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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Grants Some Pardons To Those Who Show Loyalty; Nominees With Partisan Background Among Trump's Oversight Picks; Trump's New Pardon Attorney Is Eager to Target Biden-Era Cases; Musk Says Trump's Tax Bill Undermines DOGE; Trump Says He'll Give It Two Weeks To Determine If Putin Is Serious About Ukraine Peace; Defense Cross- Examines Cassie Ventura's Friend & Stylist; Simulation Shows How Pilots Handle Air Traffic Control Failures; Your Questions About Billy Joel's Brain Condition. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 28, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM CAW, PASSENGER: We're just tired, you know, they were tired of flying. They wanted someone else to do the flying for them. The woman next to me obviously was quite panicky about it. She said to me, she said, oh, I'm going to need to free wine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His name is Kahl. There's no way. His name is Kahl. Did a pigeon write that?

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: I don't know. The baggage hand would come aboard the Sailor Room the birds. Jake Tapper is standing by for the lead. Jake, what would you do if there was a pigeon on your plane?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: I'd watch it. You know, I'd watch it. I don't think I'd have the freak out. What's it going to do to me? I don't really. I'm sorry, perhaps I'm -- But --

HUNT: I would definitely freak out.

TAPPER: But just so you know, while you were talking, I got a call from the FEC -- FCC, about what you said. I'm just joking. We're cable. We're not regulated. We're not regulated by them. We're not regulated by them. It's all good. Thanks, Kasie. We'll see you back in the arena tomorrow.

HUNT: See you tomorrow.

TAPPER: Loyalty to Donald Trump can get you quite a bit these days. The Lead starts right now.

Pardons from prison, government jobs. President Trump's on a roll extending a pattern of favor to folks who have long pledged their loyalty to him. And today he said he's considering yet another one. Also ahead. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'll let you know in about two weeks. Within two weeks, we're going to find out very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: President Trump's new timeline for Vladimir Putin. Two weeks. Given the Russian leader two more weeks to see if he's serious about peace. But what happens if Putin's war in Ukraine continues to rage on?

Plus, the new fix. After a series of outages at Newark International Airport when air traffic control could not communicate with pilots, there is a workaround and CNN got an exclusive look at how it could keep you safe on your next flight.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. Loyalty get you everywhere. One defining characteristic of President Donald Trump has long been that he judges worth in part based on how loyal people are to him. And this week we're seeing this manifest rapidly in the form of a something of a Trump loyalty rewards program, pardons and job offers.

Let's start with his latest pardonpalooza. Yesterday he pardoned his reality TV brethren, Todd and Julie Chrisley, who could walk out of prison in Pensacola, Florida at any moment. The two are stars of the show "Chrisley Knows Best" on USA Network.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOOD CHRISLEY, CHRISLEY KNOWS BEST": We're the Chrisleys, Todd and Julie Chrisley. We live in a neighborhood north of Atlanta, a gated neighborhood with celebrities here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The Chrisleys traded that gated neighborhood for the gates of a prison. They were convicted of bank and tax fraud in 2022, conspiring to defraud banks in Atlanta of more than 30 million. Their Trump loyalty connection the Chrisley's daughter Savannah, spoke at the Republican National Convention last year. She helped campaign for Trump.

Another Trump pardon yesterday went to Paul Walzack, a former nursing home executive who pleaded guilty to tax crimes. He admitted to using money earmarked for employees taxes to fund his own rather extravagant lifestyle. The loyalty connection his mommie dearest. The New York Times reports that Walzack's pardon application to Trump said that his mother raised millions for Trump and other Republicans and also highlighted her role trying to hurt President Biden's 2020 campaign.

But Walzack's reprieve did not come, the Times reports, until mom showed up last month at a one million dollar person fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago that included direct access to Trump. It is not clear whether Walzack's mom donated the million dollars. Still, a few weeks later, poof. A pardon. Before that, on Monday, Trump pardoned former Culpepper Virginia

Sheriff Scott Jenkins, as we reported yesterday, recently convicted of federal bribery charges which outraged the good citizens of Culpepper County. He was caught accepting cash stuffed envelopes from rich civilians who wanted badges. The loyalty connection well, Jenkins is a longtime Trump supporter who reportedly appealed to Trump directly for clemency.

