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Soon: Hunter Biden to Plead Guilty to Tax Charges; Giuliani Concedes He Defamed 2 Georgia Election Workers; Crane Collapses on High-Rise Building in NYC. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 26, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:23]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Rudy Giuliani now says he does not contest that he made false statements about to election workers when he hurled accusations of fraud against them in 2020, how this impacts the case against Donald Trump?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Nearly six years after his dishonorable discharge, the military conviction of Bowe Bergdahl is thrown out. The judge citing scathing comments about Bergdahl made by Donald Trump.

BERMAN: And a terrifying scene right outside our office window, a huge crane collapsed set off by a five-alarm fire. Look at that, this happened just a short time ago. We have new developments coming in, including on how many injuries or whether anyone was hurt. Sara and Kate are off today. I'm John Berman with Rahel Solomon, This is CNN News Central.

SOLOMON: Well, happening next hour Hunter Biden will be in federal court in Delaware. He is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for not paying taxes on time. President Joe Biden's son also struck a deal with federal prosecutors to resolve a felony gun charge.

Now, the plea agreement is a major step toward the conclusion of the Justice Department's investigation into Hunter Biden's finances, a probe that began in 2018. Now, over the course of the probe, investigators examined allegations of money laundering, foreign lobbying and other potential charges. Let's bring in CNN's Kara Scannell. She is outside the courthouse. Kara, good morning. So what can we expect to happen today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Rahel. So we expect Hunter Biden to arrive this hour. We just saw one of his attorneys, Abbe Lowell enter the courthouse. So once this hearing gets under the way at around 10 a.m. We expect Hunter Biden will plead guilty to those two tax misdemeanor charges. That's for failing to pay, taxes on more than $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018. He will also resolve a charge related to gun possession that is a felony for possessing a gun well addicted to a controlled substance and Biden has been very public about his addiction problems. So as this -- and as this hearing gets underway, we expect the judge

and the prosecutors to -- to lay out what this case is about. What the alleged crime is that Hunter Biden is pleading guilty to. And then the judge will have the opportunity to ask Hunter Biden questions. That's a pretty formulaic part of this process. But we don't know exactly what Hunter Biden will say in response to those questions. But she will want to make sure that he knows that he is pleading guilty to these charges and what he is pleading guilty to.

Now, we also expect to learn more about this plea agreement. Our sources tell us that as part of the tax misdemeanor charges, prosecutors have agreed to recommend probation, that is a no prison sentence. Each of those misdemeanors carry as much as 12 months in prison and on the diversion of this gun possession charge. That's a felony that could have as much as 10 years in prison, but because of this program, where Hunter Biden agrees to the terms of it, he will not have any prison time. So we will learn more details about just what this plea agreement is.

Now, this is a first -- in a year of first is the first time in American President son is pleading guilty to any crime while he's in office. And there's been a twist overnight the judge talking about possibly sanctioning Hunter Biden's lawyers. We expect that to be addressed this morning as well. That has come up because the House Ways and Means Committee wanted to file an amicus brief in this case, and they say that one of Biden's attorneys reached out to the clerk of the court and had them remove a document from the docket.

Now, Hunter Biden's team saying that this was a misunderstanding that there was no misrepresentation that their lawyer was not saying that she was part of the House team. But this is something that the judge has said she's questioned whether there should be sanctions against Biden's team and that will also be addressed at the hearing that gets underway in just about an hour. Rahel?

SOLOMON: So a lot of ground to cover in this hearing. We will check back with you in the 10 o'clock hour. Kara Scannell live for us there in Wilmington. Kara, thank you. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now, former Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Daniel Horwitz. Thank you so much for being with us, Counselor. This is a plea agreement Hunter Biden could walk into that courtroom, into that courthouse very shortly. But for it to go through the judge has to agree to it.

DANIEL HORWITZ, FORMER ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: That's right.

BERMAN: How often does a judge not agree to it.

