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At Least 36 People Dead In Catastrophic Maui Wildfires; Prosecutors Want January 2024 Trial In Trump Election Interference Case; FBI Shoots, Kills Man Accused Of Threatening Biden. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired August 10, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, new disturbing images from Hawaii. The entire neighborhood is on fire. People fleeing to safety. We're going to speak live through a man who says he lost his home on Maui, and he's going to tell us about the moment that he knew it was time to get out.

Plus, arraignments today for most of the 16 Michigan Republicans who served as fake electors in 2020. Their defense as they face first-of- their-kind felony charges.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And five Americans wrongfully detained in Iran for several years, are now out of prison and under house arrest. We have new details on the deal that one source calls an encouraging step. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTER.

KEILAR: Like a warzone. Fire raining down from the sky. Survivors of the deadly wildfires in Hawaii, which are still sweeping across Maui are describing just an apocalyptic scene. Right now, at least 36 people are confirmed dead in Hawaii and there are major concerns that that pole will rise even more.

Last hour, we spoke with Hawaii State Senator Angus McKelvey. He lost his home in the historic town of Lahaina. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ANGUS MCKELVEY, DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATOR, HAWAII: 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're -- you know, we're still reeling with the fact that we need desperate help immediately. He literally looked like a bombed-out Beirut.

And the -- there's -- you know, all of the boats, every boat in the harbor burned and sank in place. I mean, the entire -- the preschool was all gone. That entire Pioneer in which was a big historic hotel, a sizable one, is literally nothing there. I mean, it's just -- it's a -- it's kind of tough catatonic to look at.

KEILAR: Thank you. That's right.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: And I want to talk more about this with Jeff Melichar. He is a Maui resident who lost both of his homes to the fires. Jeff, thank you so much for joining us today.

I can only imagine what an incredibly difficult time it is for you and those around you, so thank you very much. Can we just start with the moment that the fire was approaching? What did you see, what did you fear -- feel rather as it came closer to your homes?

JEFF MELICHAR, MAUI RESIDENT, LOST HOMES IN FIRE: Tuesday evening, it was at roughly 7:3o, 8:00 p.m., we had walked through the neighborhood and saw the flames rapidly approaching our area on Front Street. So, at one point, we had to run back through the neighborhood because we were getting overwhelmed with smoke and embers. We ran back to the house and had another 10 or 15 minutes before we knew we were going to be overtaken. And at that point, we had to just jump in the car. I'm sorry.

MARQUARDT: No, we completely understand.

MELICHAR: Yes. It was -- it was really traumatic.

MARQUARDT: To say the very least, where are you staying right now?

MELICHAR: I'm staying in Kihei. A friend of mine's house. That was a city on the south side of Maui.

MARQUARDT: And were you with anybody in your homes?

MELICHAR: There was a friend of mine that was with me. And he and I jumped in the car at about 8:00 and evacuated Front Street onto the highway where police were not letting anybody back in town, of course.

MARQUARDT: You were renting out a second home to another family. Have you been able to get in touch with them? Do you know what their status is?

MELICHAR: I've been in touch with them. They're staying upcountry here in Maui. They had left early in the day, never dreaming, they were not going to be able to get back. And unfortunately, their two Labradors are left in the house so we're under the impression they perish during the fire.

[14:05:11]

MARQUARDT: It's just so -- that's just devastating. Jeff, we've heard people compare this to a war zone. And we've seen all these images of the fire, of the smoke just otherworldly and apocalyptic. It's hard to come up with more adjectives.

I can't imagine that you have seen anything like this before. Have you been able to start processing what has happened in the past few days?

MELICHAR: No, not really. I've seen videos. We're not allowed back in the west side yet. I've videos and pictures, and it's truly devastating.

Lahaina is absolutely wiped out. There's very little standing and remaining. And so, I have no idea what many, many families are going to be doing right now because everything is literally gone.

MARQUARDT: Everything's literally gone. And we understand, Jeff, that you retired to Maui. You were working and living on the mainland, and then you retired to Maui. Is that right?

MELICHAR: Correct. I still have a home on the mainland that I'm lucky enough to be able to go back to. But I know a lot of families here don't have that option. And it's truly tragic.

MARQUARDT: So, if I may ask, what is your plan now? Do you plan to stay? Are you going to go back to the continental United States?

MELICHAR: Eventually, I'm going to stay here and eventually be let back on to the west side to survey the damage and to check the properties that I owned and to see if there's anything left salvaging, personal mementos, and such.