More in just a moment on Trump's talk today of yet another controversial pardon possibility. But first, the other benefit of Trump's loyalty rewards program after Trump fired inspectors general at 19 government agencies in an unprecedented purge at the beginning of this new administration, some of his picks to replace those inspectors general have rather partisan backgrounds with a history of MAGA Trump loyalty.

Trump's inspector general nominee for Health and Human Services, for example, Thomas March Bell, resigned from a government job over an allegation of mishandling 8 million -- $8,000. I'm sorry, $8,000 in taxpayer money. There's Trump's choice for Veterans Affairs watchdog Cheryl Mason.

Cheryl Mason remains a senior advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, according to documents reviewed by CNN, which might of course make it difficult to be an independent voice of oversight over his department.

[17:05:00]

Trump's pick to investigate waste, fraud and abuse at the Department of Labor is Anthony D'Esposito. He is a Trump supporting former Republican congressman who lost his New York seat to a Democrat after D'Esposito was accused of putting his mistress and his fiance's daughter on his payroll. Taken together, it could all be perceived as a great deal of incentive to join the Trump loyalty rewards program, though points we should note do expire.

Let's go to CNN's Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, more Trump pardons coming down just in the last hour.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, we saw the president earlier in the Oval Office and clearly since then there has been a lot of use of the president's pardon power that has been happening here at the White House because we already knew about some of these key names, the Chrisleys, as we reported on yesterday, the president called to inform their daughter that her parents would be getting a pardon. We should expect to see at least one of them leave prison as soon as today.

Also, Michael Grimm, the former New York congressman who has been pardoned as well. But we're also just getting a list of a slew of other names, Jake, that the president has now pardoned. That includes the former governor of Connecticut, John Rowland, who was twice convicted.

It also includes a rapper who goes by the name of NBA YoungBoy, he was convicted in some federal gun crimes cases. And a slew of other names on here as well, Jake Kevin Baisden, Mark Bishaw, Tanner Mansell And John Moore Jr. A few of those names at the end that may not be household names, but clearly each have individual reasons why the president has chosen to grant them clemency for with this power and to use the power that every president has and certainly President Biden himself we saw using on his way out of the White House as well.

But President Trump's what's notable here, Jake, in addition to the names that you just read off and clearly the connections that they have politically when it comes to this president is seeing such a slew of pardons so early on in the administration.

Trump came into his second term pardoning people on day one. He pardoned virtually everyone who was convicted in a crime related to January 6 from the Oval Office within hours of taking the oath. And then today we are continuing to see him use this power, wield this power.

In addition to this list of pardons, Jake, there's also a few commutations as well that are included in this list. And one note, when we saw the president earlier inside the Oval Office, he was asked whether or not, he is considering also pardoning the people who were convicted in the plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who herself was here at the White House not too long ago. And the president said yes, he was. Jake.

TAPPER: Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. And Kaitlan, of course, is going to have much more tonight at 9:00 on her own show The Source with Kaitlan Collins. CNN has some brand new reporting on the man in charge of helping secure new pardons for President Trump and how he's building this list. I want to bring in CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid. Paula, tell us more.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LE GAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So, Jake, after Ed Martin failed to secure confirmation as the U.S. Attorney here in D.C. President Trump tapped him for two really big jobs at the Justice Department, one of which is the pardoned attorney. Now, historically, this is an office that vets request for clemency and makes recommendations to the White House. Something that is unique to President Trump is he makes a lot of those decisions himself.

But now I'm told with Martin in charge of this office, he has a whole staff that can help vet these requests that I'm told are pouring in from law firms, lobbyists and interest groups all trying to seek some form of clemency for various individuals.

Now I'm told Martin is going to ask everyone to fill out a traditional pardon application because as you know, there have been a lot of questions about how exactly you get come and see from President Trump. So Martin trying to establish a paper trail here.

