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U.S. Intervenes When Iran Tries To Seize Oil Tankers; 15 Mass Shootings Between Saturday And Tuesday; Lab Test Show Substance Found At WH Was Cocaine; New Details About Trump Documents Probe To Be Revealed In A Less-Redacted Affidavit. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 05, 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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[15:00:11]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Now to some major developments in the Middle East, a U.S. defense official says the Navy foiled multiple attempts by Iran to seize two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Iran apparently opening fire on one of the tankers.

Let's go now to CNN's Oren Liebermann, who is at the Pentagon with the very latest. Oren, what can you tell us?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, this played out over several hours in international waters off the coast of Oman, a critical waterway there right near the Strait of Hormuz near Iran where much of the world's oil passes through. According to the U.S. Navy at about one of the morning local time in the Gulf of Oman, an Iranian navy vessel approached a commercial oil tanker. And as it got close, the U.S. Navy saw this coming and deployed a destroyer to the area. At that point, the Iranian vessel turned around.

And here in this video you see the second incident, only several hours later where another Iranian vessel approached another oil tanker, getting even closer this time. That oil tankers sent out a hailing for help, essentially a call for distress and the same U.S. Navy destroyer approach. But before it got there, according to the U.S. Navy, personnel on board that Iranian vessel open fire with small arms, striking the oil tanker, hitting it several times in fact.

According to the U.S. Navy, nobody on board the oil tanker was injured, but there was damage to the hull including very close to the - where the crew lived. And in fact, the Navy also put out images of fragments of the shell and images like the one you see there of where those bullets hit the oil tanker.

As the U.S. Navy destroyer approached, once again, the Iranian Navy vessel changed course and left the incident. But we've seen these sorts of incidents in the past coming from either Iran's Navy or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. In fact, according to the U.S. Navy, about 20 times since 2021, Iranian ships have tried to either harass or seize commercial vessels in international waters. This happened just earlier - a couple months ago, once in late April and then only days later in May when Iran seized to commercial vessels. Brianna, in response to that, the U.S. sent more assets, including

Navy ships and aircraft to the region to prevent exactly this from happening.

KEILAR: All right. Oren Liebermann live for us at the Pentagon, thank you for the very latest there. Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: All right. So what does this all mean?

CNN Global Affairs Analyst and Senior Managing Editor for the Military Times, Kimberly Dozier joins us now. Good to have you on again.

Key piece of information from Oren there, when the U.S. destroyer approached, the Iranian ships turned away. So there was no direct U.S. and Iranian contact although scarily close here. Big picture, what is Iran trying to accomplish here? Disrupt oil from going through that key strait?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, you have to consider that every time one of these ships gets actually seized, that raises the insurance, which raises the cost. But this actually seems more like theatrics. Iran has done this more than a dozen times in the past two years, with increasingly frequency of late. And it makes you wonder if the behind the scenes talks that were supposed to be going on ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DOZIER: ... between the White House and Tehran that were recorded back in April have hit the rocks in some manner, shape or form and Iran's trying to get the world's attention.

SCIUTTO: So this was a regular Iranian navy ship. Oftentimes you see IRGC forces, they have their own kind of little putative Navy there, what fast attack boats doing this kind of disruption there. Is that significant that this was the Iranian Navy there?

DOZIER: Well, it seems that the leadership has decided to turn things up a notch, that it's not just fast boats, it's large naval vessels that both could seize these ships, but also could get into a larger clash with U.S. forces.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DOZIER: It's stepping up the tension and stepping up the risk of some sort of clash. But, of course, the U.S. Navy can't let Iran just see ships going through this narrow passageway where something like a third of all fuel oil vessels travel.

SCIUTTO: Iran and Russia have been getting closer. To Iran, for instance, supplying Russia with drones that have been highly effective, sadly particularly on civilian targets in Ukraine here. Do you see any collusion here between Iran and Russia, particularly on oil price potentially here that that could be part of the game?

