Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Accused Pentagon Leaker Expected to Appear in Court; Production on Movie "Rust" Will Resume Tomorrow; Interview with Entertainment Trail Lawyer Joseph Costa; In Southern India, Fireworks Warehouse Catches Fire and Explodes; Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Visits Sweden to Coordinate New Ukraine Aid; Russia Carried Out 60 Airstrikes in Ukraine in the Last 24 Hours; Legislators Looking into Treatment of Lone Migrant Children. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 19, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: After a lot of back and forth, next hour, the Air National Guardsman, accused of leaking classified documents, will appear before a judge. Jack Teixeira will be in court in order to confirm that he wants to waive his right to a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors and defense lawyers jointly requested that the hearing today be delayed for two weeks, saying that Teixeira's attorneys need more time to prepare. Now, preliminary hearings are used to show that there is enough evidence that exists to charge someone, and it is not uncommon for those accused to waive this right.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The filming of Alec Baldwin's western "Rust" is expected to resume tomorrow. It comes after a year -- more than a year after the film cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on set.

CNN's Chloe Melas is joining us now. Chloe, I got to ask you. Why resume shooting on this film? I mean, everybody has to still be traumatized.

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Of course. I mean, such a terrible tragedy took place with the loss of life and the director, Joel Souza, being injured. All of this happening while a criminal trial is looming, expected to start this summer. So, here is what we know, Alec Baldwin will be headed to Yellowstone Ranch in Montana, where others will also be there to finish the movie.

You ask why? It's part of a settlement. There was a wrongful death, a civil suit between Halyna Hutchins' family, her widower, Matthew Hutchins, against Alec Baldwin and the production of "Rust". They announced the settlement saying, as part of this undisclosed amount of money that we've settled on, we're going to go back and we're going to finish the movie to provide profits from this film when it's done upon completion to Matthew, his son, and you know, to help this family that broke apart with this awful tragedy with their mom, their wife, Halyna Hutchins, who was the cinematographer on this film.

Now, when I sat down with Alec Baldwin last summer, I asked him, you know if he wanted to go back and film. And it's an emotional situation for everyone, but it comes down to trying to do right by the family.

SIDNER: Right. Went through a lot. You did mention it's now being shot in Montana moved from New Mexico, correct?

MELAS: So, it was originally filmed at Bonanza Creek Ranch.

SIDNER: Right.

MELAS: It's a famous place --

SIDNER: Yes.

MELAS: -- where lots of westerns and Hollywood pictures have been made there.

SIDNER: Yes.

MELAS: But obviously, for reasons that have happened, it's a crime scene still. You know, the situation, they had to move it over to Montana. And, you know, many people are wondering what are the next steps in the criminal trial?

SIDNER: Right.

MELAS: There is a preliminary hearing on May 3rd. And we know that Dave Halls, the assistant director who, you know, Alec Baldwin maintains handed him the gun and said cold gun meaning that there were no rounds of live ammunition and there weren't supposed to be any live rounds of ammunition on the set in the first place.

SIDNER: Right.

MELAS: No one has explained how those bullets got there. But that is expected to begin. Dave Halls took a plea deal. Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who was the armorer on the film, Sara, she will not be back to film at Yellowstone. So, you won't see her there.

SIDNER: OK. Chloe Melas, thank you for all of that information.

We are going to go now to entertainment trial lawyer Joseph Costa. Mr. Costa, thank you so much for being here. We don't know the details of the settlement that a judge sealed from public view in this case. Why is that?

JOSEPH COSTA, ENTERTAINMENT TRIAL LAWYER: Good morning, Sara. It's a -- the reason the judge sealed it is because the beneficiary of that settlement is the minor son. So, what the court does is it weighs the interests -- the privacy interests of the minor son and against the public interest in having this information available.

[10:35:00] And they, you know, the court ruled that the interests of the son, the privacy interest of the minor child would prevail, and that's why it was sealed. So, right now, nobody is going to know what that settlement says. There will be hearings related to that settlement, they will all be sealed. And that is primarily to protect the privacy interests of the child who is going to be a beneficiary of that settlement.

