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Lawsuit: Amazon Secretly Stopped Fast Deliveries To 2 Predominantly Black Zip Codes; Report: V.A. To Study Psychedelic Therapy For PTSD, Alcoholism; Soon: Woman Accused Of Sneaking Onto Plane Appears In Court; Jury Deliberates For 3rd Day In NYC Subway Chokehold Death Trial. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 05, 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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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: The attorney general in Washington, D.C., is suing Amazon for refusing to provide its fastest delivery service to certain zip codes. These are zip codes that happen to represent predominantly black neighborhoods.

The suit also claims that Amazon continued to charge these residents that exclusive membership rate that promises those speedy shipments.

CNN's Matt Egan is here to explain all of this further.

So, Matt, walk us through these allegations from the D.C. attorney general.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Alex, this lawsuit says that some people in D.C. are getting their Amazon deliveries at a much slower speed than their friends and neighbors who live in more affluent neighborhoods. And that this discrepancy is no accident.

So the Washington, D.C., attorney general is alleging that, two years ago, Amazon secretly stopped it's speedy deliveries to two predominantly black, predominantly lower-income neighborhoods. And that they excluded these neighborhoods located east of the Anacostia River from its fast delivery service.

And in the process, they deceived 48,000 residents into paying for those speedy delivery benefits that they were not actually receiving.

The lawsuit says that Amazon stopped making deliveries with its Amazon-branded vehicles that we've all come to recognize, and instead relied on, relied on UPS and the postal service, and that the impact here in terms of delivery speeds was dramatic.

The lawsuit finds that Prime packages delivered within two days in those impacted zip codes stand at just 24 percent. That is far, far lower than the rest of D.C.

And here's the kicker. The lawsuit says that when Amazon was confronted by customers about slower deliveries, they were not upfront about it.

The lawsuit says that when customers complained of slow delivery, Amazon concealed the exclusion and misled the consumers to believe it was a coincidence.

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Now, the attorney general wants Amazon to stop what they're calling unfair and deceptive practices, to refund customers and, Alex, to pay penalties 48,000 people affected.

MARQUARDT: And 48,000 people affected. The company saying that they made this change based on concerns over driver safety.

How is Amazon responding to the lawsuit?

EGAN: Well, Alex, the company says it's just categorically false that they were doing anything that was either discriminatory or deceptive. But they are not denying that they did make a change in how they delivered packages to these zip codes.

They're just arguing that they made that change because of concerns about crime. Specifically, they say that they made the deliberate choice to adjust their operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers.

They say that there were specific and targeted acts against delivery drivers, including carjacking, vehicle theft, armed robbery and assault. And Amazon says that they are willing to work with the A.G. to fight crime.

But again, here, Alex, I think the point from the D.C. A.G. is that you can make these sorts of changes to how you operate but you need to be up front with customers about it, right?

MARQUARDT: That doesn't really explain why they continue to -- to charge those customers that extra fee.

EGAN: Exactly.

MARQUARDT: Matt Egan, thank you very much for that reporting.

Brianna?

EGAN: Thanks.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Now to this week's "HOME FRONT." For the first time since the 1960s, the Department of Veterans Affairs will study whether psychedelic drugs effectively treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and alcoholism.

The study will look at the possible therapeutic benefits of MDMA, which is also known as Ecstasy, over the course of five years.

It's a $1.5 million study that would involve veterans at V.A. medical centers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. And joining us now is retired Navy veteran, Brandon Bryan.

Brandon, thanks for being with us.

We asked you to join us today because you were a Navy veteran who sought psychedelic assisted therapy for PTSD and you welcomed this research. Tell us why.

BRANDON BRYAN, RETIRED NAVY VETERAN: Yes, Brianna, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. And an honor.

Yes, I exhausted all means. I tried Western medicine for many years, and I was still a shell of a human. And I did -- a friend of mine had mentioned something about microdosing and that's when the research I came on, and we stumbled upon that in 2020, '21.

But I was hesitant to fill out an application because I fell into the same cycle of, you know, there's someone better off - there's someone that needs it better off than me and so on and so forth.

But then I had a really good, good friend of mine, he killed himself in October. And our stories are so much alike that I knew I was headed down that path.

And I finally hit "submit" and I went to Mexico. Vets sent me to Mexico in January and August of 2022. And my life has been completely different ever since.

Yes. And I advocate fully for this research and our veterans deserve it.

KEILAR: I want to talk about that because -- and I will say to your point of people dying by suicide, I've talked to a lot of spouses, actually, of servicemembers or veterans who have died by suicide.

And what struck me was how much the stories that they told of their loved ones tracked with stories that I knew of veterans. And it just makes you realize that this can happen to so many people, you know.

But, you know, there's controversy around this, these drugs, not just MDMA, but there's psilocybin. They're the focus of so much discussion right now in the veteran community, which has an age-adjusted suicide rate that's 57 percent higher than non-vets, I should mention.

And yet, in many cases, we're talking about schedule-one drugs. And that's the controversy. So how do you think -- and you went to Mexico, as you said, not the U.S.

How do you think physicians ultimately can use these drugs without opening the door to abuse of them?

BRYAN: Well, the medicine I took, you wouldn't be an abusing that. That -- that does not -- it's not one of those things that you're going to do on -- on your own.

But I think you have to speak in their language. And that -- that means these research projects are even that more important.

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We have to be able to speak to these doctors and the people that are in charge in these -- the health -- health field to speak in their language.

So why not approve these -- these research projects? And our veterans are leading the front lines in this, too. So let us take the lead and get our -- our war fighters the healing and the peace that they deserve.

KEILAR: Veterans with alcohol use disorders are included in this, Brandon. Why do you think that's important when you're studying PTSD treatments?

