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Ukraine: Forces Spared Life of Russian Soldier Who Surrendered During Drone Operation; Grand Jury Indicts Man in Subway Chokehold Death; Justices Uphold Native American Adoption Law. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 15, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:39]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Counteroffensive results, Ukraine says it's begun liberating territory as officials released video reportedly showing a Russian soldier surrendering. We have the latest for you straight from the front lines.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Plus, a Marine veteran charged with choking a man to death on a New York City subway has been formally indicted. We'll talk about what is next for Daniel Penny. We're following these stories and more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We are learning new details today after The Wall Street Journal published this incredible video, which shows a Russian soldier on the battlefield in the eastern city of Bakhmut. He's running from a Ukrainian drone and then finally using his hands to surrender. CNN has now confirmed that Ukrainian forces spared his life after the commander says he "threw his machine gun aside, raised his hands and said he would not continue to fight."

CNN is also getting an exclusive look at the work of Ukrainian Special Forces and specifically how they're using night vision.

CNN Sam Kiley joins us now from Kyiv with that exclusive reporting.

Sam, what's the latest from Ukraine?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, striking isn't it, how terrifying it is to be on the front line? Well just imagine what it might be and this is deliberate from the Ukrainian perspective to be a Russian officer on the front line because they are being picked out and picked off.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language).

KILEY (voice over): A Special Forces' night operation, the objective, to bring a special kind of misery to Russian troops. As they arrived alongside Ukrainian regulars, the Russians attacked. A night vision recording of a routine assault that the Special Forces needed to shrug off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY (on camera): How long did you spend under fire like this before you could move?

BRABUS, UKRAINIAN INTELLIGENCE SPECIAL OPS: The attack lasted about half an hour.

KILEY: And then what did you do?

BRABUS: After that, we took up an observation position and watched them - we got to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY (voice over): Electronic surveillance pinpointed their victims. First, they killed two paratroopers approaching on their left flank to get to the group's main targets, Russian commanders near Bakhmut. A sterile record of an all too gritty event in March. First, one officer is shot, then another down.

He says, Radio intercepts revealed that the Russians lost two officers and five others to their sniper team that night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRABUS: The result of our operation was the demoralization of the Russian airborne unit because they lost their top leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY (on camera): Formed when Russia invaded Ukraine last year, this team of experienced veterans works in a secret realm under the intelligence services. They're tasked with tactical work seeking strategic effect as Ukraine's counteroffensive takes shape.

[15:05:06]

Here, using a modified heavy machine gun in a hidden bunker last month close to Bakhmut.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are spot on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY (voice over): Drone operators more than a mile away are directing Brabus onto Russian troops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY (on camera): How many Russians have you killed in this war?

BRABUS: A lot of. A lot of. A lot of - for example, here's, a lot of Russians.

KILEY: Okay. And this is when you're on with this gun? How many more or less there?

BRABUS: I don't know. We didn't calculate in this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KILEY (voice over): It's the Russians they want to do the counting because Ukraine's best hope is that Russian troops run rather than fight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (on camera): Now, Boris, since the beginning of the campaign, the Ukrainians have targeted very senior elements within the Russian leadership. We have also seen very serious breakdown squabbles and anarchy around Bakhmut, the sort of thing that that kind of special operations mission is trying to provoke. And all of this going on at a time when the Ukrainians are getting a little bit more momentum going around Bakhmut and beginning their counter offensive in earnest, I think, in the southeast of the country. That is much, much tougher going, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Sam Kiley, reporting live from Kyiv, thank you. Brianna?

KEILAR: So today the Trump campaign announced a major fundraising haul, a huge $7 million alone since the indictment last week. This is news that is coming as Judge Aileen Cannon just issued one of her first orders in this case.

We have Paula Reid with us on this story. Paula, tell us what you've learned here?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's the first time we're hearing from Judge Cannon since former President Trump entered his not guilty plea through his lawyer in this case. And here she is setting a scheduling deadline for the lawyers to try to get their clearances in place, right?