DOZIER: Well, it is certainly one of the asymmetric ways that Iran helps Russia by fighting back, by just frustrating the passage of oil to Western nations that are supporting Ukraine will have an impact on the oil price. We'd have to see a lot more of this happened a lot more often and that is exactly why the U.S. military, the Navy, a couple of months back increased its resources there, especially things like drones to keep a watch for this kind of antic.

[15:05:13]

SCIUTTO: Listen, I mean, there's a word for this cynical, right, this kind of interference in the markets.

Kimberly Dozier, certainly something we're going to continue watching very closely. Thanks so much. Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Between Saturday and Tuesday this July 4th weekend, the U.S. experienced at least 15 - 15 mass shootings. And we're getting in new details about the deadliest two.

In Philadelphia on Monday, five people were killed. The DA there says that 40 year old Kimbrady Carriker set out to randomly kill strangers, shooting people in passing cars and pedestrians that were just walking down the street.

Meantime, at a block party in Shreveport, Louisiana, police say that four people were killed, seven others wounded. Let's start with the shooting in Philadelphia.

CNN's Danny Freeman joins us there live.

And Danny, officials have found disturbing details in the suspect's social media posts, some of them posted online just hours before all of this unfolded.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Boris. And remember with this particular shooting, one of the biggest questions that investigators continue to have is exactly what motivated this particular shooting. What motivated allegedly Kimbrady Carriker to go out in the southwest Philadelphia neighborhood and start shooting people indiscriminately the night before the Fourth of July?

Well, we have new reporting about social media posts, a law enforcement sources telling us at CNN that investigators are looking specifically at Carriker's Facebook page to try and get some idea if there are any elements in there in posts that can shed light on a potential motive. And I'll just discuss some of the posts that we've been now coming through as well.

There are posts that largely talk about guns, god, freedom, safety and quite a few discussing the Second Amendment. The post that is perhaps most notable is the actual day of the shooting, just a few hours as you noted before the shooting happened, Mr. Carriker posted a photo that looks like a man wearing tactical gear and holding a rifle.

Earlier last month, there were also posts that featured President Biden and the threat or the allegation that President Biden is trying to take away his arms. And then there were also a little bit more specific post, some about community patrols in the area and the elder statesman in his southwest Philadelphia area and their perceived failures in keeping his community safe.

So those are some examples of the posts that investigators right now are combing through and looking at. I should say, the District Attorney Larry Krasner, he just had a press conference across town this afternoon and reporters asked him specifically about the social media posts but he declined to comment on what bearing they will have on this particular investigation at this point.

And he was the one who earlier this morning on CNN THIS MORNING said that as far as motive at this point, all that they know is that this appears to have been random and that this was someone who's set out to kill strangers.

Now, Boris, earlier today we saw Mr. Carriker have his first appearance in court. It was a preliminary arraignment. He was facing charges of murder, attempted murder, reckless endangerment, again for allegedly killing five people and injuring several others on Monday evening before the Fourth of July.

The public defender's office who are representing him at this point, they're not commenting on this case nor on the social media posts, I should say. So there are still mysteries as to what prompted this man to take up arms in this case. But as soon as we get more clarity, like these posts and like more information from the police in the DA's office, Boris, we'll bring that back to you.

SANCHEZ: We'll look forward to those details when you get them.

Danny Freeman from Philadelphia.

Let's turn now to the Shreveport shooting with CNN's Ryan Young who's has been following developments from that.

So Ryan, this was a block party that ended in chaos.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris. This case is so new. We don't believe that police have even gathered all the evidence that they need. Let's not forget that one of the last bodies to be found was just found this morning, the fourth body.

So we have four people dead, seven people shot and then a bunch of families were out there. People were running. In fact, emergency services had trouble arriving to the scene because the cars are blocking the way to the shooting scene and people have dropped their keys, they couldn't find them, they couldn't find their family members.

So this has been described to us which is all out chaos. Right now we know how many shooters were involved in this. Shreveport has been dealing with some terrible gun crimes lately, especially when it comes to violence with young people. But listen to this one councilmember fired up and upset about what happened at this Fourth of July party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TABATHA TAYLOR, SHREVEPORT, LA CITY COUNCIL: You will not get away

with this. What you have done is traumatized this community. You have traumatized us in a way that is unfathomable.

