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Napa Winery Host Confirms Fani Willis Paid In Cash; Alabama Supreme Court Rules Frozen Embryos Are "Children"; FBI, Allies Seize Dark-Web Site Of Top Ransomware Gang. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 20, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:29]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Biden just spoke moments ago on the South Lawn of the White House just before he departed on Marine One for Andrews Air Force Base on route to a campaign trip in California.

Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President -- (INAUDIBLE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm going to California.

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: Are you ready? What I'm looking for? I'm looking at you.

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What I came to tell you was I told you would be announcing sanctions on Russia. We'll have a major package announced on Friday. I'll be happy to sit with you all doing that, OK?

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: Well, I don't care.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, so following the death of Alexey Navalny in Russian custody in a prison there, the president had raised the -- raised this possibility of further sanctions.

And he's saying that they are going to be releasing a -- details on a major package of sanctions against Russia on Friday.

We were just looking there at pictures of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base. The president's next stop is going to be California as he makes his way there for a fundraising swing.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Meantime, amid efforts to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election subversion case against former President Donald Trump, a winery host has come forward backing at least part of her claims about but paying for things in cash.

[13:35:06]

Remember, Willis has been under fire for her romantic relationship with lead prosecutor, Nathan Wade. Defense attorneys for Trump and his co-defendants claim that she benefited financially from that relationship.

But last week, during a hearing, Willis testified that she often reimbursed Wade for the meals and trips that the defense says he paid for, claiming that she did so in cash.

CNN's Zach Cohen joins us now.

Zach, first of all, how did you get in touch with the winery guy and what did he tell you?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Boris, Stan -- Stan -- his name is Stan Brody -- reached out to CNN after watching the hearing, which was obviously broadcast live, on live stream in Atlanta, Georgia.

And he reached out because when you when the testimony turned to Fani Williss habit of using cash and a habit of using and storing a lot of cash in your house, it rang a bell in his mind.

And here's what he told me. He said that he realized that he had a personal experience with Fani Willis, with Nathan Wade that was potentially relevant to what Fani Willis was saying in that hearing room.

And that happened in 2023, according to Brody. He said that Fani Willis and Nathan Wade came to visit a winery in Napa Valley and that, at the end of the day, when the bill was delivered, Fani Willis not only picked up the check, but paid in cash.

And so the bill was about $400, which it is a pretty sizable amount to pay in cash, which is what surprised Brody at the time. And it's what reminded him to reach out.

And he wanted to put this information out there, too, because he thinks it's important to backup what Fani Willis testified to in a courtroom.

Because, at the end of the day, the thing about a cash payment is there's no receipts, there's no paper trail. So he thinks adding his voice to this conversation does at least help verify what Fani Willis was talking about. SANCHEZ: So, Zach, do you know if Fani Willis' team has reached out to

him?

COHEN: So Brody told me that he's had no contact with the D.A.'s office or with defense counsel. I'm on the other side of this case. That could obviously change as this matter's not resolved yet.

Judge McAfee is still weighing whether or not to disqualify Fani Willis. And really, he has to determine if she financially benefited from her relationship with Nathan Wade.

That's really the core threshold that the evidence has to cross an order for him to remove Fani Willis from the case.

And look, sources I've talked to say that, if Fani Willis is removed from this case, that the entire hope of prosecuting Donald Trump in Georgia, the entire case that's been years in the making essentially goes away.

SANCHEZ: Yes, really illuminating nugget to get in the story.

Zach Cohen, thanks so much for the reporting. Appreciate it.

So still to come, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children and should be protected as such. This could have a chilling effect on in vitro fertilization nationwide. We'll explain why.

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[13:42:02]

KEILAR: A first-of-its-kind ruling that puts in vitro fertilization in jeopardy for thousands of families. Alabama's Supreme Court says frozen embryos were children and should be protected under the state's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

This is a case that stems from two lawsuits filed by couples after their frozen embryos were accidentally dropped and destroyed. A lower court had dismissed the lawsuit, saying that embryos do not fit definitions of person or child. But the Alabama Supreme Court overruled that.

Associate Justice J. Mitchell writing in the majority opinion, that state law, quote, "applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation. It is not the role of this court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy.

That is especially true whereas here, the people of this state have adopted a constitutional amendment directly aimed at stopping courts from excluding unborn life from legal protection."

Let's bring in CNN legal analyst, Carrie Cordero.

So much to talk about here, Carrie. What are the implications of this ruling? Because you have another justice on the court, Greg Cook, writing in

the descent that this ruling, quote, "almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization in Alabama."

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, I think there is a really strong argument here that, as to Alabama specifically, the ability to have the procedure of in vitro fertilization is at risk.

Because this would place liability in case something happened that was not intended to happen. And so providers are most likely not going to be willing to engage in that.

And what we really have, Brianna, here is this is a collision of the old and the news. So you have an old law in Alabama dating back to 1872, which is the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

And then that is combined with a much more recent development in Alabama constitutional law, which is that the voters added a provision to protect unborn children in 2022.

And so the Alabama Supreme Court took those two pieces together, took this case that had to do with a specific instance, and has used it as a vehicle to most likely eliminate the practice of in vitro fertilization in the state of Alabama.

KEILAR: Will other states, who have done something similar with unborn life, take this step as well.

CORDERO: Well, I think it opens the door to other states doing that. And if we have a similar type of case and another state, then that's when we'll see this eventually go up to the Supreme Court.

In the post-Dobbs world -- so the decision in the Dobbs case that overturned Roe versus Wade in -- a year-and-a-half ago in 2022, that has opened the door to bring these issues back down to the state level.

[13:45:00]

And so, in this particular case in Alabama, it has to do with in vitro fertilization. And in other states, it obviously has to do with the issue of abortion across the country.

