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Trump Trying to Block Release of Special Counsel's Final Report; Brutal Cold Grips Much of U.S. After Deadly Storm Dumped Snow, Ice; This Morning, Carter's Casket to Be Flown to Washington. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired January 07, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just two weeks before he heads back to the White House and Donald Trump is facing a new legal fight. His legal team versus Special Counsel Jack Smith once again.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump Jr.'s mission to Greenland today. Could it be just a coincidence as his father, and maybe more importantly, Elon Musk, indicate that Greenland should be annexed to the United States?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, securing the French Quarter following the deadly New Year's attack with the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras right around the corner. New plans for heightened security in New Orleans.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight, the new legal fight that Donald Trump is taking on just days before he takes office. The president-elect is now trying to stop Special Counsel Jack Smith from publicly releasing his final report on his investigations into the president-elect and the two federal cases that were brought and dismissed.

Why is Donald Trump fighting this now? His lawyers read a draft of that report and argue in a new court filing it contains, quote, baseless attacks, which they call an obvious effort to interfere with upcoming confirmation hearings.

So, this only adds to the mounting intrigue, of course, around this report and its potentially imminent release.

Let's get over to Katelyn Polantz. She's got much more of this for us. Katelyn, walk us through this. What do we know about the report and when can we see this?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, Kate. We've seen reports like this before from special counsel's offices, but not a fight like this on whether it could be released from the Justice Department.

So, what we can gather from court filings so far is that in these two cases against Donald Trump, the attorney general is going to be reviewing a two-volume report, one very likely about the classified documents case that was before Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida and then another volume about the January 6th case against Donald Trump.

What is happening in those volumes, we haven't seen them, but Trump's lawyers and others have been able to review them behind closed doors, is that they are the summations of these cases, the summations of the investigations. What the special counsel's office says is that they are not going to be handing their finalized report over to the attorney general until at least 1:00 P.M. today. And if the public sees it, it won't be out until at least the morning of Friday. But, ultimately, it's up to the attorney general and the attorney general hasn't decided yet if that report is going to be public.

Now, Trump's lawyers did write to the attorney general on January 6th, yesterday, saying that he's got to get rid of Smith and not release this report. He said that part of this is about presidential immunity, that Donald Trump should face no criminal process, including disclosures about a prosecution around him while he is the president- elect. We'll see if that argument holds in court with Judge Cannon too, which is where Trump's lawyers are now, arguing to her, stop this, don't let them release it to the public.

BOLDUAN: Let's add another layer to this, Katelyn, because there are two, two men associated with Donald Trump, also named in this, also with, let's say, a very vested interest in it. What do we know?

POLANTZ: Yes, Kate. That's where this is complicated a little bit more than in other special counsel's cases because you have these two cases, criminal cases in federal court against Donald Trump that are dismissed, but there's an ongoing case. Part of that classified documents case, the obstruction portion of it against his two co- defendants in Florida, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, two men who worked for Trump personally. And so because there are appeals over their case, and they could continue to face those court proceedings, even the prosecution, the lawyers for Trump and their lawyers are saying, you can't make statements about them publicly in a report.

[07:05:13]

Here's a quote from the filing, the final report is meant to serve as a government verdict against the defendants. The report revealed a one-sided narrative. There remains the threat of future criminal proceedings as to Nauta and De Oliveira, those two co-defendants, and those proceedings will be irreversibly and irredeemably prejudiced. That's what the position is from the defense side, arguing to the attorney general. Don't release it, Justice Department, do not put things out about these guys.

BOLDUAN: Let's see what happens. Great to see you, Katelyn. Thank you so much for laying it all out for us. I really appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. New this morning, at least five people have died, and that number is expected to rise as the winter storm that brought heavy snow and ice moves out and brutal, dangerously cold temperatures move in. The storm caused chaos on the road, shutting down highways and leaving drivers stranded, including at least 1,700 drivers in Missouri alone. The D.C. area, as we showed you yesterday, side, more than five inches of snow. It's snowiest day in two years, but that's nothing compared to the record snowfall in Kansas, the city of Chapman. Some more than 20 inches of snow, the storm's top total.