This is a national security case, they have to have a proper clearances. And this is something that the Justice Department can actually help to expedite. But first, of course, former President Trump has to finalize his legal team.

And we know that Judge Cannon she's under enormous scrutiny, right? She was appointed by former President Trump. Her one decision in a matter related to this case was heavily criticized and eventually overturned.

And what's interesting about this is scheduling, right? This is two days after the arraignment and she's giving them five days to give her an update. That's a pretty swift pace and pacing, scheduling.

While it sounds so in the weeds, it really is one of the ways that she can influence this case. Because one of the key tensions here is timing and the speed with which this is going to proceed. Jack Smith has said he wants a speedy trial.

But we know former President Trump has every incentive to try to drag this out. And the speed with which she schedules hearings, files for orders, that's one way this can be delayed. But look, Trump he has some tricks too, right? If he takes too long to potentially select his lawyers, that can drag this out a little bit.

And Brianna, normally I would say, look, this is really in the weeds. This is highly technical. But these little decisions can impact the timing of this case and the timing of this case could have enormous implications for this country, depending if it goes before or after the election.

KEILAR: That's right. And we talked to legal experts and they're kind of split, right?

REID: Yes.

KEILAR: Some of them say this trial will happen before the election. Some say this may stretch out until after. The point is though the judge is the one\, right, who's going to decide that.

REID: Yes. Exactly. She gives a lot of leeway and there's not a lot of oversight. If she makes a decision on a motion or a piece of evidence, that's something that could potentially be overturned. But no one's going to overturn, right, her scheduling.

So here's she's moving quickly. But Trump can try to drag this out depending on how long it takes him to finally get a lawyer or two.

KEILAR: Yeah. We'll see how long it does take.

Paula, thank you for that. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Another major story we're following today, the Manhattan DA confirm today that the man in this image has been indicted by a grand jury. Sources say that Daniel Penny scene here executing a chokehold is now facing a second-degree manslaughter charge for the death of Jordan Neely, who's 30 years old.

Witness to say that nearly got onto the New York subway on May 1st, yelling at passengers that he was hungry, thirsty and that he did not care if he died. Penny said he feared for himself and others safety and put him in the chokehold to restrain Neely.

Let's get some legal perspective now with civil rights attorney, Areva Martin.

Areva, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us.

So second degree manslaughter charges. What is the significance there?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we knew these charges were coming, Boris. We knew that after Jordan knew he was put in that chokehold on at subway. After he died, there's massive protests in Manhattan around the district attorney's office initial unwillingness to arrest Daniel Perry.

[15:10:02]

But now, the indictment has been issued and second-degree manslaughter is about the reckless causing of the death of another person.

This is going to be an interesting case because we have witnesses on that Subway that said Jordan Neely may have been aggressive, but he wasn't aggressive towards any individual and that he didn't threaten any particular individual. So it's going to be interesting to see how the defendant in this case tries to build a defense in light of that anticipated testimony.

SANCHEZ: And Areva, would you say that much of the case then relies on this witness testimony about the degree of threat that passengers on the train felt?

MARTIN: I think it's going to be a combination of things, Boris. Obviously, the eyewitness testimony of those witnesses, but also we know there's a video. There was a journalist that was on the subway at the time and actually recorded the incident that happened, the altercation that happened, the conduct of Jordan Neely at some point before he was actually put in that chokehold and during some of the time period that he was apparently in the chokehold.

So investigators are going to have to pour through which they've already done in terms of getting this indictment, but I think that videotape, along with that eye witness testimony, they're going to be critical pieces of evidence in the trial.

SANCHEZ: Another key question, Areva, is the amount of time that Penny appears to keep Neely in a chokehold even after it seems that Neely have - has stopped moving and appears to be unconscious. Penny denies that he held on to that chokehold for too long.

