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Delay in Classified Documents Case; Four Americans in Iran Released on House Arrest; Interview With State Sen. Angus McKelvey (D- HI); Biden Threat Suspect Killed; Devastation in Hawaii. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 10, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:30]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: Paradise lost. The scope of the wildfire devastation Maui coming into stark relief, some lives lost, many lives upended, and so much property destroyed, including important historical and cultural sites.

Today, the disaster is far from over. We will have a live report from Hawaii just ahead.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Also, what more we are learning about this deadly encounter in Utah where FBI agents shot and killed a man that they were trying to arrest after his alarming and threatening posts about President Biden and other public figures.

And, in Florida, we are live outside of the courthouse where former President Trump's body man, Walt Nauta, pleaded not guilty to new charges in the classified documents case.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEKOA LANSFORD, LAHAINA RESIDENT: We still get dead bodies in the water floating and on the seawall. They have been sitting there since last night. We have been pulling people out since last night, trying to save people's lives.

And I feel like we're not getting the help we need. This is a nationwide issue at this point. Yes, we need help, a lot of help. We got to get people down here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Just moments ago, President Joe Biden responding to those pleas for help, speaking with Hawaii's governor and approving a major disaster declaration for the state of Hawaii, which will send federal resources to the state to help rebuild.

Right now, at least 36 people are confirmed dead in Hawaii. And there are major concerns that that death toll will rise even more. Firefighters are gaining very little ground against these catastrophic wildfires that are sweeping all across Maui.

And CNN just obtained this harrowing video out of the historic town of Lahaina. It shows flames engulfing the popular tourist town,a firestorm with massive wind gusts shooting red hot coals everywhere. Then you can see the same person who shot this video in their car driving through smoke and flames trying to escape that inferno.

Lahaina survivors are now describing the cultural landmark as a war zone. And in these side-by-side satellite images, you can clearly see a large portion of a town has been utterly destroyed. A number of important Hawaiian cultural sites have been reduced to ashes.

Urgent search-and-rescue missions are now under way. The U.S. Coast Guard says it plucked more than 50 people from the ocean off of Maui after they jumped into the water to escape the flames and the smoke. And, as of this moment, more than 2,100 people are in emergency shelters; 11,000 customers are without power.

And officials are asking visitors who can leave Lahaina and Maui to do so as soon as possible.

Let's begin with CNN's Derek Van Dam.

Derek, the winds have decreased since yesterday. That is a good sign for battling these wildfires. But it is still breezy. So what's the impact?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Alex, there's certainly still hot spots on the island of Maui right now.

But now, as we move away from those strong, gusty, erratic winds that we had 24 hours ago, we have more traditional what we call trade winds. But the problem with that is, the trade winds are coming out of a northeasterly direction. So it's going up and over the mountain range across the island of Maui and going through some very basic what we call thermodynamic processes, drying out, heating up.

And so we still have that very dry conditions across the Lahaina region, and that is going to continue here for the next 24 hours. So the hot spots that are still flaring up across an area could certainly be problematic going forward.

Here's a look at the wind forecast. You can see that general northeasterly direction. What do we need here? We need the winds to decrease. We know they have compared to yesterday at this time. We could also use some rain. Will it happen?

Unfortunately, it's not likely. With that northeast trade wind that I showed you a moment ago, the likelihood of rainfall will be on the eastern-facing shorelines. And the highest elevations, unfortunately, on the leeward side, that is where we see the things dry out. We see that air remain dry.

But look at the difference between the hot spots early this morning across Lahaina region and what they were just 24 hours ago, a marked difference in the amount of energy that the wildfires have put out. Basically, this fire on the west side of Maui ran out of terrain to burn, Alex, and simply just moved its way all the way to the ocean.

[13:05:02]

This is also, interesting to note, a dramatic increase in the amount of drought coverage across the state of Hawaii, specifically in the Maui County, severity increasing by 10 percent within the past week right over that, western parts of Maui, because that really puts it together, just how dry and tinderbox the conditions are there.

MARQUARDT: It certainly is, and those winds not totally abating.

Derek Van Dam, thank you so much for that report.

I want to bring in now CNN's Mike Valerio, who is live at Honolulu's main evacuation center.