I'm told he has already vetted dozens of requests for commutations and made recommendations on those. But this particular job, Jake, this gives him a lot of power to reward those who have been loyal to Trump.

TAPPER: And Paula, Ed Martin has also been tapped to lead the Justice Department's weaponization working group. What is that exactly? What have you learned about what he's doing at that job?

REID: Yes, he is a multi-hyphenate. He has multiple jobs here at the Justice Department. And on her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi, she established this so called weaponization working group and she laid out its mission, which is to investigate what they allege is the weaponization of the Justice Department. In their definition, that means the state and federal investigations into now President Trump as well as the prosecutions related to January 6th and some other conservative causes.

Now, the Justice Department has been working on these investigations for the past few months. But now that they've put Martin in charge of this work, he is breathing new life into this. I'm told that in just the past few weeks since he took over. He's already sent letters, he has made calls, and even done in person visits to some individuals he believes may have relevant information.

Now, he has not sent anyone a letter to indicate that they are specifically a target of this investigation. Right now, he's just looking for anyone who can provide relevant information or who is willing to cooperate. But there is not an expectation that everyone is going to be willing to cooperate.

Now, Martin has previously said even if he can't bring criminal charges against some individuals, that he may quote, name and shame them.

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Which, Jake, as you know, is sort of a violation of the norms at the Justice Department, which are that if you are not charged, usually they do not release any details related to your investigation.

TAPPER: All right, Paula Reid, thanks so much. Let's discuss this all with Maggie Haberman, the New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning White House correspondent who has a plethora of Trump knowledge and insight. Shocking, but not surprising is a phrase that we use a lot during the Trump era, like, I can't believe he did that. But on the other hand, I can completely believe he did it.

For example, he pardoned all this cop beating January 6 prisoners. So is it really that surprising that he would contemplate pardoning the men convicted of plotting to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer? And yet here we are, right?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, I mean, look, it's not surprising. He has made expansive use of pardons, as you say. I was thinking as you were talking about the way in which these pardons and some of this is reporting that my colleague Ken Vogel did about how people have made massive donations for pardons. I was thinking about the end of Bill Clinton's second term where he issued a series of controversial clemency grants. Those got investigated. There were days and days of headlines.

This has all been literally out of the gate with President Trump. He did this on his first day with the January 6th convictees. And he has continued to reward people who he thinks are loyal to him. And it's redefining a version of what he thinks is justice. It's people who are aligned with him who are on the side of right and people who are not are being looked at. Not everybody, but some.

TAPPER: Yes. And Trump just nominated his former personal attorney, Emile Beauvais, to be a federal appeals court judge. He's currently a top Trump Justice Department official. How significant is that, do you think?

HABERMAN: So it's interesting. First of all, even the idea that Trump's, four of Trump's personal attorneys are in the top ranks of the Justice Department, I think back to, you know, the Bill Clinton era, if he had put his personal lawyers there, what a daze of outrage it would have been. And it just sort of doesn't get much notice.

Beauvais has been there for a very short amount of time. That's mostly what I am struck by, is that he is leaving after I think it's less than six months. This nomination is coming after less than six months. And so I'll be curious to see who replaces him, but it gives Trump another ally as a judge in a court at a time when both Democrats and Republicans have figured out how to district show.

TAPPER: Speaking of loyalty, interesting comments from Trump's friend Elon Musk about Trump's big, beautiful bill. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was like disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing. I think a bill can be big or it can beautiful, but I don't know if it could be both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So Trump was asked about this today. He deflected trying to blame Democrats for the bill, which is interesting. How do you think that comment from Musk is really actually going over with Trump?

HABERMAN: I don't think it's thrilling Trump. I also don't think it's entirely surprising to Trump. I think that Musk has been sort of trying to cleave some separation with the White House and his own work right now. I also don't know how much effect it is going to have. I think that if it ends up having a real material impact on the bill, then I think Trump will care a lot. But it was, as you say, he dodged it and clearly does not want to be in some kind of a public fight with Musk.

TAPPER: Where is their relationship right now, do you think?