[15:10:01]

You have hurt us in ways that we cannot echo in two words. You have caused us grief, you have caused us pain and I want whoever you are to pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Boris, Tabatha Taylor tells me that the community has been doing this block party for Fourth of July for over 15 years. They've never had anything like this before. We know community members also hope to see maybe some drones brought in to scour the area, to make sure there's no other victims in that area.

The police chief is calling for people to call in with any kind of tip right now, especially in that first 48 hours. He kept stressing that during the news conference, this is a community that's asking questions about exactly what happened, who showed up. There are so many rampant rumors right now on Facebook alone about this crime. There's so many questions that need to be answered, stuff that police are still working on and investigating right now. Boris.

SANCHEZ: And you feel the pain in that council woman's voice as she's speaking.

Ryan Young, thank you so much. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, lab tests now confirm that the white powder that sparked a hazmat scare, even the evacuation at the White House was a small bag of cocaine. So who left it there? The White House says it was found in a heavily trafficked area, we'll have more.

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SCIUTTO: All right. Some news on the powdery substance found at the White House on Sunday. Lab tests now confirmed it is cocaine.

CNN Kevin Liptak is at the White House for us.

So Kevin, there have been a whole range of theories, conspiracy theories about whose it was, how it got there, but the White House making clear now it was found in a heavily trafficked area. But one where you might expect they would have a sense of which visitors went through there. What is the White House saying about the investigation and where it goes from here?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN REPORTER: Yes, the White House saying just now that they are confident that the Secret Service will get to the bottom of this and also confirming that it is in what you said a heavily trafficked area of the West Wing. And so right now the Secret Service, of course, going through video surveillance, but also visitor logs to try and determine who brought that small bag of cocaine into the White House that was found on Sunday.

No earlier I was told by people familiar with the matter that this was found at an entrance area to the west wing and this would be heavily trafficked not only by staff members of the White House, but also tour groups who are brought in by staff members on the weekend. It was in an area where those tour groups are told to leave their cell phones before they proceed into other parts of the West Wing. And those tours did occur over this past weekend.

Now, one other question that I think officials are trying to get to the bottom of is when exactly this was left where it was left, because we know that they found it on Sunday but we don't know necessarily that it was dropped or if it was left on that day or if it was dropped some time earlier. And, of course, that would help officials narrow down when exactly this was brought into the building, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Kevin, one might presume that the White House has a number of cameras around for security, so decent chance that they'd figure it out. Do we know what penalty or penalties someone would face for bringing this specifically into the White House?

LIPTAK: Well, the Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was just asked about potential punishment if this was a staff member and she didn't want to get ahead of the investigation, but certainly the Secret Service when they determine if they determine who brought this in will potentially refer it to a criminal prosecution agency.

But I do think it's important to note, officials haven't ruled out that they are never able to determine who brought this into the building. Because, of course, this was a very small bag of cocaine that they found, the camera if they do use camera surveillance to determine who it was, would have to be exactly positioned to catch the person dropping it or leaving it.

There is a high number of people who are going through this building on Sunday. Of course, these tours go through all throughout the course of the day. There were also staff members to go through.

So I think when you're talking to Secret Service officials, they aren't necessarily ruling out the fact that they may not know who this was. But, of course, they are still investigating, still trying to determine going through those visitor logs, going through that cameras surveillance to try and sort that out, Lim.

SCIUTTO: No question. Kevin Liptak at the White House, thanks so much. Boris?

SANCHEZ: The Teamsters and UPS have walked away without a deal after marathon contract negotiations went nowhere. A strike could have major consequences for the U.S. economy. We'll tell you how it could impact your life.

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SANCHEZ: We could soon get new details about the investigation and declassified documents found at Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago estate. The Justice Department has just been told to make public more information that it used to justify its search of the resort last August.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us now live.