So, Mike, what are you seeing right now?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alex, good morning to.

The sun is now up just after 7:00 a.m. here in the heart of Honolulu. And we have been here, Alex, for the past seven hours. And it's a little bit of a quiescent moment. Every now and then, you may see some people streaming in and out of our backdrop.

But what we have seen since midnight are shuttle buses coming from Honolulu's international airport here to the center of town to this convention center, which is equipped to handle about 2,000 people and overnight handled in total around 100.

And officials here anticipate that it will hold and house more and more people now that the evacuations in Maui pick up steam and are becoming more of an organized machine. So, the video that we captured from overnight before sunrise, I was so struck, Alex, by just taking into human toll.

You see families with expressions of utter exhaustion, of utter just looking for a place of solace and respite, a reprieve from this apocalyptic zone that they have escaped from. And they found that reprieve here.

And, also, I thought it was quite moving to hear from emergency officials, like the man you will hear from in a couple of seconds, who spoke openly about the island values of compassion for not only the people who inhabit this wonderful place, but for the island itself.

And, on that front, listen to what we heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ILIHIA GIONSON, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, HAWAII TOURISM Authority: We talk a lot about aloha, right, as that value. We talk a lot about the value of malama, To care for, to cherish, to nurture, right?

And it's one thing to talk about it. It's another thing to live it out. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: So, Alex, living it out means, from his point of view, tourists and people vacationing on Maui respecting the island enough to heed the evacuation orders and leaving.

The animating energy for today will be to try to get as many tourists and nonresidents out of Maui perhaps to here or back to the mainland, and more and more first responders into Maui. And now that we have daylight, emergency crews will go airborne and try to get a better sense of containment figures to give us more of a view of how much work has been done and how much work they have left to go, Alex.

MARQUARDT: Yes, that sun now coming up.

Mike Valerio, thank you so much for all of your reporting throughout the course of the night -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, let's talk more about this now with Hawaii State Senator Angus McKelvey. He represents Lahaina. And, also, we should note he lost his home in the wildfire as well.

Senator, first off, I'm so sorry for what you have gone through, what your neighbors have gone through.

Can you tell us about your personal experience and what has happened with other people in your neighborhood as well?

STATE SEN. ANGUS MCKELVEY (D-HI): Well, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.

People -- everyone, we're just shell-shocked right now in Lahaina. I mean, there are literally -- I mean, with so many families have just suddenly in the blink of an eye lost their homes, lost their businesses, lost their schools, lost their grocery stores, everything gone.

And we we're still reeling with the fact that we need desperate help immediately. We have no cell communications at all. I have been pleading for a tower, something, because we have no way to get messaging to people about what efforts are available where.

And we need to try to get people the ability to get out, to resupply themselves, and hopefully get as many people out as we can, because, right now, I mean, it is -- a war zone is only -- just really is the -- skims the surface of truly the amount of devastation that has occurred over here.

KEILAR: So, you have no cell comms. Are you able to text? Are their 911 capabilities? What do you have?

MCKELVEY: Yes, we're barely -- there's just only a few isolated spots where you can text or call. And I'm in one of them.

People are running out of gasoline to get to this spot to make communication.. So you're starting to see cars -- people are living out of their cars everywhere. So, we're in desperate need of immediate relief now, even though the fires have subsided.

And, of course, the road ahead will be long to rebuild, because we have lost not only everything we have lost, hundreds of years of history and culture and everything that made Lahaina town the special place that it was, why so many people, when they would come here, would want to visit, visit it.

KEILAR: Yes, it's a beautiful place. I think it's a memory for -- that stays with anyone who has been there.

[13:10:01]

When you're talking about what you need, do you feel that you are getting what you need from state officials? We also know that President Biden obviously has just approved a disaster declaration. He's been in touch with your governor.

Are you getting what you need from federal officials? Just tell us what your message is...

(CROSSTALK)

MCKELVEY: Yes, President Biden, as we like to say out here, we mahalo him immensely for that declaration, because that's critical, that declaration from the president.

But we're getting support and help from the state. I have been in -- my limited contact, I have been able to reach out to Congresswoman Tokuda and others and give them information on the front line, like, OK, from the responders and others that are here, like, this is what we need.

