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Biden To Announce Aggressive New Action On Illegal Immigration; Opening Statements Completed In Hunter Biden Federal Gun Trial; Garland Says He Won't Be "Intimidated" By Attacks On Justice Dept. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 04, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:01:07]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Border crackdown, President Biden will announce executive actions on the border just months before the election and 23 days before his first debate with former President Trump. Why Republicans and some Democrats are slamming it?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: And fighting back, Attorney General Merrick Garland calls the repeated attacks on the Justice Department, quote, unprecedented and unfair as he's grilled by Republicans on Capitol Hill. We're going to have more on that and what he says about the hundreds of January 6th rioters that could see their prosecutions reversed by the Supreme Court. And today in federal court, the first witness takes the stand on Hunter Biden's federal trial on gun charges. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

KEILAR: Breaking news this hour, President Biden set to announce a major policy shift on illegal immigration. Next hour, Biden is expected to unveil a new executive action that will crack down on illegal crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico. This is a sweeping measure that would effectively shut down the border to asylum seekers once the daily average of people crossing illegally hits 2,500. It's President Biden's most aggressive attempt to address the border crisis. It's an issue, of course, that has long been one of his biggest political vulnerabilities. And it's the same authority that former President Trump tried to use in office.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is live from the White House. And, Priscilla, I said that Trump tried to use while he was in office. Tell us about this executive action.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. President Biden taking a page from Trump's playbook here and doing something he tried to do back in 2018 by really clamping down on unlawful border crossings. The president clearly here trying to head one of his biggest political vulnerabilities by taking this executive action. Now, what does it include? It shuts off asylum access for migrants crossing the border illegally when that daily threshold of 2,500 is meant. It falls back to going back to how it is now when it's at 1,500. Now this ends up being Mexico, turning back migrants to Mexico or removing migrants to their origin countries, unaccompanied children are exempt from this. And senior administration officials saying they expect this to take effect immediately because we have already hit that threshold. And a source telling me moments ago that President Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are expected to talk about this exact action later today. But, Brianna, this, of course, is a significant sweeping measure by this White House which kicked off its administration by wanting to reform and restore the asylum system.

They are taking steps today to now shut it off to certain migrants. Now, the senior administration officials were asked earlier today how this is any different from what President Biden's predecessor tried to do. Their answer to that is that there is still ways for migrants to come to the U.S. legally. Therefore, there are still opportunities for those seeking to come to the US, but to do so in a lawful way.

But that has not stopped criticism from progressives who say that this is too far and this is too similar to Donald Trump. And then also the ACLU saying that they're going to sue the administration on this. Senior administration officials acknowledge that this was probably going to come either from either side of the political spectrum. But clearly, the President trying to get an upper hand here before the first presidential debate in only months from the November election. Brianna?

KEILAR: Priscilla Alvarez, live force at the White House. Thank you.

And let's turn now to CNN's Rosa Flores, who is there along the border. She's in Hidalgo, Texas. Rosa, what kind of reaction are you hearing?

[13:04:58]

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's mixed reaction on the border. There are some individuals who say that this is great. This is a tool that the President can use. And there are other individuals who say it's too little, too late. But what will be the actual impact on the border, Brianna? The easiest way for me to explain this is that this is border security on steroids. It's going to expedite a lot of the processes that in the past we've seen administrations take weeks, months and even years for migrants to go through.

So let me take you through what we expect would happen here on the border once this executive order is in effect. So, for example, once that threshold that you talked about is met and a migrant crosses the border illegally, that migrant would still go through processing, so they would still get their fingerprints. There were background checks would be made to make sure that there's no national security threats. But if that migrant does not express fear at that point, then that individual would be removed in hours or in days. So it's a very expedited process.

Now, if that migrant expresses fear, the threshold that migrant has to meet is going to be a lot higher. Those credible fear interviews could be held at Customs and Border Protection or at ICE, and those removals would happen very quickly. Now the obvious question is, well, will the Biden administration actually be able to do this? There's a number that's important to understand here, and that's more than 742,000. That's the number of removals, of deportations that the Biden administration has conducted since last May, since the lifting of Title 42.