So Katelyn, this court document could become available as soon as today. What are you anticipating?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes. So Boris, the Justice Department doesn't have any issue making this public. But there is this document, we don't have it yet, we don't know what is going to be in it that we haven't seen before. And what this is, is it's the details that the Justice Department used last year last August, at that point in time to say, we really believe we need to search Mar-A-Lago and to see what we find there because we believe there will be evidence, both of the illegal retention of national security records which Donald Trump was eventually charged with. And also at that time, they believe they would find evidence of obstruction of justice.

So after that search took place, Boris, we did get a version of this court document. It was heavily redacted. So we've seen part of it before, but now that Donald Trump has been indicted, CNN and other media outlets went back to court and asked the judge, can you unseal a little bit more from this.

And the judge said, yes, the Justice Department should at this time make more available, although we do think there still will be some additional redactions in this record. But we're waiting to see what else we might learn about the course of this investigation the whole way back to last year, Boris.

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SANCHEZ: We look forward to more details.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Let's get some perspective now on this from CNN Legal Analyst, Elliot Williams, who's a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General.

Elliot, what information - new information will you be looking for in this new affidavit?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Brianna, the reason why documents are sealed in the first place is to number one to protect the integrity of an investigation and number two to protect the evidence to make sure that say for instance, somebody being investigated doesn't flush something down the toilet or destroyed or tried to flee.

You don't really have as much of a basis for believing that now because, number one, the charges are public. Number two, the nature of the charges are public. And number three, the person who was charged, the former president and Walt Nauta, we know who they are. So there's less of a basis for keeping some of this sealed.

Now, I think what we will look for are maybe some of the information that the Justice Department was relying on when they got the search warrant in the first place. So I think it'll - look, as Katelyn had said, we sort of know what was in the search warrant, but I think this will just be further details.

KEILAR: Why not have release that in the first place?

WILLIAMS: Again, it was an open and pending investigation and the - in order to even establish that a document needs to be sealed, the Justice Department has to establish before a court that there's some risk to that investigation or maybe even to public safety as to having those materials out in the public.

When they - it's far more of a concern where like (inaudible) example before, someone might flee or destroy a valid - a valuable piece of evidence or tamper with witnesses. These are all things that happen quite commonly in federal investigations.

Once you move further along in the investigation - I'll be clear, this is a little bit early, because usually you would wait until the matter is completely closed and it's not. But we are at a point now on the public in which - there's more of a basis for allowing some of the details that led to this search warrant to be made to the public.

KEILAR: Yes, which sort of brings me to the question about the risk of releasing some of this information. What do you expect would still be redacted and do you expect that we'll really learn anything new from this new affidavit release?

WILLIAMS: I have a hard time believing that you're going to learn a great deal. Now, what I expect would still be redacted, um, number one, the names of agents. Those really or tend to be - that tends to be information that you wouldn't make public.

Number two, the sources and methods of some of the information, yes, we are aware that some people would have testified before a grand jury or done interviews, but some of their identities would likely still be redacted.

Again, there's a big presumption of openness to our criminal justice system. We want information to be out there, but not at the risk of individual safety or of jeopardizing law enforcement sources and methods.

So those kinds of things, I think would probably still stay covered up.

KEILAR: And so ultimately, what do you think is going to be released?

WILLIAMS: Look, my - initially, I thought it was just going to be one big 25-page or 35-page document of black boxes. So the fact that we've gotten this much thus far is itself pretty significant.

I think, maybe - so for instance, we know that there were documents found at Mar a Lago. Perhaps you get a little more information about the nature of the documents, as evidence has sort of leaked out with respect to were they war plans or were they maps or anything like that, that doesn't necessarily identify the specifics as to what was in the documents, but still provide some - a little more information to the public about the kinds of things that they found, and also the - maybe perhaps communications that they'd had, more details of the communications law enforcement had with the President and his staff might be made more public.

But again, because of the fact that we've seen the indictment, because the fact that we know that it's the president whose charged and we know what he's charged with, I don't think there's a ton of information that's going to be new that you're going to find here.

KEILAR: All right. Elliot Williams, thank you so much. Jim?

SCIUTTO: She could be the first transgender member of Congress at a time when LGBTQ rights are facing serious challenges, including from the Supreme Court. A closer look at Delaware State Senator, Sarah McBride, that's coming up.

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