HORWITZ: It's very rare. It really doesn't happen very often because you're talking about experienced prosecutors and experienced defense lawyers and there's a great deal of deference and discretion that's paid under these circumstances, to their abilities to work out a job last resolution and that's exactly what you have here. You have David Weiss, the U.S. attorney appointed by Donald Trump. You have Abbe Lowell, one of the preeminent white collar defense attorneys in the country. And they've worked out an agreement, which by the way, is not uncommon in a tax case where somebody has failed to file tax returns for a year or two.

[09:05:20]

So I don't think that we're going to see any fireworks, at least with respect to the putting aside, if you would have the plea agreement.

BERMAN: How unusual is it for a third party, say, the Congress of the United States to file a brief saying, hey, don't do this.

HORWITZ: Oh that's where the rubber hits the road. And that just doesn't happen. I mean, in our system of law, what we have is, we have an opportunity for victims of crimes to speak. And as far as I can tell the House Ways and Means Committee is not a victim. And so that's completely out of what's called regular order.

I also think that whatever they filed, and I understand, there's been an hour kerfuffle about what happened when somebody called the chambers to deal with this, but papers that were apparently filed by the House Ways and Means Committee, may have had information in that, in them that was confidential, and that should not have been filed. So I think that just sort of adds to sort of the politicization of this process today.

BERMAN: For the judge not to agree to the plea deal, what would have to happen? I mean, how big of a mix up with there have to be?

HORWITZ: Well, I don't think it's, you know, the issue that a judge would have to face is, you know, is this a fair and just resolution? Is there some sort of unusual, highly unusual irregularity about the terms of the agreement? And the -- and there just none of those factors that are present here?

BERMAN: All right, probation? What does that mean exactly? If Hunter Biden is going to get probation, maybe two years of probation, what exactly does that entail?

HORWITZ: So that means he's going to have reporting. People are going to be watching over his shoulder. It means if he engages in any kind of footfall, he may end up back in front of the court. And it may be that the judge has to re sentence them. And, you know, for a lot of people, everybody's talking about, gee, it's a misdemeanor, it's a criminal conviction. This is something that this man is going to have to carry with him for the rest of his life. It's obviously very public, given who he is. There are oversight requirements. And I can guarantee you that those who are watching in the audience will tell you, if you're given the choice between a felony and a misdemeanor, you know, would you be happy with any kind of criminal conviction? And the answer, of course, is no.

BERMAN: And again, it bears repeating what we're about to see has never been seen before, which is the child of a president of the United States is going to walk into a courtroom and plead guilty to a crime happening very shortly. Daniel, don't go anywhere, because we're going to talk to you in just a few minutes about another legal happening. But first, back to Rahel.

SOLOMON: All right, John, thank you. And new this morning, former Trump Attorney Rudy Giuliani conceding in a court filing that he made defamatory statements about two Georgia election workers after the 2020 presidential election. That concession is connected to a lawsuit that was filed against Giuliani by Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, and they say that Giuliani made false allegations against them in an effort to undermine how votes were counted in Georgia.

While in a late-night filing, Giuliani says that he does not deny Moss and Freeman's accusations that he smear them after the election. But we should note that Giuliani is also refusing to concede that his statements caused damage to the mother and daughter. The filing also goes on to say that Giuliani wants the ability to argue that his statements about voter fraud were protected speech.

Now, the timing of all of this is extremely important because right now, Giuliani's actions are under scrutiny and a separate federal investigation. And it's all tied to Special Counsel Jack Smith's grand jury investigation into former President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results clearly a lot in this filing. So let's get to CNN Senior Climate Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz. It was a short filing about two pages but Katelyn, what else did Giuliani say?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yeah, Rahel, this was pretty jaw dropping to see this morning. And also pretty tricky to understand from a legal perspective. So what Giuliani is trying to do here is to put to bed some of the risk that he faces for things he said after the 2020 election. He's being sued in a lot of different ways. He has this situation where he's spoken to the Special Counsel Criminal Investigator in a separate situation totally from this lawsuit. But in this lawsuit, he's now conceding that he was making false statements about these two election workers in Georgia, these two women, Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman who say that they faced a significant amount of fear, harassment, after Giuliani was publicly out there accusing them of taking part in a voting fraud scheme.

