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Pentagon Leaker to Appear in Court; Retail Spending Fell in March; Boeing Discovers New Issue with 737 Max; Russian Forces Suffer Heavy Losses. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 14, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:34]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Standing by for the first court appearance for the alleged Pentagon leaker, as new details emerge about how he got the classified documents and what might have motivated him.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A major payout. The city of Minneapolis has settled two lawsuits against the man who killed George Floyd, former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. Almost $9 million to two people. We have the body camera video of what happened during those arrests.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Boeing is facing supply setbacks and delivery delays after revealing manufacturing issues with their 737 Max jets. How that could affect the company's bottom line and what it's doing to their stock this morning.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: This morning we are waiting for the arraignment of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira. He is the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman arrested for allegedly leaking classified government documents online. Teixeira is set to appear before a federal judge in Boston today. Some answers beginning to emerge this morning to these major questions, who is he, why would he leak the documents, how did he allegedly get the documents, why would anyone in his position even have access to the documents? This morning, the Pentagon is limiting who receives its highly classified, daily intelligence briefs. The leaked documents included detailed intelligence assessment of allies and adversaries, as well as the state of the war in Ukraine. Teixeira's job title was cyber transport systems journeymen. In layman's terms, an IT specialist. He entered the Air National Guard in September of 2019 and was recently promoted to the rank of Airman First Class.

CNN's Jason Carroll standing by outside the federal courthouse in Boston.

Jason, explained to us what we might see today.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as you can imagine, we are awaiting this initial court appearance. And at this point -- at that point we are expected to get more information about some of the charges that Teixeira is going to be facing when he faces a federal judge here.

He's accused of the following, alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information. Cameras will not be allowed inside the court here, but cameras were outside his family home where he lived with his mother in Dighton, just south of Boston, late yesterday afternoon when he was taken into custody. Dramatic footage as we saw him with his hands above his head, he backed up slowly and was taken into custody without incident.

Still a lot of questions, though, about why someone, a low-level servicemen, had access to these classified documents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: He may not have been the actual designated recipient of any of these pieces of intelligence. He may have pulled them out of the burn bags or taking them off people's desks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And again, John, he allegedly shared that classified information in these documents on the online chatroom, on Discord, with a small group of people where he also shared information about gaming and guns and racial memes.

Again, his initial court appearance scheduled for later on this afternoon. Again, at that point, we'll find out about some of the charges that he is facing. If he is charged under the Espionage Act, and we're going to wait to see if that does, in fact, happen, he could be facing many, many years behind bars.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Jason Carroll, outside the Joe Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston. Jason, keep us posted. It could be a busy day there.

And, Kate, I think it's telling that the Pentagon is already limiting who gets certain intelligence based on what's happened here.

BOLDUAN: Yes, there's already fallout when it comes to the classified system, and obviously diplomatically, from what we've seen so far, and still so many questions. So many more -- many questions still surrounding this leak. But even with that, we are learning more about Teixeira himself.

The 21-year-old is an enlisted airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He was recently promoted to the rank of Airman First Class. He entered The Guard in September 2019. His official job title is cyber transport systems journeymen.

[09:05:02]

It - said another way, Teixeira was an IT specialist. Teixeira grew up in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island. He

graduated high school in Massachusetts in 2020. Several of his classmates tell CNN he was fascinated with the military, with guns and with war and that he would wear -- sometimes wear camouflage to school and carried what has been described as a dictionary-sized book on guns.

Now, one woman who attended middle and high school with him said, quote, a lot of people were wary of him. Another said that Teixeira made her nervous. Yet another classmate says Teixeira was a quiet kid who sometimes got picked on and didn't have many friends. Again, so many questions remaining right now.

Joining me right now to talk about this is a former deputy director of the FBI, Andy McCabe, a CNN national security analyst.

Andy, what do you see in this? We just lay out what we knew -- what we know so far about Teixeira. Is this the profile of someone that you would think would commit this kind of a crime?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, you never want to think that someone who's been entrusted with that level of security clearance would do such a thing. But the fact is, it's quite easy to do if you are a person who has decided to violate your oath, to violate the training and the rules that you operate under and to proactively make a decision to break the law, which it appears that that's what Mr. Teixeira has done here.

BOLDUAN: The conversation around -- about classified documents, around the classified system, of recent, Andy, and we've talked about this, has largely been around kind of a question of, are -- is there an over classification? Is there too many -- are there too many things that are -- that are being - that are being classified. How does this fit into that conversation, what we've seen here?