This is what we need to get. And so the response has been amazing, but it needs to be quicker. Like any other disaster, it needs to be more. Like the gentleman in the video I -- you played earlier, it hits the nail on the head. We need an even more massive response right away.

So we're hoping that the things that -- are doing, we can get them to really permeate and we can get the effort out to the community and get the ability for the community to know about it, because the lack of communications is really, I think, causing a lot of -- making the situation even worse and worse than it is already.

KEILAR: We're seeing some pictures, obviously. We're seeing some aerials of Lahaina, of the downtown area there.

Tell us what you have seen specifically, if you could just describe for us what you have seen.

MCKELVEY: I can't even describe it. I went on a brief flyover during one of the resupplies.

And if somebody was born and raised here, it's surreal. I mean, it literally looked like a bombed-out Beirut. And the -- but there is all of the boats -- every boat in the harbor burned and sank in place. The entire -- the preschool is all gone. The entire Pioneer Inn, which was a big, historic hotel, sizable one, is literally nothing there.

I mean, it's just -- it's catatonic to look at. And the amount of heat and fire -- and I was actually -- as I was escaping myself, you could see fire raining down from the sky and all of a sudden things were igniting everywhere all around you.

I was at the Mala Ramp boatyard, and all of a sudden the gentleman I was with in the temporary retreat area points over, and the tree is on fire. And I think that's what -- really the wind driving all of these explosions all day long, explosions, explosions, explosions, including when the fuel dock at Lahaina Harbor blew up.

It was like out of something you would see on one of your footage of Ukraine. It was -- it's just -- this was surreal. And now the devastation and the bodies and the loss and the questions and no communications drives another thing. People -- there are a lot of people who are worried to death about their loved ones.

And they may not know that they're OK or not.

KEILAR: Yes. And for some people, it's taken hours and hours to touch base. Some still haven't.

All right, so that's what you need. You need communications. And that is certainly out there now. Senator...

MCKELVEY: We need communications. We need fuel. We need food, and, most of all, we need our visitors, please, if you love Lahaina and everything, cancel your trip. Don't come out.

KEILAR: Yes.

MCKELVEY: Maui is great. Maui is open for business. We still have a lot of resorts on the other side of the island, but for West Maui, I, mean we are -- this is like, in my mind, the closest thing to what happened after Iniki.

And I think, just like that, now we need to get as many people out as we can and to be able, so we can really try to accelerate the relief and the efforts.

KEILAR: Yes, we are certainly hearing what you are saying. And, hopefully, people are, as they are planning their trips and making sure that they will not be continuing to that area.

Senator McKelvey, thank you so much for your time.

MCKELVEY: Thank you so much. And thank you for your continuing coverage. It's super important, so that people -- we can get the efforts that we need. And thank you again for the interview. Aloha.

KEILAR: Thank you, sir.

And for more information for our viewers about how you can help Hawaii wildfire victims, you can go to CNN.com/Impact. You can also text Hawaii to 707070 to donate -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: And just hours before President Joe Biden arrived in Utah yesterday, FBI agents there tried to arrest a man accused of making online threats to kill the president, as well as other Democrats.

It ended with the suspect dead. A law enforcement source tells us that. Craig D. Robertson pointed a gun at FBI SWAT agents as they were trying to take him into custody.

Let's bring in CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell.

Josh, this was not the suspect's first encounter with the FBI.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hey, my friend.

That's right. This investigation actually started back in March. And the genesis was a social media company seeing something concerning on their platform. They called the FBI. The FBI then put this suspect under surveillance and eventually confronted him about several troubling posts that they were seeing.

Now, at the beginning of that interview, the suspect allegedly told them that: Look, this was all part of some dream I had, these disturbing posts.

He then got very belligerent and told the agents that: Don't come back unless you have a warrant.

[13:15:04]

Behind the scenes, they continued their investigation, continuing to see post after post. And it was this post about President Joe Biden that really got the U.S. Secret Service concerned, as well as the FBI, because Joe Biden was en route to Utah.

I will read you this alleged post that was online, this according to the criminal complaint.