In essence, this tells us that the Biden administration has gotten a lot of practice since then. And those are some of the processes that they have been fine tuning that they plan to use now under this executive order. Now one of the biggest concerns, Brianna, on the border is from immigration advocates, immigration attorneys who say that this is inhumane, that this is unlawful. Here is some reaction from the Haitian Bridge Alliance issuing a statement saying, in part, President Biden's executive order is a direct assault on the fundamental human right to seek asylum.

And then the ACLU telling us this, quote, we will sue. The administration has left us no choice. And, Brianna, the big question is going to be will the courts intervene? And like most things in life, time will tell. Brianna back to you.

KEILAR: Yes, we can certainly expect that may be the case. Rosa, thank you for that report from the border. Jessica?

DEAN: Right now, Hunter Biden's federal gun trial is on a break for lunch. But before court adjourned, an FBI special agent took the stand as the prosecution's first witness. Prosecutors are using Erika Jensen to introduce digital evidence, including highly personal messages and images from Hunter Biden's laptop to show a timeline of his drug abuse. The prosecution finished its opening statement today by saying, quote, addiction may not be a choice, but lying and buying a gun is. Our team inside the courtroom says one juror appeared to get emotional during the defense's opening statement.

CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez is joining us now from outside court. And Evan, I do want to ask you about the moment that juror seemed to get emotional when the defense was giving its opening statement. What more do you know about that?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, look, Jessica, this is about 35 minutes into Abbe Lowell's opening remarks. And I noticed that, you know, obviously the jurors seem to be paying very, very close attention. They were -- a lot of them were taking notes, taking down notes on various aspects of what the prosecution was arguing and what the defense is arguing.

And then one jury in particular, an African American woman was sitting there, began becoming, it appeared, very emotional. She grabbed some tissues from her bag, dabbed her eyes, dabbed her nose at several points. About 35 minutes into Abbe Lowell's presentation, he was at the time describing some of the circumstances under which the gun ended up in a trash can. Hallie Biden, who Hunter Biden was in a relationship with, threw the gun away in a trash can at a grocery store. That's where this juror started becoming emotional. We don't know exactly what her reaction is in regard to. We do know, though, that there are several jurors who are on this panel who described that they had family members who struggled with addiction. They are on this jury. And so you can imagine that a lot of this testimony is going to be very emotional for everyone involved, not only Hunter Biden, but for some of the people who are hearing this case as well.

DEAN: And, Evan, what more can you tell us about the prosecution using its -- this testimony from its first witness, which was an FBI special agent?

PEREZ: Well, so the special agent is here to help introduce not only some of the digital evidence that you pointed out, but one of the things they're doing, a lot of this is a big portion of the later part of the morning was hearing Hunter Biden's own voice, his audiobook. This is from his own memoir where he describes his struggle with addiction, his struggle. He goes into rehab. I counted eight times that the prosecutor is listed on a screen for the jury between 2015 and 2019, eight different times he went in and out of rehab.

[13:10:27]

And the point that prosecutors are trying to drive home is that Hunter Biden had plenty of knowledge about his addiction, that he knew he did not qualify to own this gun because on the form that he filled out, it says you cannot be addicted to or user of drugs. So this is sort of the circumstantial evidence that they're using because one of the problems here for prosecutors, obviously, is that they don't have any proof that on that day he bought the gun, that he was using drugs.

Instead, they're showing that around the time in 2018, on October 2018, October 12th, 2018, that Hunter Biden was using drugs. And so that's what this FBI agent is driving home as part of that testimony. Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Evan Perez for us outside the courthouse there in Wilmington, Delaware. Thanks so much for that reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: Former deputy assistant Attorney General Tom Dupree joins us now. Tom, I want to get a sense of what you think of these opening statements here. First, the prosecution, they use quotes from Hunter Biden's memoir where he described his, quote, superpower of finding crack anywhere, anytime, also a picture of a gun. There were pictures of drugs found on his electronic devices. And he closed the opening statement by saying addiction may not be a choice, but buying a gun is. What did you think about that?

TOM DUPREE, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Brianna, I thought that the prosecutors did a very effective job in presenting their case. A lot of prosecutors will tell you that often the most compelling, powerful evidence you can present against the defendant is to confront him with his own words. And here they quoted from the audiobook. And in fact, they played Hunter Biden's voice in the courtroom so that the jurors could really hear it. I think that drove home the prosecution's themes very powerfully. I also thought they somewhat deftly addressed the whole addiction issue by making that point, that addiction may not be a choice, but lying on a federal form is a choice, and that's the conduct for which Hunter Biden is being prosecuted.