Here's just a reminder of some of the things that Rudy Giuliani was saying about them. Here is a video from him in June of 2022.

[09:10:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER TRUMP'S PERSONAL LAWYER: Ruby Freeman and Shaye Freeman Moss and one of the gentlemen, quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine. I mean, it's -- it's obvious to anyone who's a criminal investigator or prosecutor. They are engaged in surreptitious, illegal activity again that day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So after he said things like that these two women Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, they sued him for defamation and that case has been moving forward. Giuliani has been accused of not giving them all of the records that he hasn't had in his possession about this. And so he's trying to shut down some of the legal risk he has there by now making these concessions that these were false statements. But he doesn't want to admit to everything that would cause him to have legal liability here, because he wants to say that what he was saying after the 2020 election about them is still constitutionally protected speech. And perhaps he may want to argue that he wasn't the one who was damaging them in a way where he should have to pay them a lot of money, as they would very likely asked for if he's found liable in this lawsuit.

So really complicated legal situation. But the big question here now, Rahel, is what is the ripple effect of this? What does the judge say in response to this in this lawsuit? What do Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss say? What do other people who are suing Giuliani for defamation say? And then what happens in the situation where Giuliani is facing disbarment in New York State and Washington D.C., as well as what happens with the Special Counsel investigators. What do they say, his -- one of his political advisors is putting out a statement as well saying that he's not acknowledging that the statements were false, but he's not contesting them that this is a legal issue, not a factual issue. Rahel?

SOLOMON: Katelyn Polantz, great to have you, sort of explain what he was conceding to, what he wasn't conceding to, and certainly the implications of all of this. Katelyn Polantz live for us in Washington. Thank you. John?

BERMAN: All right, thanks so much, Rahel. Just a moments ago, Hunter Biden did arrive at the courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, a Federal Court. Let's take a look at his video. We can see some people right there, somewhere in there. There is Hunter Biden arriving at the courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, where he will appear before a federal judge and enter this plea agreement pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges. He's arriving about 45 minutes early.

Back with us is former Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Daniel Horwitz. I want to talk about Rudy Giuliani just a second. But given that Hunter Biden just arrived, how quick are these proceedings now that he's there? How quickly can this be taken care of?

HORWITZ: Well, I mean, he's got a specific time to appear. I mean, the sentencing proceeding the -- the plea proceeding will take probably a couple of hours or so. I mean, it's -- it goes by script. I mean, there are questions that the judge is required to ask. And then he's required to answer and it will all go by script. But arriving 45 minutes early, you know, for me as a trial lawyer. If you get there on time at 10 o'clock, you're late. So getting there early is standard course.

BERMAN: All right. Let's talk Rudy Giuliani.

HORWITZ: Sure.

BERMAN: And I want to play a little bit more of what he is now no longer contesting that he said and no longer contesting that it was false. Let's listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIULIANI: After they say there's no fraud, what could that woman, what could have taken those ballots out? Look at them, scurrying around with the ballots. Nobody in the room hiding around. They look like this. It looks like they're cashing out dope not just ballots. It is quite clear this feeling hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That was Rudy Giuliani says and now in a filing overnight, he no longer contest that he said it and that it was false. Let me just play because I think we have sound also of the victims here of the people he said that about because he is saying now also that he may still contest that it had an impact on them, basically, right? So listen to what they say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBY FREEMAN, GEORGIA POLL WORKER: There is nowhere I feel safe, nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States that target you? The President of the United States is supposed to represent every American. Not to target one. But he targeted me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, two quick questions. First one, on the defamation case, per se. Rudy Giuliani no longer contest that he said it, no longer contests that it was false, but says he still may fight the fact that it was somehow defamatory or an impact on them. How could that be?