MCCABE: You know, Kate, I think this situation is really an example of the questions about how many people are granted access to some of our most sensitive secrets. Now, in this situation, it's kind of easy to understand, as an IT specialist assigned to an intelligence wing, Teixeira would have had to have had access two different computer systems, classified, at both the secret and top secret level in order to fix those systems, in order to - to secure access to those systems to the intelligence folks he was working with who needed to be able to get that sort of information. But with that access, with that kind of system -- maybe systems administrator like access, he also would come across pieces of intelligence that were maybe not specifically directed to him, but were within his purview, and he was able to take those and secret them out of the facility.

So, definitely raises questions about how many people, not only have access to the systems, but are actually in the pipeline to receive some of our most sensitive briefings.

BOLDUAN: We know that the FBI has had him in custody since yesterday. What is the biggest question that you would like to have answered from Teixeira today? MCCABE: Boy, Kate, there's a lot of questions. And the fact is that

Mr. Teixeira knows a lot of information that the government has to find out very quickly. He has an opportunity right now to cooperate with the government, if he chooses to do so, in a way that could greatly benefit him in the prosecution that will be forthcoming. The simple fact is, the government needs to know exactly how he did this, when he did it, who knew about what he was doing, who did he share those documents with, how did they share them, how were they stored, does he know if anyone else was downloading these documents and storing them in other places, because the government now needs to kind of collect all of that classified information from wherever it's been spilled.

BOLDUAN: The Pentagon was asked yesterday if they think that they were slow or missed something. Considering that the documents -- this leak occurred over a time period that spanned months and that the documents themselves were online for a long period of time before they were picked up, do you think that the Pentagon has something to answer for here?

MCCABE: You know, I think there are - there are good questions to ask about how Teixeira was trained and supervised and how he was able to get away with what he did on site. The question about whether or not the Defense Department should have known these documents were being discussed and shared on a private server and the Discord app is really, you know, that goes into an area that presupposes that the government is looking or should be looking in every private area of the internet for its classified property, and that's just simply not the case. That's not how we function. You know, the government goes into those spaces really only after they have a fully predicated investigation on an individual, and they do it with court authorized access. We're not just out there kind of looking to scrape up potential government information from any places it might reside.

BOLDUAN: Great point. Always great to see you, Andy. Thank you.

[09:10:01]

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, brand new numbers on retail sales from March are out finally. These numbers are a key indicator on how the economy is doing.

Let's get straight to CNN's Christine Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

SIDNER: What is this telling us?

ROMANS: Well, look, you know, the American economy runs on the confidence and the spending of American consumers. Seventy percent of the economy is driven by consumer spending. So, this number incredibly important. And what happened in March? Those bank failures. So, we're watching carefully to see if the American consumer pulled back. And they did. Consumers spent 1 percent less in March than they did in February. They spent less on gas, partially because gas prices fell, they spent less on electronics and at grocery stores. They spent more online, which I think is a signal, Sara, that they're also a little inflation weary and they're looking for bargains. So, they moved away from department stores and spent a little bit more online in the month of March.

SIDNER: Looking for those coupons.

ROMANS: That's right. Exactly.

SIDNER: We all do it.

ROMANS: Exactly.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about JP Morgan Chase because they announced that they will end pandemic-era sort of hybrid work.

ROMANS: Yes.

SIDNER: So for their senior staff, what does that mean?

ROMANS: Yes, look, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, he wants his people back in the office five days a week. And these are for senior bankers and managing directors. And this is what -- this is what he told the staff of the company. He said in a memo, they said, our leaders play a critical role in reinforcing our culture and running our businesses. They have to be visible on the floor. They must meet with clients and they should always be accessible for immediate feedback and impromptu meetings.

We have seen this, Sara, over the past few weeks, more and more companies saying, you know those two days a week you're in the office, let's make it three. You know those three days you're in the office, let's make it four. And in the case of JPMorgan, let's make it five for those senior bankers.

And when you look at the actual badge swiping data, I love this, the badge does not lie. The swipe at the front of the office doesn't lie. You've got about 49 percent occupancy right now of pre-COVID rates. And that has every month been increasing a little bit.

SIDNER: One thing you know when you swipe that badge, they're watching you.

ROMANS: They are.

SIDNER: So they - you've got to be careful.

John.

BERMAN: Does it mean we have to work on Fridays. That's what I want to know. I guess we're here.

New problems for Boeing. The company halts production of the 737 Max. What this means for planes in the sky.

Governor Ron DeSantis signs a bill banning abortions after six weeks, making Florida one of the more restrictive states in the country for getting abortions.