HABERMAN: I think they still deal with each other. I think Musk -- look, Musk was in that meeting with the South African president. Musk is still around. He is still, you know, allied with some people in the Trump administration. And he still has a lot of money. And so all of that is going to mean he will be around going forward just what quantities remain to be seen, right? TAPPER: Richest man in the world, so. All right, Maggie Haberman,

thanks so much.

HABERMAN: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: Really appreciate it. Joining me now, Mark Greenblatt, former Interior Department inspector general for both the Biden and Trump administrations. He was one of the inspectors general fired by Trump earlier this year. So let's turn back to the inspector general story we talked about at the top.

Mark, after Trump's purge of you and your colleagues, you wrote in the Economist magazine that Trump, quote, should not replace us with his stooges, unquote. Do any of these replacements that we refer to earlier in the program fit your definition of stooges?

MARK GREENBLATT, FORMER INTERIOR DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR GENERAL, BIDEN AND TRUMP ADMINISTRATIONS: Well, three of them. The three that you highlighted, the one for Health and Human Services, HHS, the one for labor, and the one for the Veterans Administration. All three of those are very problematic for the reasons that you said.

And they listed all three of them or I talked about the labor one and the HHS one in a column in the Hill, specifically laying out what my concerns were about them, the fact that they were partisan actors, the fact that they had ethical clouds hanging over them, and the fact that they had engaged in policy advocacy in the very areas that they'd be overseeing, which is absolutely anathema for the inspector general.

And then the one came after that, Cheryl Mason for the VA. She, as you said, is in the administration right now in the VA. So she would be overseeing programs that she's administering or advising on right now. So how could she possibly be objective in that regard? Those are very problematic nominations from my perspective.

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TAPPER: Right. The inspector general needs to be somebody who would willingly piss off the secretary of that agency. Right. And not have any ideological agenda at all other than saving taxpayers dollars and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse.

GREENBLATT: That's exactly right. You can use the baseball umpire analogy. And if they are coming from the administration themselves, you know, the American people, Congress, you know, our stakeholders would, you know, inevitably think that this person is putting their thumb on the scale in favor of the very administration that they came from.

So it's really, really very problematic. And it's just something that is completely counter to everything else that the inspector general community has worked so hard to develop this apolitical, nonpartisan stance where we are, as you say, the folks who can speak truth to power.

TAPPER: So hypothetically, what happens if -- what's a worst case scenario if you have an inspector general who has a shady ethical past, him or herself or is too close to the secretary of the agency they're supposed to be overseeing? Just give me an example of what might happen.

GREENBLATT: Well, two things. One is I think the reports, their findings, their recommendations or their criminal investigations, their ethics investigations won't have the credibility because they're going to have -- they're going to look like they're putting their thumb on the scale in favor of the Trump administration folks or their programs, or on the flip side, going, you know, inappropriately hard on, say, a Biden administration program or those officials. And so their reports won't have credibility.

Here's the other thing. The long term consequence beyond these specific individuals is that if presidents start putting in political actors in these positions that are designed to be apolitical, what's going to happen is that the next president that comes in is going to fire those people and put in their own political lackeys.

And then we hit a vicious cycle downward where we completely undermine this fabulous construct of oversight, this nonpartisan oversight that we have in our country and in our federal government. We're going to undermine that by getting in this vicious cycle of presidents coming in and putting in their own political lackeys and then those folks getting fired with the next change of administration. That's the long term fear here, is that we just lose this wonderful construct that we have in the federal government.

TAPPER: So Elon Musk says he's preparing to step away from DOGE in the near future. You say there's an opportunity for DOGE employees to refocus their efforts on analyzing huge data sets in order to find fraud and waste. You write in the Daily Beast, quote, if DOGE reframes in that way, shifting from Musk's chainsaw, cut everything in sight campaign to a more surgical, sustainable approach, the Inspector General community should be a natural ally and asset in improving the performance of federal agencies for the benefit of the American people, unquote.

What would it take for that partnership between DOGE and the IG community, the Inspector General community, to be realized?

GREENBLATT: Well, first there has to be engagement. The IG community, when DOGE was first stood up in January, the IG community reached out. I was part of that, where were trying to engage with the folks on the Hill, the DOGE committees on the Hill, as well as DOGE itself to try to establish those relationships in order to look at the data. As you said, there are huge data streams throughout the federal government.