HORWITZ: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think this is just, you know, rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. I mean, he's trying to position himself for -- for a settlement in this -- I think you're alluding to he's trying to say, well, I may have said it but it really didn't hurt them. And this video that you just played this woman is -- is -- is shaking. She's in tears. She fears for her life. It's hard to imagine how a jury would not conclude that there were damages in this case.

[09:15:15]

BERMAN: All right. This is a defamation case. It's not a criminal investigation yet Rudy Giuliani is now no longer contesting that he said false things. In the filing, he makes clear, this is only for the purpose of the defamation case. But if you're a Jack Smith's office, if you're a Fani Willis' office, on the Fulton County, how do you not look at this and say, hey, wait a second here, this guy is now saying he said false things. Shouldn't that play into our criminal?

HORWITZ: Oh, of course. And I think there's clearly a connect the dots here because what -- what the impetus for this statement was -- was a threat by the judge that she was going to hold him in contempt or impose sanctions, because he didn't turn documents over and what were the documents that he didn't turn over? Apparently communications with folks in the Trump inner circle, about getting this myth out about what happened in the election, which is, of course, exactly what those two prosecutors are looking at. So what's happening today in the defamation case, clearly has a connection to the larger criminal investigations that are still ongoing.

BERMAN: All right, how much of a connection remains to be seen, we would have to see indictments which may or may not be coming soon. Daniel Horwitz, thank you so much, covering a range of legal issues this morning. Rahel?

SOLOMON: Well, John, coming up for us, he walked off a U.S. base in Afghanistan, was held captive by the Taliban for five years. And this morning, a judge is tossing out the conviction and dishonorable discharge of former Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

Also 18-year-old Bronny James, son of basketball star LeBron James recovering after suffering cardiac arrest at USC. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us to discuss.

And we are following breaking news out of New York where a large crane has collapsed and a five-alarm fire has broken out. Take a look at this video. Two people were hurt. We are live with the latest.

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[09:20:24]

SOLOMON: I want to take you straight to this FDNY press conference after a crane collapse on a high rise building in New York. Let's listen together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH PFEIFER, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY FIRE: -- but presently, we have a fifth (inaudible) assignment over 200 firefighters and EMS personnel at the scene. Well, let me turn it over to the Department of Buildings for their assessment.

JIMMY ODDO, DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS COMMISSIONER: Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Jimmy Oddo, Commissioner, Department of Buildings. As the mayor and the chief said, we're really fortunate this morning, but this is not a mayor who relies on luck, so it's my job and our agency's job to find out exactly what happened here. This is quick- moving. We don't have a lot of answers, or all the answers. We will get them to you in time.

We have a building under constructions tended to be a 54-story mixed use building. The general contractor is Managua Construction, all permits for the building, for the crane operation will pulled operating per those permits. There was a prior unrelated incident early at the site with this contractor when they do an excavation, they hit a content wall. But there are no other instances incidents at this site. There are lots of people who are part of the crane operation. There's an engineer that writes up the plans. There's essentially a general contractor is the user. We will be looking at all of those folks in what we intend to do similar to post and street, garage situation. We are putting in place contracts so that we will have an independent assessment as well.

So the folks who are involved in the crane operation the general contractor of the project, we're looking at all as I'm sure you will be. We're looking at all of their histories to see what those stories are. Mayor?

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK: Open to any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC) with somebody operating path and what ignited that?

ADAMS: Anyone?

PFEIFER: Crane operator was at the crane, the crane at that point and it was lifting 16 tons of concrete and that crane operator saw that the (inaudible) and try to extinguish it. So we get a lot of credit to the crane operator. But the fire overwhelmed that operated and had to exit the crane.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he's able to get out (inaudible)?

PFEIFER: The crane operator was able to get out and it is safe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC).

PFEIFER: We're exceeding the coastlines we scratch. We've had extinguishes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (OFF MIC).

