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Search & Rescue Underway For Missing Titanic Tourist Submersible; Judge Bans Trump From Sharing Specific Evidence Given To His Attorneys In Classified Documents Case; Agriculture Department Investigates Possible Data Breach. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 19, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: An urgent search underway right now in the Atlantic Ocean after a submersible that takes people to see the wreckage of the Titanic goes missing. Time maybe running out for those on board. We have the latest.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, all talk or a turning point. Critical meetings wrapping up between the U.S. and China. What we know about any progress and the sticking points? Straight ahead.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Another U.S. federal agency revealing a possible data breach, potentially the latest hack, and a major global cyberattack. Millions of Americans' personal data exposed. We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: We begin with an urgent search and rescue operation that is currently underway in the Atlantic Ocean. Right now, U.S. Coast Guard officials are racing to find a submersible operated by a company that runs tours of the Titanic wreckage. Officials say that this was reported overdue on Sunday and is said to have only 96 hours of survival time. We are told several government agencies and deep sea companies are working on reestablishing contact with this submersible.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is joining us now live with more details on this. Miguel, what do you know at this point?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the company that runs this operation, Ocean Gate Expeditions, does everything from you know science underwater to photography and video to tourism as well to places like the Titanic wreckage, and have done it for quite some time. It costs about $250,000 per person to do this.

What we don't know is exactly who was on the submersible. It can hold -- if it is the one that they have up on their website, it can hold up to five people. It has 96 hours' worth of air. But it all depends on how many people are on that submersible and how deep it is. We know that the U.S. Coast Guard along with Canadian Air Force as well is assisting in this -- they're all moving to this area by fixed wing and boats trying to get to the area so they can help out. But look, this is extremely remote. These depths are incredibly deep. The Titanic itself is about 3800 meters. That's about 13,000 feet under the -- under the ocean, just an extreme, extreme remote and difficult place to operate on a good day.

The Canadians do have a P-Eight or a Poseidon aircraft that does have some ability to see basically underwater. It's a sub-hunting aircraft that can see underwater to some degree. But it's not clear if they know where this craft is and what exactly happened to it.

As you mentioned, they have about 96 hours of air in a -- in sort of a perfect conditions. But it's not clear given that this was reported missing 24 hours ago now, how much more air they might have, and where this search goes from now. Right now, all hands on deck trying to find this craft, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Miguel, thank you for the very latest there. I want to turn now to an expert on this. We have Butch Hendrick here with us.

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Butch, you have 30 years of experience as a rescue diver. You're also the president and founder of Lifeguard Systems, which is an international rescue and recovery training company. Do you know where you begin with a rescue like this?

BUTCH HENDRICK, RESCUE DIVER: Well, I think the same way the United States Coast Guard and the Canadians will be working. The first thing is to discover does the unit, the submersible have releasable beacons -- emergency beacons. So if it does, then it would have possibly released a beacon or two to the surface so that they can be tracked. A signal would be coming out off of that that our Coast Guard, the Canadians, the Brits would be able to pick up and then be able to start to track where it might have come from.

We'd be looking at what has happened in the last 48 hours to the weather. What conditions may have changed that are not normal? What would have happened with the occurrence at the depths and in between the bottom at 12,000 plus feet and the surface could occur and have suddenly taken and overrode the power of the unit, submersible it's down.

Next would be that a proper unit -- submersible should have a beacon or two that would be attached to it that could be sending out an underwater signal that might -- would tell people how to find it. So, I'd be looking for those, looking at the weather, and tracking at what would have happened to if it got taken off of the site.

The Coast Guard will certainly be doing something very similar and they'll be coming in with their own trackers. If they find his peeking that was released from the submersible, they will see where it was, track the weather, put another one of their own in the water, and track it and see how it would go and where the possibilities would be. I know that listening to one of the admirals, the Coast Guard is coming in with their lower-end shallower water side-scan sonar units at the moment with larger, more capable pieces of equipment behind them.

And using a side-scan base on the debris field, you'd have to have a beautiful mapping sequence of the entire wreck, that could be a layover if you will. We will be laying one on top of the other in order to see what's new, what is there that we didn't see before. The potentials, one, that the unit has not had the power to maintain with the current, more likely based on original videos and -- (INAUDIBLE) thing that Bob Ballard did with the Titanic --

KEILAR: Yes.

