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Dominion's $1.6B Lawsuit Against Fox News Gets Underway; Immigration Officials Saw 25 Percent Spike in the Number of Crossings at U.S.-Mexico Border Last March; Southwest Airlines Experiencing Major Flight Delays Due to System Outage; War in Ukraine; Vladimir Putin Paid an Unexpected Visit to Kherson; Minneapolis City Reached Settlements for $8.8M in Two Civil Lawsuits; Interview with Plaintiff Against Minneapolis Police and Filed Civil Case Against City of Minneapolis John Pope; Interview with Attorney Representing John Pope and Civil Rights Attorney at Robins Kaplan Bob Bennett. Aired 10:30- 11a ET

Aired April 18, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:32:02]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: In Kansas City this morning, an 84-year-old man is facing two felony charges for shooting 16-year- old Ralph Yarl after the teenager mistakenly showed up at the wrong address to pick up his two brothers. Yarl has been released from the hospital and he's recovering at his home. The prosecutor says he believes there is, "A racial component to this case."

A historic trial underway in Delaware. Moments ago, a jury was selected for Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation case against Fox News. Dominion is suing Fox over false claims that its voting machines rigged the 2020 election.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: So, you're looking live at pictures on Capitol Hill. That is, well, Senator Rand Paul, but you're also going to see homeland sick -- Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. He's testifying on Capitol Hill right now about a new surge of migrants at the southern border. Take a listen to this.

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ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The annual appropriations process does not provide the flexibility to address challenges that often change sector to sector, month to month. We propose that Congress create a fund that can be spent for specific purposes when certain migrant encounter thresholds are met. This would equip our personnel with the tools they need to meet migration surges if and as they occur.

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BOLDUAN: So, that is a lot of government speak. But the issue that he is facing is urgent and growing. His comments coming as new data shows that immigration officials saw 25 percent spike in the number of crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border last month. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is watching all of this. Tracking the new numbers. Priscilla, what are the numbers showing?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, these are numbers, Kate, that the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas are following very, very closely. And the reason is because next month, they're going to see Title 42, a COVID era border restrictions expire. And what that has allowed authorities to do to this point is turned certain migrants away. They will no longer be able to do that and they expect, as a result, that they are going to see more people across the U.S.-Mexico border.

So, what they saw already last March is that numbers jumped 25 percent compared to February. Now, this is part of an upward trend that we've been seeing since December. In January and February, numbers had slowly started to creep up, and now we're there again. Now, notably what administration officials say is that they have seen a drop in certain populations that is Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans. It's important that these populations have dropped, they say, because it's some of the hardest ones they have to deal with. The reason being that there's a lot of them coming and they're very hard to turn back because we do not have relationships with those countries for removals.

Now, Mayorkas, in his testimony moments ago, mentioned a parole program that has contributed to that. That allows these migrants to apply to come to the United States instead of crossing the border unlawfully. Now, this is one of many tools that the administration is using. They are also working with countries to this -- to the south, especially in the Darien Gap, that's a treacherous jungle that spans Panama and Colombia.

[10:35:08]

And migrants have been crossing there in the hundreds of thousands, and that is a big concern because typically they are heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. And so, the administration last week signed a trilateral agreement with Panama and with Colombia to increase patrols and to arrest and prosecute smugglers. In fact, one administration official told me, "This is a game changer."

But of course, Kate, all of this is what they can do to prepare what actually happens next month remains to be seen. And frankly, a lot of what they're putting in place may also put President Biden at odds with his allies and with immigrant advocates.

BOLDUAN: Yes, but they do need a game changer when you're looking at the numbers that they're starting to see tick back up again as you've tracked them so closely. Good to see you, Priscilla. Thank you so much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: All right. This just in to CNN, Southwest Airlines says, they're experiencing major delays due to a system outage. Yes. Again, according to FlightAware, the airline is currently reporting nearly 800 delays right now. CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is here with more.

Pete, what are you learning at this hour? I'm sure passengers are majorly frustrated.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: A lot of frustration at airports across the country, Sara. We just got this from the FAA that Southwest has requested a nationwide ground stop for all of its flights, coast to coast. The FAA putting that out right now in a ground stop notice due to equipment issues, according to the FAA. We just found out about this from passengers initially and then also heard from this airline itself in a tweet saying, they were trying to restore their operation nationwide.

