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Judge's Order Bars Trump Disclosure Of Specific Evidence Given To His Attorneys In Documents Case; WAPO: FBI Resisted Opening Probe Into Trump's Role In Jan. 6 For More Than A Year; Secy. Blinken Meets With Chinese President Xi. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 19, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Nearly two dozen others injured after a large tornado touchdown in Mississippi, and the threat of severe weather not over yet. This is CNN News Central.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: And we begin this hour with new developments in the federal indictment against former President Trump. A magistrate judge has ruled that Trump cannot reveal details about information that was given to his attorneys during the discovery phase. And is Katelyn Polantz live in Washington with details. So Katelyn, what more are we learning about this order?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN JUSTICE AND CRIME REPORTER: Well, Rahel what we have here is a procedural thing. But it is one of those early things that happens for a criminal defendant, in this case, Donald Trump, where the criminal defendant has to follow the judge's rules. So the rules we have now it's called a protective order. This sort of order is something that tells a criminal defendant, their lawyers, and any witnesses and their lawyers that they might be talking to, in preparation for a trial, that they just can't share evidence that the Justice Department turns over.

So the Justice Department is going to turn over all the evidence that they've collected for Trump to go to trial so that they can prepare, and he just can't share it. Trump can't share it, his lawyers can't share it. Witnesses they're talking to also won't be able to share it. Specifically, he's not going to be able to keep copies of it, even notes that Trump were to make about the information handed over -- the evidence and handed over, that has to stay in the hands of his lawyers really locked down.

On top of that, the order specifically says that none of this evidence can be shared with the public or the press. And it can't be shared on social media either crucially. And so this means two things in the course of this case, this is moving fast. They already have this protective order in place. The Justice Department is going to be turning stuff over already pretty quickly. And this was an order that the Trump team and the Justice Department didn't have to fight over. So that's how the case has already started.

And then on top of that, it is of course, Rahel, a reminder that Donald Trump is going to have to follow what the judges say in this case, as he heads to trial, a really crucial thing, especially on top of those regulations. He has not to be talking to any witnesses that the Justice Department identifies to him about the details of the case.

SOLOMON: Absolutely crucial as you point out. Katelyn Polantz really setting some parameters around what he can and cannot say and can and cannot do. Katelyn Polantz, live for us there. Thank you, John.

BERMAN: All right, new reporting out just this morning, a "Washington Post" investigation finds the Justice Department existed, investigating former President Donald Trump and those in his inner circle for their roles leading up to January 6th. "The Post" report of the FBI resisted opening a probe into Trump for more than a year. With us now is former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe and CNN political commentator, Errol Louis. And Andy, I want to start with this article here, which is very long. I mean, I'm holding it in my hands right now is many, many pages long. I've been trying to digest it over the last several minutes.

The gist of it seems to be that there was reluctance with injustice and within the FBI proper to investigate Trump and his inner circle. They were working from the bottom up the people who were there on January 6th, at the Capitol, but they did not want to, at least for a long time, start from the top down and say, hey, what was the former president's role in this? The people around him that day, did they have any responsibility? What do you make of this?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, there's a couple of things I think are worth pointing out. The first is the article does not allege that there was resistance at the part of the investigators, right? So it's not that there was some sort of backlash from FBI investigators who are unwilling to move forward with their U.S. Attorney's office colleagues investigate, the opposite is true. They were readied following whatever direction they were given.

The reluctance or reticence to focus on the highest levels of this conspiracy was clearly coming from the highest levels of the Justice Department to include the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General and, of course, the FBI to include Director Wray and his deputy director.

You know, John, this article resonates so powerfully with me because not only from my own experiences in navigating the FBI through a very politically charged set of investigations in 2016, but also because this article if accurate, and have we have no reason to believe otherwise, clearly shows what happens when you subject institutions like the FBI and the Department of Justice to relentless, baseless political attacks.

What happens is the threshold for taking action in any individual case that involves political people begins to rise. And you see a, you know, people who are in decision making positions be become more and more and more wary of making decisions that might provoke the ire of the politically powerful and that could move the FBI further away from doing its job in a timely and effective manner. I think that's the allegation in the article here. And many of the facts that it brings up are really concerning along those lines.