MARQUARDT: What have you been told about any kind of support that you may get to rebuild, to get back there? And what more do you and others like you need?

MELICHAR: I haven't heard much of anything yet. I'm sure they will be doing something or probably a lot, but I really have no information yet as to what's going to happen. It's a little early and I just know this is going to take years to come back if at all. It's a -- I mean it is literally gone.

MARQUARDT: Jeff, what would your message be to people, to those like us who are just watching this on TV but also to the government in terms of the support that the people around you need right now?

MELICHAR: Yes. Do what you can. I'm sure there were going to be agencies for donations for people that are in need. I know there's a lot of that going on.

The death toll is rising. It's just very traumatizing for people. So, I would imagine that donate if you can and do what you can to help the people in Maui.

MARQUARDT: It's going to be extraordinarily traumatizing. Jeff, thank you again for your time. We can only imagine again what you're going through right now, so we really appreciate you speaking with us. And, of course, our thoughts are with you and with so many others out there. Thank you.

MELICHAR: You're welcome.

MARQUARDT: All right. Brianna. KEILAR: For more information on how you can help Hawaii wildfire victims, just go to cnn.com/impact or text Hawaii to 707070 to donate.

We're also following some major legal developments in three cases that are tied to former President Trump. In Florida this morning, Trump and his body man Walt Nauta pleaded not guilty to additional charges in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. In Georgia, with a potential indictment on the way, Trump released an attack and -- attack ad that smears the Atlanta area district attorney investigating him for 2020 election interference.

And then in Michigan today, nine Republicans were arraigned on felony state charges for signing on as fake electors in an effort to block Joe Biden's 2020 win in the state. And now, a total of 16 defendants have pleaded not guilty in that case.

We have CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers here with us to talk a little bit about this. You know, we keep hearing, Jen, that these cases in Michigan are novel. They're the first of their kind. What makes them novel?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we haven't had a factual scenario like this before, Brianna, where you have people claiming that even though they submitted paperwork that they have to acknowledge was facially false, they were not the duly elected electors. That they say because they believed that the election should have been won by the person they were supporting that they're not guilty. So, there are some interesting defenses here.

Obviously, the attorney general has thought long and hard about all of this before she charged. And she feels very good about the charges. She says she thinks the evidence is very strong. And legally, it's strong, so we'll see what happens.

KEILAR: Some of these fake electors say, hey, I was tricked. I didn't know that I was doing something that was bad. And then, on the other hand, you have some who say, they still believe Donald Trump won. They are you know fully invested in that lie. Will there be a distinction made between these two kinds of defendants, do you think?

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RODGERS: Well, certainly the prosecutors will have to account for questions that jurors will have in both of those situations, right? So, you want to kind of knock down the defenses of all of the defendants on trial, so they will have to kind of address both of those things. But where those things really fall down is even though it does appear that these electors in Michigan were lied to in the sense of these electors were told that their forms would be submitted if and only if litigation that was challenging the results succeeded, they still knew that they were forging documents.

In other words, they knew that when they signed a piece of paper that says, I am a duly elected elector for Donald Trump. And these are the certified election results, that that was just factually untrue at the time that they signed it. So, if you look at the elements of the offenses, I think the prosecutors will argue it's still an offense even if they had these beliefs and that they were tricked in some fashion.

KEILAR: So much of the federal case, when it comes to the fake electoral scheme, says that it was the former president who was indicted and then the unindicted co-conspirators alleging that they caused these fake electors in this different state to go through with this process. Does that endanger the chance of prosecution for these electors at all that language about them being caused by sort of other masterminds?

RODGERS: No. It's sort of like, you know, you're charging different levels of offenders, right? So, there's the mastermind, the head of the criminal organization, if you will, who kind of directs people to do things, but then you have the low-level people like in a drug organization, the kingpin versus the person on the street who's pitching drugs, right?

It's not that the person on the street doesn't know what they're doing and knows that they are a cog in the wheel and that they're helping this crime happen. It's just that they still can be directed by their boss, right, their boss in this criminal scheme. So, I don't think it helps these electors.

I mean, I think they will try to kind of pitch themselves as the victims here. That's more of an appeal to the jurors. Kind of as a personal matter for their sympathy then it is a legal defense, though.

KEILAR: Jennifer Rodgers, thank you so much for your insights. Always helpful. Alex?