The suspect wrote: "I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghillie suit" -- that refers to camouflage attire worn by snipers" -- and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle."

So the FBI did what they do in so many of these circumstances that they believe that a crime has been committed, that there's someone who actually is capable and intending to cause a harm. They will seek an arrest warrant. That, they did. And they attempted to take him into custody.

A law enforcement source told me that he pulled a weapon those agents, one of those agents fatally shooting him, Alex.

MARQUARDT: And, Josh, these social media posts that are extremely troubling from the suspect, they not only included threats against the president, but also against other prominent Democrats across the country.

Tell us more.

CAMPBELL: That's right. That's the through line.

This suspect, a lot of this vitriol that he was posting online, these threats, they were towards Democrats, and particularly people who President Donald Trump was critical of.

I will show you this list here. You see President Joe Biden. You see Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who, of course, has been running one of the investigations into Donald Trump, also, at the state level, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and two New York state officials, Letitia James, the A.G. there, and DA Alvin Bragg, who is also criminally investigating Donald Trump.

And so you again see that through line. This, of course, Alex, as you know, covering national security, is something that U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have been so concerned about, this heated political climate that we're in. They're concerned that there could be more people out there that are hearing all this vitriol and could actually act with some type of violence, and something certainly they will be looking as we move further into the next presidential election cycle.

MARQUARDT: Yes, that's right, taking inspiration from that.

Josh Campbell, a very disturbing report. Thank you very much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: New charges for former President Trump and his two co- defendants in the federal classified documents case. What they're facing now and what went down at their court appearances today.

Plus, why health officials are preparing for what they call a triple threat of viruses and how you can keep from getting sick.

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[13:21:27]

MARQUARDT: There is breaking news out of Iran.

Four Americans who have been wrongfully detained there for years have now been released from prison, but are under house arrest.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is at the State Department.

Kylie, what more are you learning?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, Alex, we just got confirmation from the White House that five Americans who have been wrongfully detained in Iran, imprisoned in Iran had been released on house arrest.

That's from the National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson calling this an encouraging step. Now, who these Americans are, we know the identity publicly of three of them, Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, and Emad Shargi.

Siamak Namazi has been detained in Iran since 2015. The other two were detained in separate instances -- excuse me -- since 2015, the other two detained in separate instances in 2018. So it has been many years that the families have been wanting the release of these Americans.

The other two Americans who are part of this release today, sending them to house arrest, we don't know their identities. And so that is something we will continue to watch for, but the National Security Council saying that they will continue to press, of course, for these Americans not just to be released on house arrest too, but to return to the United States.

And according to a source who has been briefed on the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, there is still a ways to go here. There are a few weeks until these Americans are expected to be back in the United States. And they won't get into the details of exactly what is going to happen during that period of time.

But one thing that we do know is that there have been discussions about $6 billion in Iranian funds that are currently in a restricted account in South Korea, and making those funds more accessible to the Iranians. There will still be the same restrictions on those funds. They can only use them for humanitarian purposes or non-sanctionable trade.

But they're going to try and put them in a different account, so that the Iranians can have easier access to those funds. The other issue that we know has been discussed is a prisoner swap with some Iranians in U.S. prison. This is according to the Iranians coming out and saying this, set to be released as part of what we're expected to see over the course of the coming weeks.

And the likely time frame for when these Americans are expected to come back to the U.S. if all goes well would be in September. That's according to the source familiar with these negotiations here. So this is a major development for these families, especially who had been wanting some sort of movement on these Americans who have been wrongfully detained in Iranian prison for so many years now.

We should also note, when it comes to the U.S. conversation surrounding the Iran nuclear program, a source briefed on these negotiations said that these conversations around the detainee issue were separate from conversations regarding Iran's nuclear program.

But progress in this area could, of course, compel forward progress in other areas between the U.S. and Iran.

MARQUARDT: Certainly, a welcome step for those prisoners, for their families, but, as you say, Kylie, a lot more to learn about the contours of this deal.

Kylie Atwood at the State Department, thank you very much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: This morning, former President Trump's body man and his Mar- a-Lago property manager were in court facing new charges tied to classified documents that were stored at Trump's for resort Mar-a- Lago.