In fact, he said so in a statement released by his attorneys. Here's a portion of that now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL PENNY, HELD SUBWAY RIDER IN FATAL CHOKEHOLD: Some people say I was trying to choke him to death, which is also not true. I was trying to restrain him. You can see in the video there's a clear rise and fall of his chest, indicating that he's breathing. I'm trying to restrain him from him being able to carry out the threats.

You can see in the video, there's a clear rise and fall of his chest indicating that he was still breathing. And I'm calibrating my grip based on the force that he's exerting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Your reaction to that statement, Areva?

MARTIN: Yes, Boris. That was a remarkable action on the part of Daniel Penny. His lawyers know that these criminal charge - this criminal indictment was likely to be handed down. And to have him issue that video statement giving that detailed analysis of what happened seems a little odd to me as a lawyer thinking about the fact that anything that is said by a defendant can be used against them in a courtroom, wouldn't expect a lawyer to allow him to make such a statement.

But in any event, that statement doesn't in any way absolve him of responsibility. We're going to have to learn more about this so called threat that Jordan Neely posed to the individuals on that train. Why didn't Daniel Penny just get up and walk to another compartment on the train? Why didn't he try to alert the authorities.

There's so many things that he could have done, other than place Jordan Neely in this chokehold. Other passengers obviously didn't feel the same level of threat that he allegedly said he felt. So lots of unanswered questions and, no, that videotape does not, in any way, suggest that he will not be found guilty of these charges.

SANCHEZ: A lot of questions and a lot of eyes on this case.

Areva Martin, we hope you'll come back to give us your analysis as it goes on.

MARTIN: Absolutely, Boris. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Brianna?

KEILAR: Coming up this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, the Supreme Court releasing a flurry of decisions today one concerning tribal adoptions and another on whether a defendant can be retried. But some major decisions, they still remain and we're going to have details on those.

Plus, it's not every day the suspect on the wrong end of a traffic stop is an officer themselves fleeing in their own police cruiser.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am going in to work, my man. Why are you trying to pull me over as I'm going to work?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you're 80 in 45.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going in to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over a hundred miles an hour, we're trying to catch up (inaudible) ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, you've got to hear how this one went down.

And NASA is calling it a quote potentially hazardous object and it's going to pass by Earth today. What we know about an asteroid the size of the Brooklyn Bridge.

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[15:18:45]

KEILAR: It's that time of the year, the end of the school year, know also Supreme Court watch and we're bracing for some key decisions ahead and we just got some new ones today. The justice is left intact a policy that prioritizes the placement of Native American children with Native families or tribes during child custody proceedings. The legal challenges were brought by several adoptive parents.

We have CNN Justice Correspondent, Jessica Schneider, joining us live on this. Tell us what happened today on this.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, three cases today, two of them particularly notable. The first one about these non Native American families who are challenging this law because they wanted to adopt several Native American children. This is a law that's been in place since the 1970s, but the today upholding that law in a seven-two decision actually written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Notably, she has two adopted children of her own from Haiti.

But this law was enacted back in the 1970s to really maintain tribal sovereignty. It was too often happening that Native American children were being relocated away from tribal families to white or non-Native American families.

So this law was put in place to really prioritize Native American families in the adoption and foster care proceedings.

[15:20:03]

And Justice Gorsuch, he wrote a concurring opinion on this. He's been long a supporter of Native American rights. He grew up out west, so he wrote this. He said, "The statute Congress settled upon contains various provisions aimed at addressing this crisis. At bottom, though, the law's operation is simple. It installs substantive and procedural guardrails against the unjustified termination of parental rights and removal of Indian children from tribal life."

So the Supreme Court today, upholding that law rejecting the families who are challenging this law, so definitely a loss for those families who are hoping to adopt Native American children but upholding this law that's been around since 1978.

KEILAR: Yes, really interesting. And they're not finished with this term. What else is ahead?