MARQUARDT: And we have breaking news out of Iran. Five Americans held for years in an Iranian prison have now been released but put in house arrest. CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour broke this news for us and joins us now. So, Christiane, what more are you learning about their release?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, they were released today. They have been seen -- sighted and it's all confirmed by their lawyer's family and by the United States, the White House, State Department, and even by Iran. We got a confirmation and a comment from Iran.

They have been in Siamak for more than seven years, nearly eight years, Emad Shargi, and Morad Thabaz. These are businessman and environmentalist who was sentenced to 10 years. They have been seized since 2018. So, five years. And two other Americans also who have not been made public in terms of their names have also been released.

Now, they are going, as you said to house arrest at a hotel in -- they are currently there, in Tehran. And they have been seen by the Swiss ambassador. The Swiss government does take care of American interests, while America has no diplomatic relations with Iran.

Now, we believe that under the terms of the broader deal, the hostages -- the prisoners who are now under house arrest, will be finally freed and allowed to leave Iran only when the full terms of the deal have been settled. When all the T's are crossed, the I's are dotted, and then a plane will come and take them out. This has been mediated as well by the Persian Gulf State of Qatar, and it also involves financial transactions between South Korea and Iran.

I just want to play for you a little bit of an interview that Siamak Namazi bravely gave me from jail five months ago in desperation to get their plight in front of you know the administration and the world. He actually called out -- used phone privileges which he did have after eight years in prison, to call out. And this is a little bit of what he said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SIAMAK NAMAZI, IRANIAN-AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN: I think the very fact that I've chosen to take this risk and appear on CNN from Evin prison, it should just tell you how dire my situation has become by this point. I've been a hostage for seven and a half years now. That's six times the duration of the hostage crisis.

[14:15:03]

I keep getting told that I'm going to be rescued, and deals fall apart or I get left abandoned. Honestly, the other hostages and I desperately need President Biden to finally hear us out, to finally hear our cry for help and bring us home. And I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. So, this is a desperate measure.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So, that desperate measure, as he said, has borne some fruit. Now, all the families and their representatives are very careful not to put the cart before the horse. They know that this is the first step, a welcome step, but there's a number of weeks of negotiations to complete before they can actually come home.

Importantly, we got a reaction and a confirmation from the Iranian government. When we called -- when my team called and asked them, the U.N. Mission in New York said this is a result of humanitarian cooperation, also by a third-party government. Iran and the U.S. have agreed to reciprocally released and pardon five prisoners. And the transfer today, they said -- the Iranian said is a first step to that.

So, that means the Iranians expect five prisoners to be released by the United States at some point in the future. And then there's the bigger question of the frozen funds that Iran expects to get. Not directly into a trust kind of account managed by Qatar, as we understand, only to be used for humanitarian aid and goods that are not sanctioned, and for the good of Iranians who are suffering under severe sanctions and you know, their government mismanagement at the moment.

MARQUARDT: Christiane, what more do we know about those prisoners who Iran would be receiving and the amount of money that they would be getting back? And if I may, to what extent this is tied to the conversations over Iran's nuclear program as well? AMANPOUR: Well, look. You know that the U.S. -- certainly the Biden administration really wanted to go back into the nuclear deal and years now of discussions have yielded nothing yet in that -- in that department. So, they then you know, had to figure out how to get these Americans home.

Now, the money is not American money. This is very important to understand. It is Iranian funds that the South Koreans owe them for getting Iranian energy.

It's somewhere we understand from previous conversations and previous interviews in the region of six to seven billion dollars. So, the idea is to unfreeze that amount of money and put it into a third-party controlled account that will then help -- you know go to help in a humanitarian way. Iranians inside Iran.

We don't know -- I don't know the nature of the Iranian prisoners held in the United States. They may be as in the past as sort of a combination of some business people, sometimes journalists, those who have been arrested for whatever America says they -- laws they violated. This has happened before.

Many, many American presidents have undergone this kind of transaction. Tragically, Siamak Namazi, who's the longest-held was left behind during the prisoner swap that accompanied the nuclear deal back in 2015, 2016. And he was left behind during deals to free two Americans under the Trump administration in 2019.

So, for him and his family, this has been a massive ordeal. And of course, they of course deny any wrongdoing. As he said to me, we haven't so much as Jay walked. We were taken for one reason only, and that's because we're Americans.

MARQUARDT: A massive ordeal. A positive first step is to get these Americans home. But Christiane, as you note, there is a lot more that needs to be worked out. Christiane Amanpour, who broke this news, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Brianna.

