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Extensive Assessment of Fire Response Ordered by Hawaii Governor; Interview with Lost properties in Maui Wildfires Alan Dickar; Police Raid on Kansas Newspaper Leading to Huge Backlash; Interview with Defense Attorney and Trial Attorney Misty Marris; Smash-and-Grab Robbery at a Los Angeles Mall Stole Between $60,000 and $100,000 of Merchandise; Hunter Biden's Attorneys Says Trial is "Not Inevitable". Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired August 14, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: We know from the governor that this fire was traveling literally a mile a minute with the winds ripping as it did. Where are your thoughts on --

ALAN DICKAR, LOST PROPERTIES IN MAUI WILDFIRES: Well, there were multiple --

BOLDUAN: -- accountability right now?

DICKAR: My main thought on accountability is that you don't do a post mortem analysis while the patient is still alive. We're not out of this yet. It's too soon. We have unfolding problems that are still in front of us. Let's take care of the survivors first. Let -- you know, first, there's time to figure out what happened -- I can give you a rough scenario of where mistakes were made. I'm not trying to blame anybody.

But there's no question that there were -- you know, we face an unprecedented situation because there were massive fires in other parts of the island that drew resources. And the way Maui is set up is that each area has a fire department, and when there's a fire going out of control, units get sent to other areas to help out. But they keep -- obviously, keep some back.

But the problem here is, the biggest fire that was out of control was up in Kula, and I have a feeling that a lot of fire -- a lot of the resources from, not just Maui -- from Lahaina but from elsewhere in the island were up in Kula. And then Lahaina exploded, and whoever was in charge needed to make a crazy, awful decision which was, do you sacrifice Kula, which is up on Haleakala which is the bigger part of Maui and it's a residential area, but it's very spread out. It's large lot. Very spread out. Lot, you know, big -- you know, often multiacre properties and not nearly as densely populated.

Do you sacrifice Kula and pull everything back to Lahaina, or for some reason it appears that they really focused on containing the blaze in Kula first. Then I don't know what the protocol is and I don't know what decisions were made. I don't -- you know, I have -- I understand that the --

BOLDUAN: But your point is an important country one.

DICKAR: -- fire --

BOLDUAN: Your point is a very important one, Alan, which is the crisis is not over. You're still in the middle of it. As your pictures and as your stories, as we've been talking are totally true. So, it's a focus now can be on trying to get through it. It's -- thank you so much, Alan.

DICKAR: For my staff --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

DICKAR: OK.

BOLDUAN: No, no, no. Thank you so much. We'll stay in close touch. Thank you so much, Alan.

DICKAR: Well, just one quick things. Problems rarely come by themselves. And we had multiple problems that compounded to make this an -- a catastrophe. So, it's no -- I don't think you blame any one place. And right now, I really want people to focus on helping people because that's what's driving me nuts is the little things that aren't being done.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Alan, thank you so much.

DICKAR: You're welcome.

BOLDUAN: For more information on how you can help the victims of these wildfires just as Alan was talking about, go to cnn.com/impact. You can also text Hawaii to 707070 to donate. We'll be right back.

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[10:35:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning, a police raid on a small Kansas newspaper is leading to a huge backlash. More than 30 news and press freedom organizations, including CNN, are condemning the Marion County Police Department for raiding a local paper and also raiding the home of its owner. The Marion County records publisher says, officers confiscated computers, file servers, phones from reporters and editors.

What you're looking at is a picture of the aftermath of the raid. You can see very clearly where a reporter's computer tower used to sit before it was taken by police. The paper's publisher says, they've done nothing wrong in their reporting about a local restaurant owner which seems to center around. The restaurant owner though claims, their privacy rights were violated.

CNN's Whitney Wild picks up the story there for us. She joins us now. Whitney, what do they say led to this raid? WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've reached out to several law enforcement agencies involved, Kate. And here's a quote, "The Marion Police Department and the Marion County attorney asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to join an investigation into the illegal access and dissemination of confidential criminal justice information."