SCHNEIDER: Yes. So we are in the final stretch here, Brianna. We have about two weeks remaining. They usually wrap up the term by the end of June, the beginning of July. So really, we're looking at three major cases that remain.

The first of which is affirmative action. We're waiting to see if the Supreme Court strikes down the practice of affirmative action that has been in place for more than four decades. Whether or not colleges and universities can consider race as one factor in the admissions process, it is quite possible that the conservative justices will strike down this policy, this will drastically change how colleges admit students.

Then we're looking for a decision in Biden's student loan forgiveness program. This was something that he and his administration tried to enact. They've been blocked so far by the lower courts. It would basically give millions of student loan borrowers up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness.

So a lot of student loan borrowers are sitting at the edge of their seat waiting to see what happens here. Based on what we saw at oral arguments, these justices are not happy saying that maybe Biden and his administration didn't have the power to enact this program, so we'll see probably in the coming days what's going to happen.

And then finally, a big case on gay rights as well. A wedding website designer in Colorado is saying that her free speech would be violated if she was forced to make wedding websites for same sex couples, so the justices will rule on that.

The question is how far will the court go here. If they say that creative business owners like website designers or maybe artists or bakers, that they don't have to service same sex couples, how far would that go and allowing businesses maybe to discriminate or not serve certain people, not only same sex couples, but maybe people of different racial backgrounds or religious backgrounds. It opens up a huge can of worms that a lot of people are concerned about.

KEILAR: Yes, really interesting.

Every decision they make is big ...

SCHNEIDER: Yes.

KEILAR: But it does sometimes feel like they dropped the mic on the way out the door with some of these big decisions.

SCHNEIDER: They usually do, those final days.

KEILAR: We'll be looking for these.

SCHNEIDER: Yes.

KEILAR: Jessica Schneider, thank you. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Another name has been added to the already long list of 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls.

Miami Mayor, Francis Suarez officially launching his White House bid today. He's now the first Hispanic-American to enter the race, but the third Republican candidate from Florida. CNN's Jessica Dean is here to break this all down for us. Jessica, he's running for president and he's running in his campaign launch ad as well.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He's literally running ...

SANCHEZ: Right. DEAN: ... for president, Boris. If you watch his campaign launch ad,

which he put out today, you see him jogging through the streets of Miami, where he's now been reelected mayor for his second term really making the case that because of what he's done there in Miami that he should be President of the United States, that he should win the GOP nomination take on President Biden in the 2024 race.

It is interesting that Florida is over indexing, it seems, on their - the people who are entering the race who live in Florida. Of course, Gov. Ron DeSantis and former president, Donald Trump, both live there as well.

And Suarez has been at odds with both of them individually on different subjects over time. We do expect to hear from him later today at the Reagan Library out in California. That is, of course, a place where a lot of the Republican candidates like to go and he will be giving a big speech. We are going to hear more.

But he is getting in a little bit later than everyone else, obviously. And we know that this first debate is set for August 23rd, not that far away and that the RNC has set terms and benchmarks that these candidates have to clear to get on that stage.

And when you're someone like Mayor Suarez, who - well, he was the president of the bipartisan conference on mayors, which does introduce him to a lot of people across the country in that world, you still need to get that name ID up. So he needs to be on that stage and he's going to have to work really hard to make sure he gets there.

SANCHEZ: Donations and support and turning on polling and so far not there quite yet.

DEAN: Right.

SANCHEZ: Jessica Dean, thank you so much.

DEAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

KEILAR: Coming up, another taxpayer funded bus of migrants has arrived in California from a Republican state. What the White House and Homeland Security officials are doing about it.

[15:25:01]

Plus, an officer this time charged with fleeing a traffic stop. We'll show you what happened here.

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[15:29:53]

SANCHEZ: More migrants have been shuttled from a Republican-led border state to a Democratic-led city. Last night, a bus carrying migrants from Texas arrived in Los Angeles. The trip was directed by Texas governor, Greg Abbott.