The IG community is well positioned to slice and dice that data and look for, you know, anomalies, look for, you know, strange patterns that would suggest fraud or waste and abuse inside these massive programs. And so, you know, DOGE has these great techies. And so I said, why don't we marry up the DOGE techies with the IG techies?

And they can speak their language, which is far over my head, but they can slice and dice that data and tease out real opportunities for reform, real opportunities to identify waste, to identify criminal misconduct, and try to nip it in the bud. Instead, they completely sidelined the IG community.

And I would say they should be partnering with the IG community to try to improve the federal government. That's the entire --

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TAPPER: Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Our world lead takes us to Russia, where a top Kremlin aide today accused President Trump of being, quote, not sufficiently informed, unquote, on the war in Ukraine. This is after Trump's repeated condemnations of Putin, including saying Putin has, quote, gone crazy. Here's Trump in the Oval Office earlier today when asked whether he feels disrespected by the Russians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not. And if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently. But it'll take about a week and a half, two weeks. Until the document is signed, I can't tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Joining us now to discuss Germany's foreign minister, Johann Wadephul. Minister Wadephul, thanks so much for joining us. So you're Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov says that there's going to be a new round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul next week where Russia will present the memorandum that Putin promised Trump he would deliver.

Trump says he's going to give Putin two more weeks to think about peace. As we just heard, does the German government think that Trump's involvement and his mounting frustration with Putin will ultimately lead to a productive outcome?

[17:25:04]

JOHANN WADEPHUL, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, we hope so. We do absolutely understand the impatience of the President because he has invested a lot of political capital to bring Putin to the negotiation table. But Putin is not there.

I hope that there will be talks in Istanbul next week, but please, without any preconditions ready -- Russia has to be ready for the negotiations, especially for a ceasefire, unconditional ceasefire. Mr. Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine is ready to make that able. And Europe and Germany as a European country together with the United States have a clear position that we need now these negotiations without any preconditions so that this war can brought to an end.

TAPPER: Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Berlin earlier today. Merz announced that Germany and Ukraine would start producing long range weapons in Ukraine. It's part of a $5 billion euro five, I'm sorry, 5 billion euro arms package. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told CNN it's quote, entirely irresponsible this deal and that Germany is trying to quote, provoke further war, unquote. What's your response now?

WADEPHUL: The reality is that Russia is not provoking a war, but conducting a war day by day without any right and violating international right. So we do -- we are not in the position that Moscow has educated us on international law or what we are allowed to do. We stand with Ukraine as long as Ukraine has to defend itself, its territory, its people and the international law against the Russian aggression. And as far as we see, Russia is not ready to end the war and to come back to a situation where peace is in Europe.

TAPPER: There were big expectations that Chancellor Merz would announce the transfer or approval of Ukraine's use of Germany's highly sophisticated long range Taurus missiles, which have an even longer range than American ATACMS missiles. Why didn't that happen? Why didn't that transfer get approved?

WADEPHUL: You just mentioned that today there was an agreement found between Ukraine and Germany that we going to support Ukraine in developing, producing and later on using such systems in order to enable them to defend their territory in a better way.

I think Taurus will not be needed at that time. But the thing is we have the same attitude as a lot of partners, especially in Eastern Europe, that we will not have security in Europe with Russia, but only against Russia. So for that very reason every in each country has to be capable to defend itself. And for that very reason these new systems were to be developed.

TAPPER: You met with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio in D.C. Earlier today. What was the most important thing you got out of that meeting?

WADEPHUL: That we are reading from the same paper. We have a very broad common understanding on what's going on the international level with regard to Ukraine, with regard to the Middle East. We are partners of Israel, standing with Israel, but also seeing the humanitarian situation in Gaza, that there has to be relief for the people.

We are hoping and doing our best that the talks in Doha could bring a solution between Hamas and Israel and, of course, Europe in the E3 format. So the United Kingdom, France and Germany are also engaged on the Iran dossier, and we are cooperating very closely together with the administration and Washington, and I'd hope to secure peace at all these conflict zones I just spoke about.