And Russia suggests limiting the number of U.S. journalists there as the parents of a "Wall Street Journal" reporter, arrested in Russia, give their first interview since his arrest. His father says he regrets not discussing the dangers of working in Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I trusted his judgment. Of course, it makes things more difficult for me now because I feel -- feel that I've failed in some whey as a father.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:16:53]

SIDNER: On our radar this morning, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that would ban most abortions in the state after six weeks. Opponents say many women don't even know they're pregnant at six weeks. And this new law would make Florida one of the most restrictive states in the country to obtain an abortion.

Now to Jerusalem, where new clashes erupted today between Israeli police and Palestinians near the Al-Aqsa Mosque shortly before dawn prayers. A video obtained by CNN appears to show police trying to disperse a crowd with batons and stun grenades. Israeli police raided the mosque complex twice last week. The site is one of the most holy in Islam.

And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will return to the capital on Monday. He's been absent for five weeks to recover from a fall. He was hospitalized last month and was treated for a concussion and a rib fracture and underwent physical therapy.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: This morning, Boeing his just disclosed yet another issue with their 737 Max. This one being described by the company as a manufacturing issue. However, Boeing says that there is, in their view, no immediate -- no immediate safety concern here. This is the same plane that was grounded worldwide for nearly two years after a pair of deadly crashes.

CNN's Pete Muntean, he has much more on this.

Pete, the details are still coming out about what this issue really is, but what do you -- what do we know so far?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Things a little murky here, Kate, but the big thing here, and the thing we can't stress enough, is that this is very different from the incidents back in 2018 and 2019 that caused the Boeing 737 Max to crash twice abroad, 346 people killed. That was an issue with the warning system in the cockpit.

This is a manufacturer's defect that Boeing is just disclosing right now. They say that this is a problem with nonstandard manufacturing used by a third-party vendor in a fitting in the rear part of the airplane's fuselage. They discovered this in airplanes that are still on the production line.

The interesting thing here is that Boeing says this will not impact airplanes that are already out there flying in airlines, but it will impact airplanes that are still on the production line that have yet to be delivered. And that is a really key thing for Boeing. And it's a big commentary on their quality control issues, not only in the 737, but there also have been ones disclosed about the 787. Boeing says a significant number of airplanes will be impacted.

The FAA here says it was notified by Boeing, that these problems were disclosed by them, and the FAA says there is no safety of flight issue right now. So, no real impact here to passengers just yet, but a big impact of business, a big impact of the industry, a big impact to airlines. United Airlines has an order for 200 Boeing 737 Maxs. Just took delivery earlier this month of the 100th 737 Max. And Southwest Airlines is waiting on Maxs as well. Big key there is that it's only operating 737s at Southwest. So, we'll see as this unfolds. This is just coming to light just now, Kate.

[09:20:04]

BOLDUAN: I've been focusing on the - what we have on the wall right here is what Boeing says is a significant number of planes is impacted because they're kind of vague on -- vague on how many how -- many planes, like the actual number of planes that are impacted by all of this. If we don't know that, do we know just how many of these planes are actually out there?

MUNTEAN: Right now there are about 950 737 Maxs flying in the U.S. So it's unlikely, given the facts that have been laid out here by Boeing and the FAA, that we would see another big grounding like we saw back in 2019 that lasted two years and caused the FAA to essentially revisit the certification of the Boeing 737 Max.

The big issue here, and this is what Boeing is being coy about, is the number of airplanes that are still on the production line. This is Boeing's best seller. So, this is a huge issue for Boeing. And they are now trying to sort of bring this to light and really sort of taking the fall for its third party vendor here, a supplier that had these issues, Kate.

BOLDUAN: So interesting. All right, much more to lean.

Pete, thank you so much.

Just hearing it's a manufacturing issues, though, John, it's like giving some information but still want to know exactly what that means.

BERMAN: Oh, yes, you really want to know as much as you possibly can about this.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: We're going to stay on planes for a second.

BOLDUAN: OK.

BERMAN: Though we're going to move from, I guess, planes to passengers in the air, Kate, because we have new moves to crack down on unruly passengers after the FAA asked the FBI to investigate more than a dozen cases. This includes last month's incident onboard a United Airlines flight when a 33-year-old Massachusetts man tried to stab a flight attendant with a metal spoon. That was scary. He then tried to open the emergency exit door.