HENDRICK: -- is that it's maybe caught on something.

KEILAR: And -- I mean, these are huge concerns, Butch, obviously. So, we do appreciate your time as we have so many unanswered questions at this point, and quite frankly, are trying to get some more details about those who are engaged in the rescue here. Butch Hendrick, thank you very much for taking the time with us this afternoon. We do appreciate it. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Another major headline we're following this afternoon, progress but no breakthroughs. Right now, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading back to the United States set to brief President Biden after a weekend full of meetings with top Chinese officials, including a brief meeting, 35 minutes, with President Xi Jinping this morning. After talks, the secretary said that leaders agreed on the need to "stabilize the two nation's relationship." But also said there are still key issues that remain unsolved. That includes rising tensions over Taiwan, Spying, China's support to Russia, and trade, just to name a few.

CNN's Anna Coren is live for us in Hong Kong tracking the latest. Anna, it seems like both sides have been very careful to express optimism but almost -- also to remain skeptical of each other.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And that remains the case. But look. Boris, this was all about reestablishing lines of communication, and that has been achieved.

We have to remember the relations between China and the U.S. are at an all-time low. We didn't even know if the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken was going to, in fact, meet with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. But that did happen. And the fact that that took place is incredibly important.

We heard from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs after Blinken departed. And they said that his visit marks a new beginning in bilateral relations. I mean, this is in very optimistic language coming out of Beijing.

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But there was one thing that the United States wanted other than reestablishing lines of communication, which was military-to-military communication. There have been near misses between the two militaries, particularly in the past month you know in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait with fighter jets, and more recently, naval warships. And, you know, a mishap like that turns into an armed confrontation very quickly.

The Chinese you know obviously don't want to give legitimacy to U.S. activity in their backyard. But we also heard from (INAUDIBLE) saying the reason they denied that military-to-military communication is because of the U.S. sanctions on the Chinese defense minister over the purchase of a Russian arms back in 2018. But why don't we have a listen now to Antony Blinken talking about the importance of those communications?

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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think it's absolutely vital that we have these kinds of communications, military and military. That imperative, I think, was only underscored by recent incidents that we saw in the air and on the seas. And at this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that.

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COREN: Boris, lots of issues will raise obviously no resolutions there. But the hope is that this visit will pave the way for the visits of the U.S. Treasury Secretary -- the Commerce Secretary in the coming weeks. And we heard from the White House as well, and they said that this meeting was a good step forward, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And potentially one eventually between Biden and Xi himself. Anna Coren, in Hong Kong, thank you so much. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, both sides are claiming some progress during these talks. Certainly, still a lot of work to do. They are touting some positive developments such as the fact that both sides are at least talking again with more planned high-level meetings in the future.

Blinken says China said it would not give lethal aid to Russia for the war in Ukraine. They both agree on working together to shut down the flow of chemicals that create fentanyl, of course, contributing to the opioid crisis here. They also want to increase nonstop flights between the two countries.

There are, however, major sticking points. No agreement on military- to-military communications, continuing disagreement over the future of Taiwan. Also, human rights and trade consistently through this relationship have been an issue. The Chinese president said the following which seemed to give a sense of the mood here. I hope that through this visit, Mr. Secretary, that is Blinken, you will make more positive contributions to stabilizing U.S.-China relations seeming to put the onus on the U.S. -- on U.S. officials to improve the relationship going forward.

Why are those military-to-military communications key? Why was that a U.S. goal here? You may remember, a few weeks ago, a Chinese jet flew right in front of the nose of a U.S. reconnaissance jet.

This is just off the coast of China here but in international airspace. Quite a dangerous encounter there. You'll see him. And it even shutters the cockpit as he went by.

And then, just a couple of weeks ago, a Chinese warship steering just a few 100 yards -- a couple of a hundred yards in front of a U.S. Navy destroyer there in the Taiwan Strait. Again, a dangerous encounter. It's why you want to have military-to-military communications so that incidents like this don't escalate.

I wanted to bring in now retired Supreme Allied -- former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Wesley Clark. General Clark, always good to have you on.

WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So, first, let's begin with what they say the positive developments are here. Biggest one being, they're talking. And they weren't -- and this visit was canceled at the time that Chinese balloon went over the U.S. If you had been staffing this visit to Beijing, would you consider it a success?

CLARK: Yes, so are we concerned that this is a -- this has been a really good visit. The United States has done what it needed to do to reach out. And we should feel good about this. On the other hand, there's a very long way to go in this.

SCIUTTO: So, those are the good things. And by the way, talking matters, as you know better than anyone has given the seriousness of the crisis between these two countries, sticking points here, military to military communications. We were just describing those close encounters we've seen with greater frequency between U.S. and Chinese forces in the region. How important would it be to have military-to- military coms to help prevent escalation?

CLARK: I think it's critically important from our perspective, but apparently not from China's. I think China wants to withhold some of that as leverage and moving these talks forward and getting some concessions from the United States. You know, Jim, the whole tone of this is this visit by Secretary Blinken followed Bill Gates' visit and other big businessman, Elon Musk in China.

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And so, it's clear that China is trying to use the American Chinese business connection. And looking at the American government is sort of being politicized in this. So, there's pressure on our government to move forward.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about Taiwan here because this is arguably the most intractable of the issues between them. I just spent the last week in Taiwan spending time with U.S. -- with Taiwanese military there doing exercises to prepare for Chinese invasion. What is the way forward to prevent conflict here?

Because you really have two red lines crossing each other. The U.S. red line being do not take military action against Taiwan, of course, China's red line is they don't want Taiwan to become more effectively independent, which -- listen, it's the way its government operates. It's the way its economy already operates. What is the way forward to avoid conflict there?

CLARK: I think the way forward is just developing more mutual interest between the United States and China. And cooling off the rhetoric. And letting it on the Chinese side just slowly dissolve.

If China doesn't want to conflict, accept the status quo, work with the Taiwanese, show friendlier relations to Taiwan, maybe relax a little bit in Hong Kong because the example of Hong Kong is a very bad example. From the American side, we've made our position pretty clear and we're not going to be able to tell the Taiwanese people or their government, go ahead and surrender to the Chinese.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CLARK: And we're not going to tell them to start a war. So, we're sort of in a difficult position here. It's really China that's the demand doer here, and they've got to back off.

SCIUTTO: One thing that struck me during my visit to Taiwan is that the Taiwanese feel somewhat caught between the superpowers here. And there is some concern among officials I spoke to there, that not just China inflaming the situation, but also some folks in the U.S., particularly with this one-upmanship you'll see here really among some in both parties in terms of being tougher. Who can be tougher with the relationship with Taiwan -- China? Who can talk tougher on the issue of Taiwan? Is there a concern that this -- the Taiwan issue can be stoked escalated from the outside?

CLARK: Well, I think we do have to be careful in terms of how we look at China, and particularly the Taiwan issue. It's always been a hot- button issue, especially for the Republican Party, going back to the days of Chiang Kai-Shek and his relationships with the chart -- with the Republican Party. So, there's always been ambiguity in this relationship.

And over the last 10 years of rhetoric, U.S. rhetoric against China has escalated. We're doing planning against China in the Pentagon or by budgeting and buying forces to be able to deter China. We got to be careful not to just make it a self-fulfilling prophecy in that case.

Really, we have one fight. We have to help Ukraine on and that's a critical fight for the future of the world. China, not necessarily so. So, a lot rides on what the United States does with Ukraine. And if we support Ukraine and Ukraine blunts that Soviet aggression, takes back most of his or all of its territory, there's a settlement there that satisfactory, this would also cool off the situation in Taiwan.

SCIUTTO: And one -- and one thing also I seem to agree on is that a conflict over Taiwan would be devastating for all involved. Chinese forces, U.S. forces, and the Taiwanese themselves. General Wesley Clark, always good to have you on. Thanks so much.

CLARK: Thank you so much, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Brianna. KEILAR: Still ahead. A new order in former President Trump's classified documents case. What a federal judge says he can't share with his supporters or with the media?

Plus, new details about the global cyberattack that could have exposed your personal information. And then later, a Florida deputy sucked into a drain trying to save a flood victim, 30 terrifying seconds underwater all caught on his body camera. Stay with us for that.