Right now, Southwest Airlines according to FlightAware, let me check here, we've got about 800 cancelations so far nationwide, that is 20 percent of its entire schedule. And what we see with things like this is that there is typically a domino effect. Once the house of cards starts tumbling down, then it really lasts for days, in some cases. So, we will see. We are very early in the day here, the travel day, a Tuesday, which is typically good news because it's relatively low traffic, although less we forget, we're kind of in the middle of spring break right now.

So, this is coming at a very bad time for a lot of travelers, jamming a very bad impact on an airline that's taken it on the chin when it comes to these equipment issues. Remember, Southwest canceled 17,000 flights over the Christmas holidays and in the New Year's because of equipment issues, and planes and crews were simply out of position all over the place. So, we are now seeing this happening once again. We'll see how big the impact here is, Sara. It is still very early right now.

SIDNER: I think the news that you just gave us, a nationwide ground stop may be underway for Southwest Airlines causing major problems. Pete Muntean, thank you so much live there for us from Washington.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, we'll have much more on that, I think, in the next hour.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, made an unannounced trip to Russian occupied areas of Ukraine. Why he made that visit now and what we're now learning about the state of Russia's military.

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BERMAN: Breaking overnight, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, made a surprise visit to Russian occupied parts of Ukraine. In video released by the Kremlin, Putin can be seen meeting with Russian commanders in the Kherson region. The area could be the focus of an expected Ukrainian offensive in coming months. Putin's visit came as new Russian missile attacks killed at least three Ukrainian civilians and injured several others. Ukrainian officials say that more than 100 settlements were hit with everything from artillery and mortars to cruise missiles and drones.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh live in Zaporizhzhia for us this morning. Nick, the significance of this visit, this public visit in these pictures released by Russia of Vladimir Putin to the Kherson region.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, certainly that Putin at the start of this conflict, kind of ridiculed by his critics for often meeting officials at the end of a very long table and never visiting the front line. Well, that's certainly altered and we recently -- just after he was indicted by the International Criminal Court, saw him walking around the streets of Mariupol, a Ukrainian city devastated by his country's invasion.

And now, it seems on Monday he visited part of the Kherson region that's occupied by Russia. Very much, I think, it's fair to say a place which is in the line of sights of Ukraine's forthcoming counteroffensive, maybe beginning to start now or certainly expected imminently. And I think this is a bid by the Kremlin to show he is very much on the front lines, very much still invested in this fight, and perhaps trying to boost morale in that area ahead of a likely better equipped Ukrainian onslaught.

It's important too to note one of the senior generals he seemed to have spent time talking to with there is somebody who was thought to have full not of favor but high ranking in the sort of elite paratrooping staff. And this may be a bid, perhaps, by the Kremlin to shore up support amongst the traditional army here who they want to try and use more on the front line after months of disarray over the winter, John.

BERMAN: Nick, so western officials are saying that Russia is going backwards in terms of its military and its military equipment. What exactly does that mean?

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WALSH: Yes, I mean, certainly what we've been seeing over the past months, and we saw it back at the end of last summer, old equipment being brought out of mothballing, frankly, being refurbished and taken to the front line. Now, sometimes, these are tanks that were first put into service before Vladimir Putin was even born, and he's 70. So, the T-54 models of which we saw as Ukrainian forces advanced in Kherson, they've been wheeled out.

Why? Well, because at the very big start of this war, Russia massively underestimated the need for supply change, for refueling, got a lot of its best equipment stuck up front, wasn't able to refuel it. It got jammed up and significantly damaged by significant supplies too of western anti-tank missile, from the javelins being brought to the front lines there, the NLAWs as well. They took a lot of armor out, and that's continued over time.

And so, Russia hit by sanctions, hit by, frankly, its own corrupted supply chains where a lot of stuff is taken rather than invested in weaponry is having to reach deep into its soviet era stocks to try and keep things going on the front line. That's a major problem for them in the months ahead, John.

BERMAN: Nick Paton Walsh for us live in Zaporizhzhia. Nick, stay safe. Thank you.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next, we're going to speak to one of the people involved in a recent settlement with the City of Minneapolis. The settlement over the unreasonable use of force used by officer Derek's -- former officer Derek Chauvin, years before he was convicted of murdering George Floyd, that's next.