[11:05:22]

BERMAN: You know, Errol, there was a time during the January 6th hearings, the Congressional January 6th hearings, when all these facts were coming out before the American people in the public hearings, were there were those who are asking, well, wait a second here. Why is this only being learned now by this congressional committee investigation? Isn't this the type of thing that illegal investigation should have been unearthing over the last 12 months? This answer is that to an extent.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, absolutely. And they did it, apparently, along the lines of an organized crime investigation, you find a low level offenders that everybody saw on television, putting their feet up on the speaker of the house's office or, you know, otherwise ransacking the Capitol, and you get them to flip and you move up slowly, slowly up the chain. It's a detailed investigation, in part because of what we have seen, which are these -- there's a lot of this loose talk on the campaign trail, people saying defund the FBI. It's all the deep state.

There -- it was all politically motivated. Certainly the former president has said that over and over and over again. Well, you know, the way you count, the way you counter those kinds of broad baseless attacks, is with specific details. And it's really sort of a tribute, I think, to the Justice Department. If assuming all of this is true, that they really took their time they were painstaking they weren't going to be driven by the political calendar and political considerations.

BERMAN: It seems to be the insinuation here, at least that to a fault they took their time to a fault. They were careful to a fault. And Andy to that point, one of the things that Donald Trump and his allies suggest is that he is treated differently than other people by the legal system. But this may be another example if this article is correct that, yes, he was treated differently, because he wasn't investigated as clearly and harshly and as quickly as others might have been.

MCCABE: That's absolutely right. So let me let me address the first part. And having spent the entirety of the first half of my career doing nothing but organized crime investigations, I know full well, that although this is typically that's the that's the description of investigations like this, oh, it's unlike an organized crime case, you start at the bottom and work your way up. And that's true to a certain extent. It's easier to find witnesses in an organized crime case for lower level offenders.

But you don't just target lower level people. You also go after the head of the family with things like electronic surveillance and aggressive investigative measures. And you come after that target from both directions. What is alleged in the article is that was not done here. In fact, they deliberately avoided targeting people in the former president's orbit for fear of acting too quickly and possibly provoking political backlash or criticism of the organization. And I find that to be very, very concerning.

The risk you run in doing that is moving too slowly and losing access to critical witnesses, memories, phone records, things that disappear over time. Did that happen in this case? Well, it might have we'll find out later. So it's I think it's a very concerning allegation, and one that deserves more scrutiny.

BERMAN: You know, Errol, what do you think this tells us about Attorney General Merrick Garland over the past two years, and what we might expect from him in the rest of this administration?

LOUIS: Well, we mostly -- we first heard most of us about Merrick Garland when he was a nominee for the Supreme Court. He's not in that position. But what is really comes through in this article, and what we can probably expect, is a kind of a judicial pace and temperament. Somebody who's scrupulously fair sweats the details, apparently, we're spending 12 And 13 hour days, every day at the Justice Department personally signing off on every charging decision, making sure that this was going to work in a way that would not be subject to later criticism or even being overturned or found to have been done procedurally incorrectly.

So procedure, I think, is what we can expect from him. And he's -- he, you know, crackdowns on staff who gave unauthorized statements to the media, he himself being famously reticent about explaining what he was doing and why. I think the work he, as he said, is going to speak for itself, hundreds and hundreds of cases that are being made of seditious conspiracy convictions of the so many of the leadership of the Oath Keepers. The work speaks for itself. Errol Louis, Andy McCabe, there's a long article, thank you for helping digest it so very quickly, really appreciate. Rahel?

SOLOMON: All right, John. Coming up for us after high stakes talks in Beijing, where do tensions between two global superpowers go from here? We just got new reaction from China. We'll bring it to you. And the Pennsylvania trooper describes it as quote, one of the most intense unbelievable gunfights I have ever witnessed. State troopers randomly attacked one was killed, what police are saying about the gunman.

[11:10:07]

Also this morning Juneteenth celebration takes a deadly turn just outside Chicago, 22 people injured, one killed, and zero suspects. We will take you live to the scene. You're watching CNN News Central.

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BERMAN: A Pennsylvania state trooper is dead as a second trooper remains hospitalized after a shootout with a suspect. The official say, the gunman first shot of police vehicles parked outside of police barracks before fleeing in his truck. Officers chased him and exchanged gunfire in multiple locations. The gunman was eventually shot and killed.