KEILAR: And then, Tom, the defense stressed the word knowingly in the charges against Hunter Biden, which is crucial here. The Defense Attorney Abbe Lowell, highlighting that prosecutors left that word out of their opening statement. How critical for the case is it that prosecutors prove Biden knowingly violated the law?

DUPREE: I think that is going to be a critical point in this trial, and I strongly suspect that's actually going to be the primary defense that we hear from Hunter Biden's team. What they are going to argue is that even if he was abusing drugs at the time, he thought genuinely, in their view, that maybe he wasn't addicted to drugs, maybe he wasn't abusing them. And so therefore he can't be held criminally accountable for checking the box, no, on the federal form.

I think it's a tough argument for the jury. I don't know if the defense has a whole lot of other options available to it. This may be the best they can do, but I think it's going to be tough persuading the jury that, well, when he checked the box, he didn't really realize that he was abusing drugs at the time.

KEILAR: What do you think about the way the defense really leaned in on the past trauma of Hunter Biden, sort of explaining some of his addiction and the root of it, including all the way back to the car accident in his childhood that killed his mother and left him and his baby sister and left him with a brain injury?

DUPREE: Yes, I think that was a savvy move on the part of the defense. They are clearly trying to humanize Hunter Biden for the jury and really to present this gun purchase as just one event in a much larger context. Hunter Biden, obviously, himself has been very open about his struggles with addiction. And I think what the defense team is trying to do is really portray him as, you know, a complicated human being who struggled with addiction issues. Many of the jurors themselves have had issues with addiction or had family members who struggled with addiction.

And so I think the defense is really trying to start building those lines, building those themes in a way that they hope will resonate with the jury and make them see Hunter Biden in a sympathetic light.

KEILAR: I want to get your reaction to something that we heard from maybe an unlikely person, Senator Lindsey Graham, who told the Hafnia Post yesterday, I think any average American who's done their taxes like Hunter Biden would have probably faced prosecution. However, I don't think the average American would have been charged with the gun thing. I don't see any good coming from that. What did you think about that? Do you agree?

DUPREE: I, too, was surprised by that. I mean, it's kind of a break from the usual partisan warfare that surrounds these types of trial proceedings. And look, I think Lindsey Graham has a decent point in that these charges are filed, but typically they are filed as part of a much larger claim. They might be used as a way, you know, to get leverage against the defendant that they want to indict for other issues. They could be used as part of a multi count indictment. But it admittedly is fairly rare for prosecutors simply to charge the false responses on the federal gun form as a standalone case like the prosecutors are doing here. And it's interesting that Senator Graham, who I'm sure is no fan of Hunter Biden, picked up on that point.

[13:15:32]

KEILAR: Yes, it's really interesting. Tom Dupree, thank you so much for being on. We appreciate it.

DUPREE: Thank you.

KEILAR: Attorney General Merrick Garland, fighting back. He says he and the Justice Department will not be intimidated by people lobbying unprecedented attacks against them. Hear more from what he said ahead. And as Hamas and Israel weigh their responses to a ceasefire proposal laid out by President Biden that he attributed to Israel, the families of hostages held by Hamas meet with a top White House official. We're going to speak with the father of one of those hostages, an Israeli American, to see what their message was.

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[13:20:38]

DEAN: He leads the nation's federal prosecutions. But today, Attorney General Merrick Garland is on the defense on Capitol Hill against the barrage of Republican claims. His department is being weaponized. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Garland stood by the DOJ's work and cut down conspiracy theories he says are putting people, career public servants, in danger. They include baseless allegations that the federal department had ties to the recent New York state conviction of Donald Trump.

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MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: These repeated attacks on the Justice Department are unprecedented and they are unfounded. I will not be intimidated and the Justice Department will not be intimidated.

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DEAN: Republicans on the panel want to hold Garland in contempt for not turning over audio recordings of President Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who declined to file charges against the President. Let's turn now to CNN's Katelyn Polantz, who's been following this hearing. Katelyn, it did get a little bit fiery. How specifically did the attorney general respond to these allegations surrounding Donald Trump's first criminal trial?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, he said it wasn't us. It was the state prosecutor in New York that did it. And he used some pretty sharp words, especially for an attorney general that really doesn't get into political knife throwing that often. He said that the Justice Department does not control the Manhattan district attorney that brought and successfully convicted that case against Donald Trump, that the Manhattan D.A. made their own decisions and is completely independent. So he really was defending the Justice Department's independence from other cases.