TAPPER: All right. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, thank you so much for your time, sir. Appreciate it.

WADEPHUL: My pleasure. TAPPER: Next, in today's national lead, the key testimony today in the

Sean "Diddy" Combs sex trafficking trial and his attorney's attempt to get a mistrial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead today, tomorrow, in the Sean Combs racketeering and sex trafficking trial, the defense will continue cross-examining Combs' former stylist, Deonte Nash, who gave emotional and sometimes graphic testimony earlier today. Nash told jurors he once jumped on Combs, trying to stop him from attacking Cassie Ventura, Combs' ex-girlfriend.

Nash also testified that Combs demanded control over Ventura's wardrobe, her movements, and her body. Let's bring in CNN anchor Laura Coates and CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister. Both were inside court today.

Laura, let me start with you. What legal impact could Nash's testimony have in establishing, specifically, the force, fraud, or coercion element required for the sex trafficking charges to take hold?

[17:34:58]

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, one, of course, involves Cassie Ventura, and he gives testimony in that suggests that she said that she did not want to participate in these freak-offs. She offered me packing a black duffel bag and expressing how she doesn't want to it but Sean wanted her to do it or was making her do it in some capacity.

Even a moment on her 29th birthday when she wanted to enjoy with her friends and said, was essentially forced and browbeaten into going with him to a hotel where a bag was filled with sex toys, and, of course, as we know, those ended up being the freak-offs.

TAPPER: And, Elizabeth, Nash said that he still talks to both Sean "Diddy" Combs and Ventura, even spoke to her yesterday after she gave birth. How did that detail land in court? How did people in the jury receive it?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You know, this was very smart of the prosecution to bring up on their own because, as Laura and I know, we've been sitting in court together, and this is something that repeatedly comes up from Combs' defense. They keep asking, why were you in continuous communication with Combs after he did these allegedly horrific things? They've been showing text messages and e-mails, and Nash said that he doesn't hate him.

He said, it's not within me to hate him, and, of course, I wanted to stay in touch with him. And as for Cassie, he admitted that they are still very, very close friends, as you said, Jake, talking to her as recently as yesterday with the birth of her baby boy. So smart to get ahead of that because, if not, you know that it's going to come up with the defense.

TAPPER: Yes, Laura, we know the judge instructed the jury to disregard testimony that was made about destroyed fingerprint evidence. What was that about?

COATES: This was a really important moment because they had an LAPD or LAFD, excuse me, arson investigator who was there to talk about the Kid Cudi car bombing with the Molotov cocktail, and we learned from testimony that there was some DNA that was extracted that involved a female DNA and also fingerprints were on it, but the fingerprint cards had been destroyed in some course of events.

The -- the prosecution wanted to elicit testimony about this to suggest that and leave maybe a seed and intimation that, well, somebody like Diddy could maybe buy his way out of these sort of circumstances or that they were destroyed and it was something not above board. Well, the defense wanted to get up and they said, we're -- we're going to try to declare a mistrial here because you cannot unring a bell.

You're going to leave the impression with the jury that somehow he was involved with the arson and that somehow he made it go away, which was not the case. They tried to have a curative instruction, meaning, ladies and gentlemen, please disregard what you've just heard right now, and the real -- real fight was whether the judge could say that the line of question was improper or not.

The prosecutor said, if you say improper, you will impugn the government and fatally undermine our case. They opted not to do that, but it was a really big warning for this prosecution.

TAPPER: And -- and Elizabeth, you've been in court throughout. What struck you the most about how Deonte presented himself and what he claims to have endured?

WAGMEISTER: You know, first of all, and I know Laura will agree with this, he was funny at times, which is very rare in this trial because the allegations are so dark. But people were laughing. He was very true and real, but also a little sassy at times.

But when it comes to what he claimed that he endured, what I will tell you, Jake, from what I'm hearing every single day sitting in court, is so many patterns among all of these witnesses, specifically patterns that are corroborating Cassie Ventura's testimony.