[11:15:18] Twenty-one-year-old Eva Lu, a recent graduate of University of Illinois Urbana Champaign has been identified as the American tourists who died in Germany after she was assaulted and pushed into a ravine. She was with her classmate who tried to rescue her from their attacker. The classmate was also pushed into the ravine but survived. The suspect a 30-year-old man who is also a U.S. citizen is in custody, his name has not been released.

And a fishing crew lost out on a $3 million prize after their cash was disqualified. The crew's blue marlin weighed in at 619.4 pounds. That's huge. The problem was judges said that the -- at this tournament found that the fish had been mutilated by a shark or some other animal and thereby disqualified it, so first place in the tournament went instead to a fish that weighed 135 pounds less, go figure.

SOLOMON: All right, John, thank you. Well, just in brand new reaction from China fresh off U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's high stakes trip and critical sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping. A senior Chinese official just called the trip a quote, new beginning and bilateral relations. But then he went directly on to reiterate accusations of current U.S. suppression. Bottom line, the challenges between the two global superpowers clearly still run deep as Blinken reiterates that progress was made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: I came to Beijing to strengthen high level channels of communication to make clear our positions and intentions and areas of disagreement and to explore areas where we might work together when our interests align on shared transnational challenges. And we did all of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: As for President Xi, he says the two sides quote, made progress and reached agreements on some specific issues. So here are the key points of tension, Taiwan, spying, the war in Ukraine, and also restrictions that the U.S. has placed on the sale of semiconductor chips. CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto joins us now, Jim, good morning. So China seems to be placing the blame on the U.S. for the downturn in relations, not necessarily surprising. But what do you see there?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, there was an almost scolding tone from the Chinese president to Secretary Blinken in advance of their meeting, in which he said something along the lines of I hope you, Secretary Blinken and America will do more to improve the relationship, clearly putting the onus on the U.S. and therefore implying it's the U.S. that has been the problem here.

Now, on the flip side, and as always, with these high stakes high level meetings, you have to take the good with the bad, the Chinese president did sit down with the U.S. Secretary of State and that kind of contact. He of course also met with the Foreign Minister and other Chinese officials is progress compared to where we were just a few weeks ago when a similar visit was canceled in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon. So they're talking and talking considering how serious the divisions are right now. That is something it provides channels to discuss these issues, and hopefully don't allow them to escalate. But, you know, those issues as you laid them out there, Rahel, they still exist.

SOLOMON: Absolutely. And look, this is the first step, as we have heard, represents a step towards something, as you said, progress. But Jim, lots of issues here from your POV. Where are there clearly still quite some room to go and where was progress made?

SCIUTTO: Well, let's talk about the biggest one really is Taiwan right now, I just returned from Taiwan, spent a week there and met with high level government officials, also spend time with the military and observe some of the drills that they're doing regularly because Taiwan is preparing for the possibility of a Chinese invasion. They don't know that it's going to happen, but they're preparing for it because they believe they need to be prepared. And they have some worry there about being caught between the superpowers here, the U.S. and China.

That issue they haven't found a way forward. And you heard quite different positions laid out by Blinken and Chinese officials. Blinken accused China of provocative actions in the strait. China accusing the U.S. of having an erroneous, their word, understanding of China's interests in these various issues. So again, they're talking, they're meeting face to face but there's no clear path forward here.

And by the way, one of the things that the U.S. wanted coming out of this meeting they didn't get and that is direct military to military contact. That's important, because you and I and others we've been covering in recent weeks, these close calls between U.S. and Chinese forces in the region, yet a Chinese jet fly right in front of U.S. spy plane, that was on purpose you had a Chinese warship turn right in front of U.S. destroyer in the Taiwan strait and the worry is that those small encounters could escalate.

[11:20:12]

You can clip a wing. You can misinterpret a move as being hostile, hostile act and ended up shooting at each other. And that's where those military to military contacts would be important. They didn't leave this summit. Well, if you want to call it summit, but they didn't leave these meetings without that agreement.