Crews across several states now racing to clear roads, restore power before the frigid temperature set in, locking in snow and ice and creating dangerous conditions for people who don't have access to heat.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is joining me now with the very latest on the forecast. Wow, it's going to get nasty again.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the arctic invasion has already begun. In reality, Sara, we're talking about over the next week, 77 percent of Americans will feel temperatures below the freezing mark. That is incredible. That snow that fell yesterday, it's going nowhere anytime soon.

This is what it feels like this morning in Kansas City. That's a big goose egg there, zero degrees. That's the wind chill, single digits in the nation's capital where we saw over five inches of snow yesterday from the snowstorm. In fact, there was a swath of snow that extended over a thousand miles with over six inches from this latest snowstorm, Kansas City all the way to the Delmarva Peninsula, including the nation's capital. This will indeed lock in the cold air, which you can see with the high temperatures and that weight of the snow and the ice from the previous storm has also caused the power outages that still remain. And guess what? The arctic air is going to stick around. As I mentioned, we're talking 250 million people experiencing the mercury dropping below the freezing mark.

And this is also going to set the stage for another potentially impactful snow and ice storm. Pay attention. This is for Thursday into Friday, Dallas and into Southern Oklahoma into the southeast by Friday afternoon and potentially the East Coast. It's the arctic air that's in place that's setting the stage for the potential winter mix. We already have winter storm watches in place for parts of Texas in the southern plains starting tomorrow.

SIDNER: I lived in Dallas and you know, it gets hot as Hades in the summer and then you'll get this like random ice storm and nobody knows how to drive in it, including myself. So, it's like I walked to work the last time I lived there.

VAN DAM: And that's why no one's equipped. That's right. No one's equipped to actually handle that type of conditions on the roadway, same in the south here in around Atlanta. We do not want to see snow and ice from this storm.

SIDNER: Very true. Somewhere else we don't want to see is what's happening with the Sta. Ana winds. Those whip up in California as well. What's happening there?

VAN DAM: Yes. This is another big weather story we're monitoring today and they're tied together, actually. It's this low pressure system that is going to fuel this week's snowstorm. But in the meantime, the more immediate threat is in Southern California, where it's driving the winds offshore. The weather service here calling this a particularly dangerous situation, and this could be the most destructive wind event since 2011 in Southern California, particularly Ventura and Los Angeles counties, wind gusts, get this, Sara, could top 100 miles per hour in the higher elevations, up to 80 miles per hour in the valleys below. And that is going to create critical fire danger threat through tonight and into tomorrow.

SIDNER: That is hurricane force winds. You have taught us that throughout the years. Derek Van Dam, thank you so much. I appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: All right. Just in, a powerful earthquake kills at least 95 people. The death toll is rising. The aftershocks, which are still hitting, are toppling houses.

Make Greenland great again. The president-elect makes a new play to annex Greenland for real.

[07:10:01]

And today, his son, Donald Trump Jr., makes an expedition to the island.

And a new report finds that the drinking water from millions of Americans may be contaminated by toxic chemicals. Why they say your prescription medicine could be the cause.

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BERMAN: All right. Today, former President Jimmy Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.

[07:15:01]

Lawmakers and the public will get to pay their final respects to the 39th president.

CNN's Eva McKend is with us this morning in the step in his final journey. Eva?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: John, it has been remarkable to meet people from all across the region paying their respects to President Carter. The gates are closed now because now the tributes moved to Washington D.C. And here is what the next several hours are going to look like. At 11:00 A.M. here at the Carter Center in the circle of flags, there's going to be a departure ceremony. Then in the noon hour, what we will see is the late president and his family arrive at the Dobbins Air Reserve base. It is from there that they will travel to Joint Base Andrews, and from there go to the U.S. Navy Memorial. We know, of course, that President Carter served in the United States Navy.

And then after that, John, what is going to happen is really symbolic. What we will see is the horse drawn casket take the very same route that President Carter walked during his inauguration several decades ago from the Navy Memorial to the United States Capitol. And it was remarkable when President Carter took that walk because he wanted to be out and among the people during such a fractious time in our nation. And so he takes that very same walk again today. And then, of course, people from across the country will have the opportunity to say their goodbyes in the nation's capital as he lies in state.