[13:25:00]

Trump's two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, are accused of helping the former president obstruct the investigation. Nauta and Trump, through his attorneys, both entered not guilty pleas for the latest charges.

We have CNN's Randi Kaye outside of the federal courthouse in Florida.

Randi, take us through how this time in court went.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, as you said, Trump did enter this not guilty plea through his attorneys.

He had submitted a waiver of appearance, but Walt Nauta, his aide, did appear with his attorneys, and also did enter that not guilty plea. But he had pleaded not guilty to the earlier charges. But now he was facing the extra charges from the superseding indictment.

But Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager, we were expecting him, Brianna, to enter a plea as well. As you know, he appeared in court in Miami last week, but he didn't enter a plea and didn't have an official arraignment because he needed a Florida attorney in order to enter a plea.

He had a Florida attorney in court today, but still no plea, just another delay. The attorney wasn't officially signed on. His name is Donnie (ph) Morrell, and he told the judge that he's waiting for confirmation before entering his appearance as counsel.

De Oliveira's Washington, D.C.-based attorney, John Irving, was with him again. And he said that he believed they have ironed out the details, but they need another day or so. So he should have this Florida attorney by tomorrow. But now his official arraignment is delayed until Tuesday of next week, August 15.

That is when he's expected to enter a plea. He may not appear in person, but we should get a plea on Tuesday. Of course, this all relates to the charges both men are facing, including false statements, conspiracy to obstruct justice, as well as concealing documents.

The question is, of course, Brianna, how this delay and his arraignment and these added charges and the co-defendants and all that they have to do in court, how will that impact the trial, which is set for May of next year, for Donald Trump in the classified documents case? Will it indeed happen before the presidential election, Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, we will be looking for that. We will be looking for next Tuesday as well.

Randi Kaye live for us from Florida, thank you -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: Let's bring in CNN legal analyst former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams. Elliot, to that question about the timeline, now one of the three co- defendants, Carlos De Oliveira, he had his arraignment postponed today. So this is yet another delay. How much does that play into the timeline of this trial just getting pushed back farther and farther?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Of course it does.

Every delay deals -- will add to the time it's going to take to get to trial. And, remember, it's been weeks, if not months, frankly, since the former president was first charged in the matter. It takes a while to get to trial in any circumstance. I think we all have in our heads, because the elections coming, we have got to move this one along.

But, no, look, there are any number of matters that are going to slow this down. They haven't even gotten to the legal challenges over handling classified documents. This one's going to take a while to get to trial.

MARQUARDT: Walt Nauta has pled not guilty.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

MARQUARDT: We assume that Carlos De Oliveira could do the same.

What chances now are there for prosecutors to flip them, if you will? And is that their goal?

WILLIAMS: Yes. Oh, it's definitely their goal.

It is always in a defendant's interest, the way our system is set up, to plead guilty. Number one, anyone who pleads guilty gets a lower sentence. And, number two, anyone who cooperates with the government gets their sentence lowered even further.

So we have built in a great incentive to do so. Now, what you have here is the drama of working for the former president. And there isn't a long track record of people turning testimony against the former president. He inspires a bunch of loyalty. So, IT remains to be seen, but looking at the kind of jail time they might be looking at, it's in their interest to cooperate and testify.

MARQUARDT: So this was the latest stage in the first federal case. We have now seen indictment in the second federal case, of course, indictment in New York.

And we are expecting one also -- well, one for President Trump, former President Trump, also in Georgia. All of these overlapping cases, does that help or hurt the various prosecutors?

WILLIAMS: You know, I think it probably hurts in a way only on account of scheduling.

Any one of these matters has to happen on its own timeline. And at a certain point, a defendant can't show up to trial in one jurisdiction and another on the same day. So, at some point, judges are going to have to talk to each other on the telephone and say, look, we're bringing this defendant to trial this month. Could you maybe postpone yours another month or even longer than that?

And it's just one of the realities of scheduling in court.

MARQUARDT: An extremely busy year ahead, not just for those prosecutors but, of course, for President Trump's various lawyers and those around him.

Elliot Williams, thanks very much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Alex, still to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL: Ukraine says the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is on the verge of a blackout after losing its power supply.

We will have details on that just ahead.

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