We've reached out to the chief of the Marion County Police Department. This is a small department that executed this raid on this newspaper. And the chief did respond to CNN saying, look, in most cases, yes, there are major limits on police raids of journalists. However, that chief told CNN that those limits are only when there's not a suspicion that the journalist themselves is involved in the criminal action.

And so, the implication there is that the police department believes that the journalists are involved in some sort of illegal action. This all started earlier this month when the publisher tells CNN, the publisher's name is Eric Meyer, that he and his reporter attended a political event at a coffee shop owned by a woman named Kari Newell.

[10:40:00]

Kari Newell told CNN that she asked Meyer and his reporter to leave the premises because she says that paper has a history of twisting comments. She says, after she asked them to leave, that open meet and greet, something that was available to the public, the newspaper published a story about her, she says, through illegal means. Basically, she says they obtained information about her that should only have been available to law enforcement, insurance agencies and other people with certain credentials. Not available to the public. She says, they produced that story purely out of malice and out of retribution.

The publisher, Eric Meyer, says they did nothing wrong. They got information from sources. They confirmed this story using publicly available means, as we do at CNN all the time and as other newspapers and local television stations are doing every day, probably at this very moment.

Again, Kate, this is bringing a very sharp rebuke from numerous news organizations, including CNN. The concern here is that this raid on this newspaper will have a chilling effect. The newspaper publisher says, unequivocally, they will not stop publishing. Back to you.

BOLDUAN: Whitney, thank you so much for that. There's a lot of questions here.

Joining us now for some more perspective is Attorney Misty Marris. Misty, what are your big questions surrounding the situation right now?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY AND TRIAL ATTORNEY: Right here, it's the Privacy Protection Act. And I'm not surprised to see power player media organizations rallying behind this newsroom. There's a federal law on the books that provides extra protections outside of the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, all these constitutional considerations. This is a federal law that says, you cannot raid a newsroom. You cannot raid a journalist. It is an illegal search and seizure. You cannot do that. Now, that doesn't mean that they can't investigate. It just has to go through other means, like subpoenas or cooperation orders. There are all of these other areas. But a raid like this, the federal law was passed specifically to protect the ability for news organizations to report the news and not be stifled by the government and suppress stories. So, it's a really serious issue. It's really been highlighted, yes.

BOLDUAN: Because it gets at a bigger, broader, very important issue that goes beyond Kansas and one newspaper and one investigation of a local police department. This is much bigger. And the concern -- what do you think of the concern of the chilling effect if this is allowed to stand.

MARRIS: Chilling effect on the first amendment. Chilling effect on journalists who are looking to report stories, and now have fear of potential criminal retribution for that. So, it's certainly a really important story. As you said, it shines a light on this issue. And look, the facts here, I would like to see the probable cause affidavit. It doesn't look like that's been filed.

BOLDUAN: Right.

MARRIS: So, to see if it falls into one of the very, very limited exceptions to this rule. But on its face, this looks like an incredibly problematic situation that's going to need to be investigated to see how did we get here?

BOLDUAN: As always, following the facts on this is very important right now. It's good to see you, Misty. Thank you so much.

MARRS: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Still ahead, police are looking for the suspects in a brazen smash-and-grab at a mall in Los Angeles. A group got away with more than $100,000 in merchandise.

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[10:45:00]

SIDNER: We have seen these before, but this one is particularly wild. A smash-and-grab robbery, caught on video, at a Los Angeles mall. Police say, a mob of criminals wearing head to toe black, ran into a mall on Saturday, overwhelmed staff, and stole between $60,000 and $100,000 of merchandise from a Nordstrom.

CNN's Josh Campbell is in Los Angeles for us. Josh, their faces are -- some of them covered. They're -- they've got their hoodies on. Hard to see them. Has there been any movement on identifying any of these suspects? JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: So, no key leads that we're aware of by police and that's because, as you mentioned, it's so hard to investigate these. The suspects were clad with masks. These smash-and-grab operations typically happen without warning. The people are out of there within a minute or so. But nevertheless, that investigation is under way.