AMANPOUR: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead. An update on the destruction and evacuations after the wildfires in Hawaii as President Biden approves a disaster declaration. I'll speak to a reporter who needed to evacuate as well.

Plus, the man shot and killed by the FBI in Utah. We'll have more on the alarming threats that he had made against President Biden and others before agents arrived at his door.

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[14:23:13]

MARQUARDT: Breaking news. Prosecutors on the federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump are now asking for a January 2024 trial. Let's bring in senior crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz. So, Katelyn, what does that mean for this case?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Alex, it means that if this is granted by the judge, it would be a very, very speedy and aggressive road to trial for both prosecutors and Donald Trump's team and the federal court in Washington. So, in this January 6 case, what the Justice Department, the special counsel's office is asking now is jury selection in December. And then the trial beginning January second, the day after New Year's right before the anniversary of the capital attacks, which would be January 6, of course, and then also right before voters starting -- would start to go to the polls in primary elections. Donald Trump obviously running for the Republican nomination, the Iowa caucuses would naturally be first there.

And at the same time in January, that kicks off a trial schedule for Donald Trump in a bunch of other proceedings, including lawsuits. In January, he does have a trial that is set to begin in a lawsuit from E. Jean Carroll, the columnist in New York. And so, there is going to be quite a lot of thought that the judge is going to have to put into this.

Can they get to trial this fast, four months away from now, essentially without jury selection in mid-December? Is that plausible? And Trump's team too, they're going to be able to come back and argue against this.

They most certainly will. They wanted to put his trial in Florida off until after the election, and they've already signaled that they want to do a lot of motions. Test the law quite a bit here before this goes to trial.

MARQUARDT: So, presumably, we'll be hearing from them very soon. Katelyn Polantz, with the breaking news that the federal prosecutors in the election interference case want that trial to begin at the very beginning of January 2024. Brianna.

[14:25:10]

KEILAR: We're also closely following his story out of Utah. Just hours before President Biden arrived in the state yesterday, FBI agents there tried to arrest a man accused of making online threats to kill the president and other Democrats and it ended with the suspect's death. A law enforcement source telling us that Craig D. Anderson pointed a gun at FBI SWAT agents as they were trying to take him into custody.

I want to bring in CNN's Security Correspondent Josh Campbell to talk about this. This, Josh, was not the suspect's first run-in with the FBI, which he had alluded to on social media.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna. The investigation actually started back in March when a social media company noticed concerning material on their platform. They call the FBI. That's when the FBI placed this suspect under surveillance. They eventually made contact with him to confront him about a series of troubling online posts in which he was making threats against officials. The suspect, according to the criminal complaint, told the FBI look all those posts, that was part of a dream. He then got very aggressive with those agents telling them to go away and not to come back unless they had a warrant. They eventually obtained that warrant after they noticed troubling information about President Joe Biden.

I'll read you one of the alleged posts from the suspect. He wrote that I hear Biden is coming to Utah. Digging out my old ghillie suit. That refers to attire -- camouflage attire worn by snipers. And cleaning the dust off the M24 Sniper Rifle.

Of course, would concern the U.S. Secret Service in the FBI was that President Joe Biden was indeed en route to Utah yesterday. And so in the early morning hours, they went to his home, attempted to take him into custody. Law enforcement source told me he then brandished a weapon toward those agents, one of those FBI SWAT operators opening fire, firing that fatal shot.

It's worth pointing out. You know, people ask well, why the heavy- handedness by the FBI? Why bring in a SWAT team?

Take a look at some of the imagery that the suspect had on his social media platform, including the weaponry that he had. A lot of pictures of guns and graphic detail about how he wanted to use these weapons against prominent Democratic officials. And so, they then came in with that heavy tactical team to try to arrest him.

Of course, it's worth pointing out, Brianna, that all of this comes as the Department of Homeland Security and other intelligence agencies have been warning about political rhetoric and how that could lead to violence. It's something that law enforcement is certainly watching as we continue toward the 2024 election cycle.

KEILAR: Yes, they're very worried about anti-government extremism. They certainly are. Josh Campbell, live on this story, thank you so much. Alex?

MARQUARDT: At least 36 people have been killed in the wake of Hawaii's wildfires. Thousands now evacuating amid the struggle to contain the flames. We'll have a live report next.

Plus, a presidential candidate in Ecuador assassinated at a campaign event. What we're learning about plans for the election there that are set to happen this month? That's next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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