ODDO: Yeah, the second building. So our DOB structural engineers are -- were on route before we started. They're probably here. We will look at the structural integrity of the building that was hit. We're looking at the structural integrity obviously of the building that was worked on. We have a specific cranes and derricks unit. All of the DOB personnel is here on route and when they have a chance to assess it, we will have more answers for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (OFF MIC) a deadly, another crane collapsed from the same operator?

ODDO: Well, we again as I said earlier, there's the engineer. We have who the engineer is. There is -- that Steve Valhado (ph) engineering. You have the crane user which is cross country and the crane owner which is New York City crane and equipment. And again, give us some time we will be looking at all the parties, their records, and we will get you more information, more specifics as quickly as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC).

ADAMS: Well, a lot of the review to determine exactly what happened, once we get up there, once we're able to look at and do an analysis we can find out exactly what's happened, so all preliminary.

[09:25:11]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC).

ADAMS: We have to determine exactly (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC).

ODDO: It's 550 10th Avenue and I believe 555 10th Avenue is the building that was hit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC).

PFEIFER: The injuries were all minor, two firefighters, four civilians which included some of the workers. So they were very fortunate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC).

PFEIFER: As we know that, as of now from -- from they were on the outside when the debris fell.

(OFF MIC)

PFEIFER: So I like you to picture of what was taking place, the crane operates above the roofline. And on that above roofline, there's a beam that goes out. And that's carrying the weight of -- of concrete. And -- and -- and that weight of 16 tons, is attached via cable. And as the fire hits the cable, the cable weekend's to a point where it loses his strength. And that's where the collapse occurred.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (OFF MIC).

PFEIFER: The difficulty when you have something of fire, so high up, is to be able to supply water to the building, stretch hose lines from inside the building and across the street. And that takes manpower, or firefighters, that's also that we're able to search the surrounding buildings and evacuated. And that's why it's a bit longer.

ADAMS: And so -- and so attach -- attached to the boom -- attached to the boom was holding concrete. That's why you see this all over the screen. Because in addition to the boom, you had something that was holding a substantial number of concrete that it was moving around, it was made up of these stones. So why we're so lucky is not only the boom loader to the street, but all of that concrete could have struck civilians. And this has spread out throughout the area here. So we were -- we were extremely, extremely lucky this morning. But getting this right, as the Commissioner state is not about luck. It's about making sure that people who are above our skyline are doing it correctly and all the places like this time all the documentation were in order. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC).

ADAMS: That's what it appears now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (OFF MIC).

ADAMS: We'll find out. The investigation will determine that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

ADAMS: All right.

(OFF MIC)

SOLOMON: All right, we've just been watching together this press conference from city officials here in New York and from the Fire Department. A few things we have learned after this crane collapse this morning from this press conference, we heard from Mayor Eric Adams there, of course. A few things we learned that more than 200 firefighters and EMS personnel on scene. This is a quite large scene. We know that five people were hurt. Officials, they're saying that those were minor injuries. The crane that apparently set all of this off was apparently holding and carrying 16 tons of concrete. So I want to now bring in CNN National Correspondent Brynn Gingras, she is there for us. And she was there listening to the press conference. Brynn, a lot of information here. What more did you learn? What more else should we take away from this?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rahel, first, I just want to get out of the way so we can zoom in because you can actually see from our vantage point pass most people and the crane there in the middle of 10th Avenue here in New York City.

Now, listen, I have to be honest, there's a little difficult to hear what was going on in that press conference. But I did talk to a lot of workers here that were actually on the same floor as where this crane was operating. I kind of want to give you some details of what they were telling me. Essentially one of the workers as you just heard officials described said that the crane was bringing up just heavy concrete that was needing to be poured on this high rise as they continue construction when they believe there was some sort of mechanical fire and this person describes it to me as they saw the cab of the crane has start to smoke and actually fill up with smoke. And frank, you can go up and show that crane did collapse. They said that cabs started to smoke, build up a smoke.

[09:30:00]