In other states, there are potential issues in terms of criminalizing miscarriage.

So these cases all stem from the Supreme Court returning that particular issue back to the states.

KEILAR: The Supreme Court chief justice, Tom Parker, wrote in a concurring opinion, quote, "Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a Holy God who views the destruction of his image as an affront to himself."

And he goes on to say, quote, "Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God and their lives cannot be destroyed without a facing his glory."

That is not a constitutional or legal argument. That is a religious argument. How unusual is that?

CORDERO: It's unusual, but this issue does come from, in many circles, circles that are driving the advocacy on these right-to-life issues and the rights of unborn children, and they are based in religion.

And so normally, we would not see a court case that is invoking God and invoking religion as the basis for its legal opinion. But that's the circumstances in this particular case.

And that underlies much of the advocacy that, in many ways, Brianna, in my judgment, is reducing women's rights in terms of reproductive freedom, reducing their rights in terms of decisions to make, in terms of their own health decisions, and really taking the rights of women backwards, perhaps decades, if not centuries.

KEILAR: And just real quickly, there are a lot of embryos being stored, I would assume, in Alabama that had been created.

So what happens now, if someone's done with their families, decides they want to be -- they don't want to use those embryos, they don't want to pay the hundreds of hundreds a year to store them.

Now, where's the liability on getting rid of those embryos?

CORDERO: Well, we'll have to see how this is actually implemented. But I mean, it underlies the point that these decisions that are being made by Supreme Courts all over the country are not decisions that are being made in the abstract.

These have practical implications. And just like in other states where clinics have had to decide to stop engaging in the provision of abortions, for example, in Alabama, these clinics will have to decide what they are going to do in order to continue or not to provide the service.

And also to deal with the actual embryos that they have in their possession.

KEILAR: Carrie Cordero, there's so many more questions, we could go through this for hours.

But really appreciate your perspective on this. Thank you.

CORDERO: Thanks.

KEILAR: Boris?

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines were watching this hour.

Broward County public school officials are confirming at least five cases of measles at one south Florida elementary school. The district announced the first case of measles at Manatee Bay Elementary School on Friday. Four more cases were confirmed over the past three days. The CDC says that measles, a potentially deadly virus, is so

contagious that nine out of 10 people who have close contact with infected person and who aren't vaccinated will get it. Nine out of 10.

Excuse me. The school says it's undergone a deep cleaning and replace the air filters as a precaution.

Meantime, Russian authorities have arrested a dual American-Russian citizen on charges of treason. They're accusing an unidentified 33- year-old from Los Angeles of collecting funds for Ukrainian organizations and openly supporting Ukraine.

Now, CNN has reached out to the U.S. embassy in Moscow for comment. We'll let you know when we hear back.

And an American man is now reportedly admitting to attacking two U.S. tourists and killing one of them near one of Germanys most famous castles in Bavaria.

Officials say he pushed the two women down a ravine last summer after attacking them on a castle trail. His confession comes on the first day of his trial in Germany.

Still to come on NEWS CENTRAL, the hackers have been hacked. Authorities just delivered a major blow to one of the world's worst cyber gangs. We have details in just moments.

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[13:54:02]

SANCHEZ: Now to a major international take down. The FBI and some of its global allies have seized the site on the dark web used by a top hacking group to extort victims.

KEILAR: Yes, this group, which is known as Lockbit, is one of the world's most notorious ransomware gangs. And it's reported victims include health care providers, local governments and also China's biggest bank.

CNN cybersecurity reporter, Sean Lyngaas, is here with more.

Sean, how were authorities able to do this? How did they take them down?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: It's a great question, Brianna. Basically, it seems like they had access for months to the servers that the hacking group was using. And they were quietly collecting intelligence.

And then when they realized that they might not get much more out of it, they decided to blow the lid on the operations.

So last night, sources tipped me off to the fact that the Web site had been seized. You just go on a dark web, as one does --

(LAUGHTER)

LYNGAAS: -- open it up and you see that on one of their many victim shaming sites, these Web sites that these hackers used to say, we're going to post your data unless you give us $10 million.

[13:55:08]

But instead of the extortion site, what you get as a big logo of the FBI, the U.K. National Crime Agency, and some others, saying, hey, we are inside your systems. And it's really a taunting, you know, trash- talk from the authorities, for lack of a better phrase.

And like I said, it's been going on for months. And now we have the public evidence that the FBI is saying that they are able to unlock victims' systems. If they've been infected, come contact us. We have the decryption key.

And they also -- the European authorities announced two arrests of lower-level members. The main core members are believed to be in Russia. And two of those men were indicted today.

Unlikely that they will see the inside of the U.S. courtroom given relations between Moscow and Washington, but still a big blow to this group's operation -- Brianna?

SANCHEZ: And how about, in the context of ransomware operations generally, couldn't some of these folks just like do Lockbit 2.0 and start operations elsewhere.

LYNGAAS: Yes. Exactly. Well, this is -- this is 3.0. So you might see 4.0 or another branding. It's all about branding. They call themselves businesses, business people. But obviously, that's -- they're criminals.

But it still relies on trust and branding. And so all of the hacking groups that were buying services, tools to break into networks from these guys -- and they're mostly guys as far as we know -- are going to be a little less trustful and say, hey, the feds might be in your work so how are we going to do business with you?

So they're going to try to re-brand, start a new group, call it something else. It's just going to be something that's very similar. But it's an ongoing cat-and-mouse game -- Boris?

KEILAR: They got us once. That could be maybe their brand.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: I don't know.

SANCHEZ: Shots in the dark web apparently.

KEILAR: What -- you aren't?

SANCHEZ: What? FOMO. OK.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: Sean, thank you so much for that.

Ahead, we have some chilling new details about the person of interest in the case of a missing 11-year-old girl.

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