So, the tributes will kick off in just a little bit, but a whole host of events as people continue to remember the nation's 39th president. John?

BERMAN: When he got out and walked in 1977 at the inauguration, he was really the first to do that. Now, it's become something of a tradition.

Eva McKend, thank you so much. We'll check back in with you in a bit. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, if you are looking to buy a home this year, it's good news, bad news situation, it seems for you. Which cities are about to save, where you're about to save, and where it will cost you more.

And the Department of Homeland Security raising the security level around Mardi Gras now to one of its highest levels. What this means after the deadly New Year's Day attack.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: If you are among the many looking to make buying a home a reality in 2025, there may be some work that you're facing ahead of you. High interest rates, extremely competitive housing markets are now presenting new challenges for buyers. Another big impact we're learning on what you're going to face is what city you're looking to buy in.

CNN's Matt Egan has much more on this. What are you learning, Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, across America, there's just not enough homes for sale, and there's so much demand, and so that has pushed home prices higher and higher. So, Zillow just came out with their annual rankings of the 50 largest metro areas. And for the second year in a row, the hottest housing market in America is Buffalo, New York.

There's a number of other cities in the northeast that are high up on this list, including Hartford, Connecticut, Providence, Rhode Island and Philadelphia in the Midwest, Kansas City, St. Louis, the only city out west to make this list, Salt Lake City.

Now, Zillow takes into account a number of factors here, including home prices, how fast homes are selling how fast they're being built and also job growth, which is an important indicator of future demand.

Now, as I mentioned, Buffalo leads this list for the second year in a row. I know that's going to be music to the ears of Buffalo Bill super fan Harry Enten. And as far as why this is happening, it's because inventory is really low relative to before COVID. Also, they're adding a lot of jobs relative to how many homes are being built. Prices were up by 6 percent last year. Zillow expects another 3 percent increase this year.

Hartford is supposed to have an even bigger increase in home prices. Zillow forecasting a 4 percent increase for Hartford, Connecticut. That's going to add another $15,000 to the typical home.

Now, as always, when we talk about housing, this really cuts both ways, right, because if you already own your home and you don't need to move, the fact that home prices have gone up is good news, right? It's adding to your net worth. It's giving you some added financial flexibility. But, Kate, as we know, the American dream of home ownership, it just feels like it's out of reach for far too many people right now.

BOLDUAN: So is there good news in this report for anyone?

EGAN: There is good news because some say are seeing home prices basically flat-line or even go down a bit. If you look at this list, we're seeing smaller increases of less than 1 percent in Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, and then in some cities, including San Jose, San Francisco and New Orleans. In Austin, home prices, according to Zillow are expected to dip a bit.

So, look, if you live in those areas, or you're willing to move to those areas, that could be an option if you're looking to get a little bit of an advantage. But, Kate, we know a lot of people. They have to live where they work. They might not have that flexibility.

BOLDUAN: Oh, I was thinking Hartford, Connecticut. Now I'm just going to go to Austin.

EGAN: Right, exactly, or they have family that they don't want to move away from.

The other thing here that we have to pay really close attention to his mortgage rates, because they continue to creep higher and higher, nearly 7 percent, and that is just adding to this affordability problem.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see, Matt. Thanks for bringing it to us.

EGAN: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara?

SIDNER: All right, thank you, guys.

Curious timing, weeks after Donald Trump once again said the U.S. should own Greenland, his son, Don Jr., plans a visit to the Arctic country as a tourist.

[07:25:01] Scientists find a new source of forever chemicals that are contaminating our drinking water. We'll explain.

And this isn't news, but we don't care because it's delightful. No one celebrates a snowy day in D.C. like these chubby bears.

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SIDNER: President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to make Greenland great again, i.e. annex it. And now his son, Don Jr., is curiously heading to the Danish territory today.

[07:30:02]

For weeks now, Trump's been saying the U.S. should control Greenland, and it was an idea that he's pushed since his first administration.