This is the second friend of Cassie who has said that they were also physically assaulted by Sean Combs. This is another witness yet again who has said, I saw violence repeatedly. And as Laura pointed out, I thought that the key takeaway that was different with Nash from other witnesses is he said, in real time, Cassie told me that she did not want to engage in these freak-offs, and she also told me that she was being threatened by Combs, that he gave her threats that he would release sex tapes of her.

TAPPER: If she didn't.

WAGMEISTER: If she didn't.

TAPPER: Oh, that's fascinating. All right, Elizabeth Wagmeister, Laura Coates, thanks so much. Laura is going to go in-depth on this case, of course, on her excellent show. It's called Laura Coates Live. It's every weeknight at 11:00 p.m. Eastern. And, of course, don't forget her podcast. It's called Trial by Jury. Tonight's special guest, The Punisher, that's the male escort who testified about Diddy's sex party -- parties. You can catch the new episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Coming up next, CNN's exclusive look at a backup for airline pilots in case your flight ever loses contact with air traffic control, God forbid.

[17:39:15]

Plus, the plan that should hopefully stop the communication outages at Newark International. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Our National Lead now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced today a new cable is in place that should drastically improve air traffic control communications at embattled Newark International Airport. Nationwide, Secretary Duffy says there remains much more work to be done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SECRETARY SEAN DUFFY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: I think this truly is a moment to look at what kind of system we're using, what kind of equipment we use, what kind of telecom we use. And it's a call to action to make sure we build a brand new air traffic control system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: In the meantime, pilots need to be able to react in the moment, if or when they lose contract with a control tower. CNN's Pete Muntean now brings us this exclusive look at one backup plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready to go?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm at the controls of a Boeing 737 Max simulator here at United Airlines Flight Training Center in Denver to see what pilots experience when air traffic control goes dark. It's the latest challenge for them, after flights in and out of Newark faced repeat failures of radar and radio earlier this month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have a radar, so I don't know where you are.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Along with me is Captain Miles Morgan, who heads training for United.

MUNTEAN: Would you say that these issues at Newark have caused any sort of degradation of safety? CAPT. MILES MORGAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF FLIGHT TRAINING, UNITED AIRLINES: Not at all. Safety for us, if you've got pilots that are operating into the airspace, it is safe for us to do so. We are 100 percent confident in that.

[17:44:59]

MUNTEAN (voice-over): This is some of the busiest airspace in the country. If air traffic controllers lose their radar scopes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traffic. Traffic.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Morgan says pilots can fall back on the plane's Traffic Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS. It calls out collisions in the making and can even issue instructions to climb or descend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traffic. Traffic.

MORGAN: So now, OK, I've stopped doing what I'm doing. I look, I see it on the screen 700 feet above. I acquire it visually.

MUNTEAN; Yes.

MORGAN: And now I'm monitoring. I'm making sure, hey, this is good. We're -- we're at a good airspace. We're safe.

MUNTEAN: The reason you're showing me this is to show that there are other layers here, there are other systems.

MORGAN: Exactly correct. We have a lot of different layers, and a lot of them rely on the external world, but we all have this internal system that our airplanes will talk to each other.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): But when controllers can't reach flights via radio, Morgan says pilots would try a previously used radio frequency.

MORGAN: Push this button, the previous frequency pops back up.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Try the emergency backup frequency.

MORGAN: This would be a backup if we couldn't raise it any other way.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Use data link text messaging to communicate with the airline.

MORGAN: And I can say need frequency.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): And dial in a transponder code that signals that communication has been lost. Decades-old redundancies that air traffic controllers are trained for, too.

NICK DANIELS, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT: We were always prepared for it. The pilots were always prepared for it. Unfortunately, we're having to use those safety nets.

MORGAN: So I'm going to start putting some flaps in for you. MUNTEAN (voice-over): Maybe to prove that flying is safe, Morgan even let me do the landing.

MORGAN: A little flare. Perfect. Boom.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Not my worst, as airlines insist the worst will not happen when air traffic control fails.