Now, this was a situation where Garland was able to put a little bit more out there on the offensive, where he's defending the department more broadly, his own department, law enforcement officers there, and calling things that Donald Trump is saying, such as about the Manhattan D.A.'s case against him and that Republicans on Capitol Hill are still fueling, he's calling those things false claims and conspiracy theories. Here's a little bit more about how Garland defended his own Department of Justice and the FBI.

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GARLAND: This effort is only the most recent in a long line of attacks on the Justice Department's work. It comes alongside threats to defund particular department investigations, most recently the special counsel's prosecution of the former president it comes alongside false claims that a jury verdict in a state trial brought by a local district attorney was somehow controlled by the Justice Department. That conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself.

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POLANTZ: So not only there is garland on the offensive, he's also a bit on the defensive at this hearing, defending his use of special counsels, those offices, the work, and his selection of Jack Smith prosecuting Donald Trump, what his decisions have been with Rob Hur, the special counsel that investigated and didn't bring any charges against Joe Biden. He also is saying, I'm not releasing that audiotape that Republicans want so desperately. And one other special counsel that hasn't really been too much part of this discussion in this hearing, David Weiss, the special counsel that's currently in court, prosecuting Hunter Biden. But this is a day where Merrick Garland has had to respond to many questions on many different fronts that the Republicans are interested in pressing politically, especially in these highly political investigations.

DEAN: Absolutely. And with the election closing in, Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

Let's go now to Capitol Hill where Lauren Fox is standing by. And Lauren, I know you've been monitoring this from the Hill. Tell us more about what the attorney general faced today.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, obviously, Jessica, one of the key storylines that Katelyn was addressing here is the fact that Republicans are repeatedly asking the Attorney General Merrick Garland, to lay out how this case in New York happened. And he repeatedly is arguing that this was a decision by a state office, that this was not his department's decision. And Democrats also laying out that the Republican attacks, that this is an effort to go after Donald Trump, Joe Biden's key Republican rival, is just not true. And, you know, one of the points that Steve Cohen made, Adam Schiff made is this continuation that there are several Democrats, some of them sitting in Congress, who have been indicted on charges by the Justice Department. Their argument being that if this is a political attack against Donald Trump, then how is it that Bob Menendez and Henry Cuellar are also facing charges? Here was Adam Schiff for why Republicans were going after Garland today.

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[13:25:36]

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (R-CA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: They're about to nominate a convicted felon and they don't know how to cope with that. They don't know how to cope with the justice system that, in fact, treats Donald Trump the same as it would any other citizen. And so they have to push these conspiracy theories that they know are patently false. They care more about this convicted felon than they do the country. I have to say I'm pleased and a bit surprised to see that the flag in this Committee is still flying right side up because they want to turn it upside down, even as they want to turn our justice system upside down.

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FOX: And Jessica, Schiff, of course, referring there to flying the flag upside down, which is a sign that the country is in destruction stress. He also laid out in his testimony today, Merrick Garland did, that the people who are doing the work at the Justice Department are doing their jobs, essentially telling Republicans in his own way, measured way, to leave his employees alone. Jessica?

DEAN: And the Attorney General, Lauren, also was getting some questions from Republicans about the January 6th defendants that the DOJ has prosecuted.

FOX: Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, this has been an issue, right. That has been ongoing for Republicans for years now. This has been a pet issue for Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others. They've held several press conferences about this. But it's also just important to know, Jessica, that this hearing today is really an opportunity for every Republican member, every Democratic member, to lay out the issues that they want to talk about, if it has any tie to the Justice Department at all. And that is really what you're seeing in this hearing today. It's kind of a potpourri or grab bag of issues that Republicans can use this moment to grandstand and talk about. That's what you saw there, Jessica, for sure.

DEAN: All right, Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill for us. Thanks so much.

The family of Israeli American hostages being held by Hamas meet with White House officials. This as the world waits to see if the two sides will accept a new ceasefire proposal. We're going to speak with a family member of one of those hostages who was at today's meeting.

Plus, the number of women in the U.S. who died during pregnancy, labor, or postpartum is double, even triple that of the other countries. We're going to have new reporting on why that is ahead on CNN News Central.

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