Just to set the scene for our viewers, this was Saturday afternoon here in the Los Angeles area. You had shoppers out at a mall. You had employees just going about their business. And then this happened. Watch.

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CAMPBELL: Now, police said there were approximately 30 people that were part of mob that smashed and grabbed their way through the store. You can see in that video, their one employee looked exasperated. There was nothing that he can do.

The Los Angeles police department issued a statement, I'll read to you that in part. They say that, to criminals it is just property taken. But to those who live in the area and patronize it, the Topanga Mall, it is a loss of feeling safe. The LAPD will exhaust all efforts to bring those responsible into custody and seek criminal prosecution.

Now, interestingly, Sara, a very similar incident happened just days ago in nearby Glendale, California. You could see that video there where you had, again, another large criminal flash mob of people going about into these buildings. Authorities say that upwards of $300,000 worth of merchandise were stolen there. A $50,000 reward is currently being offered by police for any information leading to the identification and arrest of those suspects, Sara.

[10:50:00]

SIDNER: It's just so incredible brazen. But you can see some of the security measures used with some of the person being locked onto some of the fixtures so that people couldn't take them.

CAMPBELL: Right.

SIDNER: Josh Campbell, thank you so much for that. Appreciate it.

CAMPBELL: You bet. Sure.

SIDNER: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Lawyers for Hunter Biden say, it is not certain his case will go to trial even though the plea deal has fallen apart.

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BERMAN: This morning, attorneys for Hunter Biden say their plea deal with the Justice Department is still, "Valid and binding." And they say that a trial for the president's son is not inevitable. This falls the decision to grant special counsel status to the attorney investigating Biden, the U.S. Attorney, David Weiss.

CNN's Kara Scannell has the latest for us. Kara.

[10:55:00]

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. So, this new filing yesterday from Hunter Biden's legal team shows that they're not just going to go quietly on this move by the special -- by David Weiss now, the special counsel, to scrap what plans they had in place. So, they're saying that they believe, Biden's team believes that this deal they had on a gun possession charge is still valid and binding. So, they're arguing to the judge that that should still stand. That was a 24-month period where a gun felony charge would be dismissed if Biden agreed to certain conditions. They're saying that is still in place.

Now, prosecutors in a court filing on Friday told the judge that they had reached an impasse on both this gun deal and a plea deal relating to two tax misdemeanor charges. So, they were telling the judge that they don't think that this deal still exists. So, the judge who questioned this deal at the hearing last month, who said she thought it might be unconstitutional is now giving prosecutors until noon tomorrow to weigh in.

Now, all that said, one of Hunter Biden's attorneys, Abbe Lowell, was on CNN Friday and on some other programs over the weekend. Where he's saying that even though there's the appointment of the special counsel, he thinks they'll end up where they were, and that is trying to resolve these charges short of a trial. He was on CBS's "Face the Nation" yesterday and was asked if a trial is inevitable. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBE LOWELL, HUNTER BIDEN'S LAWYER: It's not inevitable and I think what I --

MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS NEWS "FACE THE NATION WITH MARGARET BRENNAN" HOST: And you're trying to avoid one?

LOWELL: Yes, we were trying to avoid one all along and so were the prosecutors who came forward to us and were the ones to say, can there be a resolution short of a prosecution? So, they wanted it. And maybe they still do want it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCANNELL: Now, either way, John, with the elevation of David Weiss to special counsel, any potential plea deal is now much further in the future than it appeared to be just last month. John.

BERMAN: Yes, they were minutes away, it seemed, from a plea deal at one point. Kara Scannell, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Coming up, we're looking at live pictures right here outside the courthouse in Georgia where a grand jury is meeting right now and security is tight. What to expect as the D.A. there starts laying out her case against a dozen people, possibly including Donald Trump. We'll be back.

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