BRYAN: Oh, I mean, I was a part of that. I self-medicated for a decade, from 2008, from my deployment in 2008 in Iraq. I self- medicated until -- with alcohol. And then they added prescription pills to it.

So it wasn't long before I was abusing alcohol and Xanax on a regular basis. Just, not to feel, and not to deal with the trauma that I had experienced throughout my life.

It's not a -- it's not a magic pill. And I don't recommend it for everybody. But I -- where I was at in my life, like it was either that or I was going to kill myself.

So I took a chance. I went to Mexico and it changed my life completely. But I will say there's a lot of work involved in that. Like, I spend a majority of my day working on being the best version of myself for myself.

So then I can benefit anybody and everybody I come in contact with.

KEILAR: Yes, it's --

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BRYAN: And that is completely opposite of what I -- the way I was living.

KEILAR: Yes, and there are a lot of veterans who report this. It's certainly something that needs to be discussed. And we appreciate you joining us to do that.

Brandon Bryan, thank you so much. And thank you for your service.

BRYAN: Thank you for having me.

Send my regards to your husband and appreciate you being a spokesman, a spokesperson for -- for us veterans. Appreciate it. Thank you.

KEILAR: Thanks, Brandon. And if you or someone that you know needs help, the 988 Suicide and

Crisis Lifeline is available to help. Counselors are there to talk 24 hours a day.

We'll be right back.

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KEILAR: This just in. A federal judge has rejected a plea agreement between Boeing and the U.S. government. The company had agreed to plead guilty to deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration about equipment on their 737 Max planes.

That same equipment was later tied to two crashes that killed hundreds of people.

Under the deal, Boeing would have to pay up to $487 million in fines, just a fraction of the $24.8 billion that families of the victims wanted them to pay.

An attorney for those families praised the news, saying, "Rejection of the plea deal is an important victory of the families in this case and, more broadly, crime victims' interests in the criminal justice process."

Boeing has not immediately responded to a request for comment.

Alex?

MARQUARDT: Thanks, Brianna.

And moments from now, a Russian woman accused of sneaking onto a Delta flight from New York to Paris is set to appear in federal court in Brooklyn.

Her name is Svetlana Dali. And she was arrested by the FBI just yesterday after she was sent back to the U.S. from France. She's now expected to face federal stowaway charges, a crime that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

CNN's Polo Sandoval joins us now. He's been following this live from New York.

So, Polo, you have been tracking this for several days. You and I have been speaking about this on air. What is the latest in this extraordinary saga?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alex, in a matter of minutes, she will be led into a federal courtroom here in Brooklyn.

This will be standard procedure for any federal defendant in which, technically, she will be arraigned. She will be read her charge of being a stowaway on an aircraft without consent, likely to enter a plea, perhaps issued a bond. We may even hear from her, potentially, so we are certainly monitoring

for any potential developments here in a few minutes when she is in court.

We're also learning more about this 57-year-old woman who held a Russian passport but is a U.S. green card holder, which is why she was essentially returned back to the United States.

We understand she lives in Philadelphia. We also understand that she had recently filed at least two lawsuits in which she claimed, claimed that she was a victim of military grade chemical weapons and of a kidnaping plot.

So some fairly unusual claims being made there. So, as you can imagine, federal prosecutors will certainly examine what may have been her state of mind leading up to last week when she snuck onto that Paris-bound Delta flight that originated here at JFK.

We also certainly recognize that there are multiple exposures here in terms of all stakeholders that they're trying to address.

In fact, we had the former TSA administrator describe this as three points of failure. Delta calling this -- that it was a deviation from standard procedures that likely allowed the woman you're seeing onto their flight and that they have addressed this matter.

Back to you.

MARQUARDT: All right. Polo Sandoval thank you very much. I know you'll stay on this story.

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Jurors deliberating the fate of Daniel Penny, the former Marine accused of putting street performer, Jordan Neely, in a deadly chokehold. They sent more notes to the judge. That's next.

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MARQUARDT: We are learning more about a new lawsuit today against Daniel Penny. Penny is the former Marine who has been charged in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway. That was last year.

Neely's father is suing Penny, accusing him of assault, battery and causing his son's death.

KEILAR: Right now, we're awaiting a verdict in the criminal case against Penny as the jury deliberates for a third day.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is following this trial in New York.

And, Gloria, we understand the jury has sent two notes to the judge today. Tell us about that. GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna. We are getting a little bit of a clue of perhaps what they have been focused on this morning.

They're in the middle of a lunch break right now. But they deliberate right through the lunch break. And so far, they have asked the judge to once again look at video evidence, including what is known as the Vasquez video. That shows Neely and Penny on the subway floor struggling for a while.

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They've also asked for two very important definitions. They want to be told once again the meaning of "recklessness" and the meaning of "criminal negligence."

And that's interesting because that's the very core of the two charges that Daniel Penny is facing.

Now, they cannot convict him on both charges. So perhaps the fact that they're asking for the definitions means that they're still focused on that top charge. We simply do not know.

But it's clear that, at the very least, they're trying to understand, was Penny reckless? Meaning that he was aware of the risk that was posed by putting Neely in that chokehold and he simply ignored it.

Or was he criminally negligent? He should have been aware of the risk of putting Neely in that chokehold.

Now, remember the prosecution spent a lot of time talking about Penny's Marine training, including his knowledge of chokeholds, something that the Marines train their Marines on.

So it's interesting that the jury is focused on that. Ultimately, they have to decide if the prosecution has proved these two factors in order to come up with a verdict. The burden is on the prosecution.

That is what that jury is weighing as we speak -- Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.

And still ahead, some new details in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO as police try to trace the killer's movements, both before and after the shooting. We'll have that coming up.

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