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[10:50:00]

SIDNER: All right. The City of Minneapolis has reached settlements totaling more than $8.8 million in two civil lawsuits that accused Former Police Officer Derek Chauvin of using excessive force in two incidents. Those incidents happened nearly three years before he murdered George Floyd during an arrest using the same tactic. One of the plaintiffs, John Pope, says he was restrained on the ground with Chauvin's knee to his neck in 2017.

John Pope and his attorney, Bob Bennett, join me now to talk about this. First, I want to start with you, Mr. Pope, and thank you both so much for coming on our show. Mr. Pope, can you tell me what happened to you? What the experience for you was like when then-Officer Chauvin had his knee on your neck. What happened to you physically?

JOHN POPE, PLAINTIFF AGAINST MINNEAPOLIS POLICE AND FILED CIVIL CASE AGAINST CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS: From the point where his knee was on my neck or, like, started from the beginning?

SIDNER: From the beginning. Did you hear me? From the beginning.

POPE: Oh, from the beginning. OK. Well, from the beginning, you know, I just wanted to -- it wasn't snow -- I don't believe it was Chauvin at first, but I think it was his partner at first, and I was just trying to explain the situation. And it seems from his perspective, he wasn't trying to hear it. He was just trying to go about it his way.

And from that point on, somebody rushed towards me and started to hit me, choke me, and then -- kind of, commotions going on. And then, I remember me passing out and then coming to him on his knee on my neck and me pleading to him to move his knee down to my lower back because I couldn't breathe at that point.

SIDNER: Wow. That must have been terrifying. Did you fear for your life at that moment? You were already unconscious, at one point. You had been hit. And now, you're lying there with a knee in your neck.

POPE: Yes, I did. And, you know, I was several points to the encounter then. I didn't, you know, want to ride with him or be with him no more and asked for a different officer and those requests wasn't -- I mean, it wasn't abided by -- it was denied.

SIDNER: OK. Let me now talk to you about the other victim in this case. I know that Zoya Code reached a settlement along with you. Two years ago, I was able to speak to her on the streets of Minneapolis during the protests that were going on there. And she had told police about Chauvin's behavior and nothing was done. Let's listen to what she said to the crowd.

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ZOYA CODE, ARREST BY DEREK CHAUVIN IN 2017: My name's Zoya Code.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let them know.

CODE: And I'm all I got.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CODE: And you will not take my life. Like I told you, they will not take my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You hear her screaming, they will not take my life, but she too thought that her life was under threat. Did you as well make a complaint to police before all of this happened to let them know what -- how you have been treated?

POPE: I -- the only time I brought it up was to the supervisor when he was right there in front of me talking to me.

BOB BENNETT, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING JOHN POPE AND CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY AT ROBINS KAPLAN: At the hospital?

POPE: At the hospital. I did request their badge numbers at one point. But he's -- they said they'll give it to me, but they never did.

SIDNER: All right. We know what unfolded with Former Officer Derek Chauvin in the case of George Floyd. We watched that happen in real time live, and then we watched it during the trial, and I was there for all of it. Mr. Bennett, you said the problem far exceeds what Mr. Chauvin was doing. Can you tell us what this settlement means for the City of Minneapolis, but more importantly for the citizens of Minneapolis?

BENNETT: Well, first of all -- thanks for having us. The -- what I meant by that was that these 2017 incidents which involved other officers and then -- and in John's case up to, you know, a dozen other officers at given points in time -- show that the problems with the Minneapolis police are cultural and systemic.

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And -- that the -- Chauvin felt very comfortable doing what he was doing, which is clearly criminal and unconstitutional in the presence of these officers who didn't do anything. They didn't intervene. They didn't report him. They didn't do anything.

And that was true in all three incidents. And I think it shouldn't make the citizens of Minneapolis think that the, you know, a few bad apples theory is -- it is not really the case. It's this -- it's a systemic cultural thing within the department that is insidious and has been for years.

SIDNER: Mr. Bennett and Mr. Pope, thank you so much for coming on and explaining your story. And I'm sorry for what you went through Mr. Pope. Appreciate it.

John.

BOLDUAN: I'll take it.

SIDNER: OK.

BOLDUAN: The Supreme Court could rule today on the fate and future of a key abortion medication. The decision could impact millions of people across the country. We're live outside the Supreme Court, next.

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