SIDNER: You know, I'm curious because having a civil settlement before there is a criminal trial in this case, you have two people, Alec Baldwin and the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who were both charged with involuntary manslaughter. How will the wording of that settlement? Will it play into the criminal side of things? Is there any potential admission of guilt or anything in that settlement that might have an effect?

COSTA: Yes, it's interesting that you bring that up, Sara, because that is what the D.A.'s office was arguing. They wanted to see a copy of that settlement agreement, as did some other defendants, because they thought that it can have an impact on the criminal trial. In reality, it's pretty common to put into civil settlement agreements that there's no admission of fault. That's a standard provision that you're going to see in most of those agreements.

But there are other things that could be relevant. There could be issues in terms of are they buying silence in that or cooperation in that agreement? Are they, somehow, motivating witnesses to take different positions at trial? And that's probably why the district attorney's office was so interested in obtaining a copy of it.

SIDNER: Joseph Costa, I know they asked this question to Chloe, but I am interested in your take on the resuming of this film, I guess part of -- we do know that that part of the settlement was sort of put out there. What is your take on that?

COSTA: You know, that's a -- again, that's a really unique situation. So, we don't have -- fortunately, you know -- unfortunately, this has happened before. Fortunately, it hasn't happened on a regular basis where there are fatalities on the -- on Hollywood sets.

The last time that happened was in a -- on a movie called "Midnight Rider", it was a biopic of Gregg Allman. And the director went to jail and plead guilty because of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Sarah Jones. There, there was an outrage when they talked about resuming filming. There were Facebook campaigns that talked about how they didn't want to resume filming. Gregg Allman sued the picture to prevent them from resuming filming.

Here, it's -- what's interesting is now you have Matthew, the widower of Halyna Hutchins, and he is supporting this. He is now an executive producer. And I think at the heart of this, they want to pay a tribute to Halyna Hutchins. They want to see the work get finished. This is her last work and there is definitely a financial component to this --

SIDNER: Of course. COSTA: -- where there is a real strong likelihood that the profits that are going to be made from this film are going to benefit the family of Halyna, her husband and her son.

SIDNER: And Joseph, the -- that really does change the tone and tenor of going forward with this film because the family of the deceased wants it. Thank you so much for bringing your expertise to us this morning.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: A federal watchdog raising concerns about the release of unaccompanied migrant children. This after multiple ports of migrant children being turned over to sponsors who funneled the kids into dangerous jobs.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Sweden right now to coordinate fresh aid to Ukraine, and it comes as the war-torn country is getting a new round of weapon shipments from other allies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

BOLDUAN: The Sudanese paramilitary has agreed to a new 24-hour ceasefire as fighting rages across the country. It would begin just over an hour from now if the other side, the Sudanese army, agrees to it. The last ceasefire, though, was broken almost immediately after it's set in. Almost 300, people have been killed so far. And now, Doctors Without Borders say, half of the hospitals in the country's capital are out of action. That's because staff don't feel safe enough to show up or the hospitals themselves have been targeted by shellings and bombings.

North Korean Leader, Kim Jong-un, has ordered officials to prepare to launch the country's first military reconnaissance satellite, that's according to state media. Last December, North Korea claimed that it conducted what it called an important final stage test for the development of a spy satellite. And now, the country's leader says production has been completed.

And take a look at these images out of Southern India.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Officials there are safe (ph). A fireworks warehouse erupted into flames after an electrical fire. Amazingly, when you see that explosion no one was hurt, but the explosion clearly -- I mean, that's insane. The fire is now under control.

John.

[10:45:00]

BERMAN: A particularly bad place for a fire, it seems Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, John.

BERMAN: At this hour, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Sweden as part of a new effort to coordinate fresh aid to Ukraine. He just took part of a -- took part in a demonstration of the Swedish Armed Forces military capabilities. This visit comes as Ukraine receives new aid from European allies, including a Patriot defense system from Germany and six leopard, two tanks from Spain.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is live in Eastern Ukraine. Ben, these weapons, what kind of a difference will they make on the battlefield?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in and of themselves not enough, really. I mean, with what would we've been seeing over the last few months is that steadily more weaponry, advanced weaponry is arriving from Ukraine's western backers. And the anticipation is this is in preparation for the much-awaited spring Ukrainian offensive.