MORGAN: I don't really worry when something is a little abnormal. We're -- we're trained for all these abnormalities. It's not just this. It's -- we're constantly training for whatever could be going wrong and how to make a decision to rectify that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN: This is especially pertinent since Newark is one of United's biggest hubs. The FAA has scaled back flights there to not overwhelm air traffic control. And United says that led to it canceling no flights on Memorial Day or the day before.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said today that the government has taken steps to harden Newark systems. But even still, there needs to be a nationwide overhaul of the entire air traffic control system. And that could cost tens of billions of dollars. Jake?

TAPPER: All right, Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

We are paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta to answer your questions about normal pressure hydrocephalus. It's a brain condition that may resemble dementia, but with treatable symptoms. Billy Joel just talked about it. Sanjay is a practicing neurosurgeon. And he's showing us what this condition can do, next.

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[17:51:54]

TAPPER: We're paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta in our health lead. CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is back to answer your questions about the brain condition that forced singer-songwriter Billy Joel to cancel his upcoming tour. So Sanjay, Robert from Wells, Maine, wants to know, what is the cause of hydrocephalus?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So Jake, Robert is asking the fundamental question, hydrocephalus, water on the brain. And that's what people typically know it as, usually in babies, but it can happen in adults as well. Take a look at these images here.

These are images that sort of really demonstrate what hydrocephalus is. Over here, that's -- that's a normal brain, normal gray matter. These black areas in between, those are the normal fluid-filled spaces in the brain. Those are called ventricles.

You can see over here, Jake, those spaces are much larger in someone who has normal pressure hydrocephalus. We're talking about those black areas in the middle. It's not under a lot of pressure. That's why it's called normal pressure hydrocephalus. But the thing about it is that sometimes it can actually start to cause various symptoms, difficulties with walking, difficulties with cognition, bladder control.

And -- and a lot of times, simply by draining that fluid or reducing some of that fluid in the brain, you can actually start to really improve people's symptoms.

Let's try and get to another question. Patty in Bradenton, Florida says, my mom is 82 years old, recently diagnosed with NPH, normal pressure hydrocephalus. Next week, she's having a spinal tap. Can you tell me if it will make things better?

Well, this is the question. I think there's a good chance it could make things better. When you think about hydrocephalus, normal pressure hydrocephalus, it's not common, but it is very treatable. So again, imagine this fluid bathing the brain, bathing the spinal cord. What Patty's talking about is her mom having a lumbar puncture.

So this is the spine over here. This is a needle, and basically, you put that needle in between a few bones of the spine, and you can drain some of the fluid that's circulating around the spinal cord. That also drains some of the fluid here in this image that you see here.

So when you put that together, if that fluid, removing that fluid actually makes somebody better, their walking improves, their cognition improves, their bladder control improves, that's a good sign that doing a more permanent procedure could actually be helpful. And again, a lot of times it does work if that's the correct diagnosis.

Let's try and get to one more question here. Laura had a question also about her mother. She asks, what are the chances that my mother can get some or all of her mobility back with the brain shunt procedure?

OK, so this is sort of moving one -- one story to the next. Lumbar tap, and then if that works, then the question is, can you do a more permanent procedure to drain the fluid regularly? This is a shunt. This is actually a catheter that's inside the brain, inside those fluid-filled spaces I was just showing you, and it's draining fluid then into the abdominal cavity.

Let me show you here. So this is the brain. The fluid-filled spaces would be deep in there. You got to get through the skull. We do that, obviously, with a drill. You actually drill a little hole on top of the skull there. You open up this area outside the brain, and you put in this catheter that goes into one of those normal fluid-filled spaces, and then you attach that catheter to this little -- this little tubing here that drains fluid into the belly.

[17:55:20]

So that often does work. I would say 60 percent to 70 percent of the time, people get benefit from this. This might be the discussion that Billy Joel and his family are right now having with doctors, possibly to get a procedure like that, and hopefully working for him, just as I described. TAPPER: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. Really appreciate that.

President Trump once called Bitcoin a scam. He called crypto a disaster waiting to happen. Well, that was then. This is now. What his administration is saying about the digital currency at a crypto conference in Vegas today. That's next.

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