SOLOMON: But talking so first step, Jim, as you just pointed out, you just came from Taiwan, if you're Taiwan, if you're sitting in Taiwan right now, when you see this meeting, I mean, they've sort of been stuck in the middle, what's the POV there?

SCIUTTO: So Taiwan is happy to see China and the U.S. talking. They have their own concerns about China. China, by the way, has been encircling Taiwan with highly aggressive military exercises, making it clear that military action against Taiwan is very much still on the table. And Taiwan taking that so seriously, that they are they're training virtually every day for just such a possibility. I watched some of those exercises last week, training for an airborne assault on Taiwanese islands in the Strait, in the Taiwan Strait itself, the Penghu islands there. So they're taking it very seriously. Their preferences for the status quo, to not declare independence from China, but maintain what is in effect independence. They're a democratic state. They've got their own economy, 10th largest in the world, I believe.

They want things to stay as they are. And their worries are more than one. One is that China chooses to invade. The other one is that the U.S. and China events relations gets so hostile between them that Taiwan becomes something of a pawn right, between the two of them, and they don't want that to happen, either. So, you know, it's a nervous island right now, given the state of the relations, but one that certainly welcomes contacts like we saw in the last couple of days.

SOLOMON: Absolutely. Jim Sciutto, great to have your insights, thank you. Live for us in Washington. But John, as we said, a senior Chinese official calling these talks, a new beginning. So what exactly that looks like, we'll wait to see. But they're having the talks, seems to be moving in a different direction, a thawing direction.

BERMAN: David Sanger used a phrase to set a bottom on U.S.-China relations. In other words, China really didn't want them to get any worse.

SOLOMON: Yes. So that's something.

BERMAN: Maybe that's what they're celebrating this morning.

All right, deliberately misled, that is the findings from the report on Boris Johnson's party gate. What consequences will he face. There was a vote before Parliament right now. Widespread catastrophic damage after a tornado tore through part of Mississippi overnight. The threat of more storms on the way.

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[11:27:35]

BERMAN: This morning, assessing the damage after a deadly tornado swept through Mississippi living widespread damage in its wake. One person was killed with a storm touchdown in Louin and Bay Springs, Mississippi overnight. Drone video taken just after sunrise shows homes and buildings ripped to shreds. Nearly two dozen people were hurt there. This is just one of six tornado reports in Mississippi in the last 24 hours and the threat is not over yet. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is in the weather center. Jennifer where are the danger zones now?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, the threat for today is really going to be along the Gulf Coast and into portions of the southeast damaging wind gusts, large hail are going to be the primary threat threats with the storms today. But we could see isolated tornadoes as well, so yet another day of severe storms. Here's the greatest risk for tornadoes today. We have a 5 percent chance really ride along the Gulf Coast from the Louisiana-Mississippi border and then over to the Florida Panhandle. That's the area that needs to be on the lookout today for tornadoes.

Again, it's a small chance but still, we could see some. We already have tornado warnings right here in southern portions of Birmingham. Very, very strong storms, a lot of lightning associated with these. We have severe thunderstorm warnings right there across southern Georgia, portions of South Carolina. And then you can see those tornado warnings across southern portions of Alabama. So as these storms continue to push to the east, we're going to see them slide down across the Gulf Coast.

This is late tonight around 8 o'clock and you can see some spotty showers and storms through Atlanta and then through Charleston, Charlotte through the overnight hours. And then another push of storms across the architect (ph), so the forecast rainfall with the storms could see two to four inches of rain, we could see isolated amounts even higher across portions of the Carolinas. There is an excessive rainfall risk for portions of the southeast with the risk of flash flooding for today as well. John?

BERMAN: That's a lot of rain. And please pay attention if you're in some of those danger zone areas for tornadoes. On top of this, Jennifer, I understand it's hot in Texas.

GRAY: Indeed it is very hot. And you have to remember a lot of people especially across Louisiana, portions of Northeast Texas, don't have powerful -- don't have power because of the storms that came through there over the weekend. So excessive heat warnings in effect. We have heat advisories in effect across a huge chunk of the South.

[11:29:53]

Temperatures in the triple digits but you have to remember you factor in that heat index and we're going to feel much warmer. Some areas across Central and South Texas could feel higher than 120 for the afternoon. So it's going to be a dangerous heat settling in.