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SANCHEZ: Some new developments to share with you today in the federal indictment of Donald Trump. A judge banning him from sharing any details of the evidence given to his legal team in the classified documents case. That means no talking about or posting any of that information. The same goes for his close aide and fellow defendant, Walt Nauta.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us now. So, Katelyn, how is this going to impact the former president?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Boris, it places a restriction on him. He's a criminal defendant now. And he's going to have to follow the judge's rules. And so, this is a pretty procedural thing.

You see it in almost any case, that's going to be going to trial, where the judge steps in and says, the Justice Department is going to turn over to you all of the evidence that they've collected. Things that could help you. Things that could hurt you. Stuff that you can use at trial. And we're going to put a protection on it, what's called a protective order, and say, you can't share it widely before trial. Really typical.

But it is something that if it isn't followed by the defense, by the defense lawyers, by the witnesses they're talking to before trial, that it would be punishable by contempt of court or other things if he doesn't follow these rules. And so last week, we did see in court his attorneys, were a little concerned about this idea of placing restrictions on him what he could talk about to other people in the case.

SANCHEZ: Right.

POLANTZ: And now, there is this court order the judge has put on this case saying Donald Trump shall not retain copies of the evidence. Discovery material cannot -- have notes for his -- himself that he takes about those things. He has to turn those notes back over to his defense team and also cannot be sharing things he's learning that is evidence in this case to the public or the news media, or sharing them on social media platforms specifically. So, he's going to have to follow these rules.

[14:25:04] SANCHEZ: Which the former president has done before. He shared all sorts of details on social media before even the legal aspect of this is publicized information, right, for the (INAUDIBLE) --

POLANTZ: And delightedly classified documents as well that he took after his presidency. So, Donald Trump in paper has not always played as nicely together as --

SANCHEZ: Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much for the update. Brianna.

KEILAR: Boris, some new indications that a global cyber hack may be bigger than first thought. The Agriculture Department now saying it's investigating the possible data breach of a contractor. And this is a breach that is believed to be part of a broader hack that has already hit multiple federal agencies. U.S. officials are blaming Russian cybercriminals for this.

CNN national security reporter Natasha Bertrand is joining us now. Tell us what you are learning about the information that's been compromised.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Brianna. So, what we're hearing is that essentially, they're still investigating what exactly has been taken by these Russian cybercriminals. But what the Department of Agriculture is telling us that they do understand that a small number of employees have had their data taken. And that those employees are going to be contacted for any kind of data protection steps that they need to take.

They say that it does not seem overly significant at this point, but they're still looking into it. Now, we also have, of course, the Department of Energy, which is looking into the breach of two different entities inside the DOE. We also have Oregon and Louisiana, the motor vehicles department, millions of people in those two states have had their data compromised. Really anyone with a driver's license now has their data exposed because of this hack.

And we also have the Office of Personnel Management, which says that it is investigating a breach. CNN reported last week, of course, that the Russian hackers are believed to be responsible for that attack as well. If you recall, OPM had that massive hack back in 2015, so this is not welcome news for them.

Now, in terms of who's behind this, we do believe according to our sources, that it is a Russian-speaking group that is pretty well- versed and experienced in ransomware. And so, they have been asking their victims for, in some cases, multimillion-dollar ransoms in order to get their data back. And here you can see on the screen, just a few more of the victims who have been targeted in this hack, including the BBC, British Airways, and major universities including Johns Hopkins and the University of Georgia.

So, all of these are subject really to be extorted by these hackers. In one case, someone -- a source told my colleague, Sean Lyngaas, that the hackers have actually demanded a hundred-million-dollar ransom from one corporate company. That company apparently told the hackers that that was an absolute non-starter. But this really goes to show just how massive a hack and how devastating a hack can be when one part of a software that is used by so many different entities is compromised. And that is apparently what happened in this case, Brianna,

KEILAR: And a health system here -- I mean, so we're seeing real-world implications. These are hospitals. These are universities.

This is -- this is awful. And I fear that I'm going to see you again with more updates on this. Natasha Bertrand, thank you. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Dangerous heat in Texas and the South. It will feel like 120 degrees outside to some. Several cities still cleaning up from storms that have left thousands without power and without air conditioning as well. What forecasters are expecting? Just ahead.

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