Now, we heard from the deputy defense minister here in Ukraine today that they're not going to make public any timetable. They want to keep it completely secret. But the goal of that counteroffensive, she said, will be the total liberation of all territories currently occupied by Russian forces. John.

BERMAN: And that would include, in their minds, the east as well as Crimea. Ben, I understand there's been, what, 60 airstrikes from Russia in the last 24 hours. Does this mark some kind of new effort by the Russians?

WEDEMAN: Well, these 60 airstrikes were focused very much in the eastern part of the country, and particularly around Bakhmut. Now, we were in the area of Bakhmut yesterday where we saw several air defense positions. The Ukrainians are using air defense weapons that date back to the 1970s. That's why it's so important for them to get, for instance, these Patriot anti-missile systems.

Now, it certainly does appear that the Russians are trying desperately to take the rest of Bakhmut. They currently control, perhaps, 65 to 70 percent of the city. Now, we heard also from the deputy defense minister that the Russian casualties are several times those of the Ukrainians. But it appears that at the tail end of the Russian winter offensive, they are desperate to take back Bakhmut so they can show the Russian public, I assume, that all of this loss of material and manpower was for something. John.

BERMAN: It has been enormously costly for them on both of those fronts. Ben Wedeman in Eastern Ukraine, please, to you and your team, stay safe.

Sara.

SIDNER: Coming up, John, a federal watchdog sounding the alarm about the release of unaccompanied migrant children who had been in HHS custody. Why the issue is taking on new urgency, that's ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BERMAN: An amazing update, a wonderful update on the Kansas City teen shot after he accidentally went to the wrong address to pick up his little brothers, that picture right there is Ralph Yarl with his attorney, Lee Merritt, you can see them sitting on a park bench. The picture was just posted on Merritt's Instagram page. Ralph Yarl, the 16-year-old suffered a traumatic brain injury during the shooting. He is expected to recover. The Instagram post also mentioned that Ralph spoke with both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

That is a wonderful sight to see considering, Kate, that young man was shot twice.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it is -- it's remarkable to see and wonderful to see.

A federal watchdog is, right now, raising fresh concerns about the release of unaccompanied migrant children in the United States. Health and Human Services Inspector General, Christi Grimm, appeared before House lawmakers, Tuesday, amid reports that migrant children are being funneled into the custody of dangerous people and forced labor.

And that warnings from federal employees to their supervisors that this was happening. Those warnings were ignored, according to reports. So, this morning, the secretary of homeland security could face some tough questions about this very thing as he's testifying before House lawmakers.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is live in Washington. She's joining us now. You've got some fresh reporting on this, Priscilla. What is this inspector general over at HHS saying about what really is troubling reports.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, she's saying that they also identified concerns about the speedy release of children who were in HHS custody and that some staff were reticent to flag any concerns because of fear of retaliation.

Now, Kate, just to take a step back here, we are talking about unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone. After they are arrested and taken into custody by border patrol, they are then turned over to the custody of Health and Human Services Department, which then tries to locate a sponsor that could be a relative at times or family friend that they have vetted to then turn them over to those sponsors as they continue their immigration proceedings.

Now, what they have found and what media reports have shown is that during the 2021 surge that stressed the systems for all of this, some of these kids were released to people who then funnel them into dangerous jobs.

[10:55:00] But Kate, it's important to know that this is a complicated issue. And often time after I've spoken with immigrant advocates and case managers, some of these kids feel tremendous pressure, too, to contribute to the homes that they're going to, and also to pay off smugglers. So, all of this is part of what the White House is focused on as they, too, crack down with the Department of Labor and with the Health and Human Services to avoid any of this happening in the future. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Priscilla, thank you for continuing this great reporting. Really appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Minutes from now, the alleged Pentagon leaker expected to appear in court. 21-year-old air national guardsman accused of leaking classified documents on social media remains behind bars while he is awaiting trial. We'll have more on that just ahead.

Plus, as loved one's search for answers, police are set to update their investigation into the deadly shooting at a sweet 16 party in Dadeville, Alabama. We'll go there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]