, as a society, are better prepared or protected for the 2024 presidential election in the U.S. because we are now aware of this? Or are we doomed for more of the same?

FRANCES HAUGEN, FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER: I'm deeply concerned that going into 2024, we face much marginal or risks that we, did say four years, ago or three years ago at this point, because Facebook dissolved the team that was responsible for making sure 2020 election was safe. Preparations for the 2020 election didn't begin a month or two before the election, they began over a full year in advance.

We should be asking Facebook right now for what level of preparations are being done, what level investment, and demand public transparency and accountability.

TAPPER: What I never understand, these companies are worth billions and billions of dollars.

HAUGEN: Yes, trillions.

TAPPER: Trillions of dollars.

HAUGEN: Yeah.

TAPPER: They can hire more people to weed out the Nazis and take down information, why don't they? HAUGEN: So, we have a problem right now, it's pretty simple, we

require companies like Facebook to report their profit and their loss numbers, and their expenses, like how they got to those profits. But we don't require them to report the social side of the ledger, if there are consequences, like danger to our election, voter disenfranchisement, influence operations -- all of those things are invisible in the quarterly reports.

[16:50:07]

Mark Zuckerberg came out early this year and said hey, file this into softening opportunity happened. Elon Musk fired 7 -- or 75 percent of the employees of Twitter are gone, and there are no consequences. We can have a year of efficiency, and he fired over 20,000 employees. Many of my favorite safety researchers are no longer at the company, and not voluntarily.

Going into the 2024 elections, I worry that many people who would have kept our elections safe were cut in the name of efficiency.

TAPPER: You also mentioned in your book how the transparency and accountability from social media, it's still in its infancy.

HAUGEN: Uh-huh.

TAPPER: You write, quote, by allowing social media companies to keep the curtains closed, out of shortsighted fears and real challenges across being the first mover on transparency, we are choosing to let them struggle and fall short isolated and alone. But, of course, it's not just about social media anymore, right?

I mean, 42 percent of CEOs surveyed at Yale CEO Summit this week said that artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence has a power to destroy community within ten years. So far, the European Union is the only global force working towards implementing any sort of roles on how companies can use A.I.

How worried are you about the U.S. falling behind?

HAUGEN: So it's interesting. We have these longer-term acts essential risks in terms of large language models, these forms of A.I. Those are the ideas that the computers waking up and coming after us. Experts generally agree, the most dangerous problems about these large language models are not ten years off, they're two years off, they're one year off, in the form of things like influence operations, information operations on social media.

It used to be if you wanted to run a large influence campaign and try to sway an election, you'd have to hire tens of thousands of people to sit there and type at computers. Even if they copy and paste things over and over to scale up their impact, you know, even those repetitions allowed them to be caught. When you have A.I.s, now you can have 10,000, 100,000 virtual compelling people, all trying out new variations on lies. We can basically AV test viral variants and figure out what kinds of misinformation is most adopted to us and spreads the fastest. TAPPER: In your book, you also talked about Instagram, owned by

Facebook or, Meta and how it causes, quote, a teenage girls self- esteem to plummet, leading another death to suicide. You wrote, quote, some of these girls one day may want to start a family, and find they are unable to, conceived because of the damage they've done to, themselves in order to look like the women who follow on Instagram.

And we know that just last month, the U.S. surgeon general put out an advisory saying children are exposed to harmful content on social media. According to CDC, 2021 suicide was at second leading cause of death for children and young adults ages 10 to 24, causing 11 deaths for every 100,000 people.

You say social media can be made safe, how? How can it be made safe?

HAUGEN: Sure. You know, let's start thinking about a few of the levers we have that can really rapidly make the state these platforms safer. Probably the easiest one to begin going after is the fact that kids are online very, very late at night. You know, the surgeon general himself side one in three teenagers say they are online until midnight or later most school nights if 30 percent are on until, midnight 10 percent are at least for until 2:00 a.m.

Let's imagine a world where Facebook had to report how many teenagers were on at 10:00, 11:00, midnight, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00 a.m. How rapidly would they begin to innovate new ways to help kids choose when to go to bed and actually go to bed at those times. We start seeing parents opting for safer social networks, once it had to her late night sessions. You got advertisers threatening to pull their ads, or divestment campaigns, lawsuits.

And so, those are the things where transparency can directly inspire, like allow -- unlock innovation for the social well-being.

TAPPER: All right. Frances Haugen, thank you so much. The book is "The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth, And Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook". It's out now.

Appreciate it, Frances. Good luck with the book. Thanks for joining us.

HAUGEN: Thank you.

TAPPER: And a reminder if you or anyone you love needs help, please call or text the suicide lifeline 988. That is 988.

Coming up, now it's the White House's turn to say, look, what you made me do. Well, new pressure from President Biden over the service fees for concert tickets make any difference.

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[16:58:51]

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. At this hour, ever wonder how your $50 concert taken turned into a $75 price tag? Well, now, you will get to see all of the thieves before you even decide to add your seat to the checkout cart. And it's not just concert tickets, we're talking hotel rooms and plane tickets, too.

Plus, the chair of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee keeps publicly sharing allegations about the Bidens. But, now, even he admits, publicly, he does not know if all of the claims being made behind them are real. Where is the proof?

And leaving this hour, the judge overseeing Donald Trump's federal criminal case is weighing in on the case, for the first time, since his arrest and arraignment. Judge Aileen Cannon just gave the former president five days to pick his attorneys and to make sure they can get the clearance necessary to be able to look at the highly sensitive material, involved in these classified documents case.

Let's bring in CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins.

Kaitlan, what we know about how this clearance process will work?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's the logical next up, right? Because, obviously, this is a case that, you know, in addition to being rare because the first time a former federal authority president has faced federal charges, it deals with highly sensitive documents. And not just anyone you or I could actually look at those documents.

So, the attorneys that are representing him will have to get some kind of clearance here. Obviously, that's typically takes, you know, if you're applying for White House job, it could take a year to get that clearance.

TAPPER: Right.