That incident is one of just 17 the FAA sent to the Justice Department. They range from passenger threats, to alleged sexual assault. The FBI can bring actual criminal charges. The FAA itself cannot. It can only hand out fines. In the last year alone, the FAA imposed more than $8.4 million in fines on passengers in connection with more than 2,400 incidents that were reported.

Sara.

SIDNER: New this morning, the family of American reporter Evan Gershkovich, who Russian authorities snatched from the streets and jailed, are speaking out in their first interview since his arrest. The State Department says Gershkovich was wrongfully detained and accused of espionage simply for doing his job, reporting on the country, which he has deep ties to. His parents emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1979. One is from Donetsk, and the other, Odessa. And although he and his sister were born in the U.S., Evan was raised speaking Russian and learning the culture. His mother tells "The Wall Street Journal" she has hope he will be returned to them, but she does understand how precarious his situation is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLA MILMAN, MOTHER OF JAILED WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER: It's what's one of the American qualities, that we absorbed, be optimistic. Believe in happy -- happy ending. And that's where we stand right now.

But I am not stupid. I understand what's involved. But that's what I choose to believe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Russian officials now say they may reduce the number of U.S. journalists allowed to work in Russia. Gershkovich's sister says Evan's intention was simply to paint an accurate and fair picture of Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIELLE GERSHKOVICH, SISTER OF JAILED WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER: We're so different. I'm a home body. He's a thrill seeker and adventurer. I can't even relate to him sometimes in the life he leads as a reporter.

I think the America reports on Russia sometimes in a way that makes it seem like a pretty terrifying, cold place. He was really passionate about showing other sides fresh of the nuance and the beauty of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You can see how heartbroken the family is.

But the Russian officials saying they're going to probably lower the amount of journalists from outside the country - of the country, and the Russian deputy foreign minister says no discussion of a possible prisoner exchange could happen until after Gershkovich's trial. Both Gershkovich and "The Wall Street Journal" vehemently deny any accusations of espionage.

You can see the full interview with his parents at wsj.com.

John.

BERMAN: Got to get him home, Sara.

New developments this morning in Ukraine. Video just released from Bakhmut shows the scope of the devastation. That eastern city remains the center of some of the heaviest fighting there.

We're also getting a look at the fight from the Russian side. This video reportedly shows Russian operations in Bakhmut. Ukrainian military leaders tell CNN Russia has suffered major losses while trying to take the city.

Now, this comes as leaked documents, obtained by "The Washington Post," show Russian clandestine special forces have been decimated in this war.

[09:25:02]

The commando units, their commando units, have been put alongside the infantry and have had huge numbers of dead and wounded.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh joins us now with much more on this.

And, Nick, if you read "The Washington Post" reporting, it suggests that these commando units were sent in much earlier, and in much greater numbers, than they probably should have been and have suffered major losses that just aren't available now.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Essentially used as part of the waves of initial assault where Spetsnaz, the Russian name for special forces, really means special designation, they should have specific, complex tasks to assist other bigger units on the battlefield. But some of these documents show the extraordinary extent of what the U.S. intelligence has assessed to be losses. The 346 Spetsnaz Brigade, now only with 125, they assessed, of their 900 numbers still remaining.

Satellite images of another Spetsnaz base, suggesting a significant devastation to their ranks as well. None of this is particularly shockingly new because we did know that Russian special forces, elite units, have been thrown into battle at times to great significant losses, particularly around Vologda (ph) over the past few months, and other times as well, where they seem to have essentially been bid by the Russian military to show their prowess despite consistent defeats and themselves incurred significant losses. But it's the granular detail and, of course, the extraordinary aperture that U.S. intelligence has. And when it gathers intelligence like this that confirms what many had thought had been occurring, and also to the fact this information has come out and been leaked.

Now, does it change much here on the battlefield essentially? Probably not. But it will be another blow to Russia's military prestige, possibly if heard inside Russia in detail. It may impact the morale of Russian troops trying to push on here as well.

But this also shows, in this intelligence, that it will take decades, potentially, for Russia to recover from these losses. And that's just really showing you how much Moscow's capacity to project its power in the region and beyond has shrunk since they began this invasion.

John.

BERMAN: Nick Paton Walsh, in Kryvyi Rih, in southern Ukraine. Nick, thanks so much for your reporting.

Sara.

SIDNER: John, the Fort Lauderdale Airport has just reopened after that historic rainfall in south Florida, but the water is still standing in some places, as you can see in this new drone footage. The latest on recovery efforts and why it's not over for the area just yet.

Plus, inside the mind of a killer. The family of the man who murdered five people at the Louisville bank is now having his brain tested for CTE.

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