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CIA Sends Unclassified Email to White House Listing Names of New Hires; DOGE to Keep Limited Access to Treasury Payments System; Chiefs Chasing First-Ever Super Bowl Three-Peat. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 06, 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: The White House orders the CIA to send an unclassified email listing out all new hires. What could go wrong? And the CIA complies, sparking new and big national security fears.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Decision day for tens of thousands of government employees. Take what some are calling a buyout, or possibly lose your job altogether.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And a new variant of bird flu linked to dairy cows in Nevada. The question experts are asking as fears grow that this strain could have a major impact on humans.

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

BOLDUAN: An absolute unnecessary counterintelligence risk and one putting lives in danger. That is the warning today from one top Democrat as the concern is now growing over the national security risks just triggered by a new move from the White House ordering the CIA to send an unclassified email. Inside that email, the first name, last initial of every CIA staffer hired in the last two years. The CIA complied. The fear now, foreign hackers and a new safety threat for Americans in the U.S. and abroad.

CNN's Zach Cohen is with us. He's got much more reporting on this. Good morning, Zach. What are you learning?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, okay. This is part of the CIA's broader effort to comply with that direct executive order from President Donald Trump to downsize the federal workforce. But, look, for an agency that prioritizes and places a premium on secrecy, this is really, frankly, a surprising move that the CIA sent this list of names to the White House in an unclassified email. And it's obviously raising concerns about national security risks, about counterintelligence threats that could come from exposing the identities of these individuals.

Now, the people on this list include all new hires at the agency, people who have worked there for two years or less. It includes people from analysts to those that are in the training program to eventually go undercover and be deployed overseas to dangerous hotspots around the world, as the CIA does.

But, look, because of that, this is the exact kind of information the CIA has really worked hard to protect in the past. You know, for their part, they're saying they're complying with Donald Trump's order and they're doing what he directed in a statement. They said, quote, we are complying with the executive orders and are providing requested information through the appropriate channels.

Now, sources telling me and our colleague, Katie Bo Lillis, though, that this option of sending the list of names with just the first name and the first letter of the last name was sort of a way to maybe try to obscure the identities of these individuals, but it doesn't take any genius to maybe piece some clues together and potentially identifies who some of these people are.

Some people warning, sources warning us that that could even end some of these officers careers before they even get started. Folks who the CIA deems it's too dangerous to send them overseas into a dangerous situation, given their identities, could be out there now.

So, Congressman Jim Himes who's the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, raising some of these concerns yesterday after this news broke. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Certainly the ones that are operational, the case officers who are operating in very, very dangerous places around the world. They are living undercover. If they are discovered, and especially those that don't have diplomatic immunity, I mentioned them earlier, you know, it can be curtains for them.

It's just not that hard to convey classified information from one government department to the other. So, we've put a lot of people needlessly at risk here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, in addition to the national security concerns that Himes is raising there, he also raised concerns about sort of this happening against the backdrop of Donald Trump's sort of broader efforts to really downsize these agencies.

This is something we were seeing at the CIA. They've been similarly offered by the so-called buyouts like we've seen at other agencies. So, it remains to be seen, but, obviously, this move to send an unclassified email really raising some concerns this morning.

BOLDUAN: Let's see what happens in the next few hours and this morning. It's good to see you, Zach. Thank you for your reporting. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now, CNN, Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Andy, nice to see you.

How secure do you think this data transfer is? ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It's not.

[07:05:00]

That's why we call it unclassified, because it's not secure. And, look, John, it's not hard to remember a time when we saw OPM, which is the agency, the information was passed to before going on to the White House was the victim of a devastating hack in 2015 by the Chinese government hackers affiliated with the Chinese government in which the personally identifying records of over 20 million Americans who are employees of the federal government were stolen and taken to China.

So, the idea that this could happen again is absolutely out there. There's no reason, you know, I'm sure OPM has improved some things in the years that follow. But this is a very juicy target for any nation state to go after. So, this is just an incredibly reckless way to transfer very important information.

BERMAN: What about the fact the names are -- it's only the first name in the last initial of the last name. So, you and I would be cleverly disguised as John B.

MCCABE: So, while that might stop you and I, John, it will not stop a determined state-sponsored adversary particularly one like, let's stay with the China example. China has stolen so much information, so many -- such a vast volume of information on Americans from places like healthcare records or DMV records and things of that nature. The reason they have that sort of massive data lake is because they can use those different data sets to cross correlate them to pursue issues exactly like this. Once you've got enough data points, when you line them up correctly, you can pretty easily penetrate a first name and a last initial with address and everything else you can associate with that target to understand their exact identity.

BERMAN: So, what impact do you think this will have, Andy, on intelligence work that is being done around the world right now?

MCCABE: Well, it clearly puts these individuals at risk and any of them who were slated for undercover work or maybe are engaged in that work already are at risk. Not just themselves physically and legally, particularly in the far off overseas locations where they work, but the people they are working with.

Let's remember that one of the core responsibilities of case officers is to recruit people from foreign countries, be they politicians, military leaders, political leaders, people in the private sector, to provide information to the United States government. Those people are at great risk if it becomes known that they are associating with someone who is connected to the CIA. So, you have degrees of danger here, not just for the CIA people, but for the people they're trying to recruit.

And I should say that communicating in the way that we are right now, the fact that the CIA is not even going very far to protect the names of their own people sends a very chilling message to those recruitment targets who might be thinking, hey, I shouldn't work with these people because they certainly won't protect me.

BERMAN: They can see this. They can read the papers. Andrew McCabe, nice to see you this morning. Thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, a judge attempts to limit exactly how much Elon Musk and his associates can do as they get access to more and more sensitive information across a host of government agencies.

Plus, barnstorming her way into the DOJ, the new attorney general, Pam Bondi, ordering a review of state cases against Trump, eliminating DEI at the Justice Department and dissolving an FBI team that fights foreign election threats. We will discuss the effect on all of this on the country.

And, a second strain of bird flu just been found in dairy cows in Nevada, why experts say this actually marks a turning point for the spread of the virus.

Those stories ahead.

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[07:10:00]

SIDNER: President Trump is about to leave the White House and head to the U.S. Capitol to join lawmakers for the National Prayer Breakfast, this as more than a million federal workers have to decide today whether to take a buyout offer and resign or risk being fired as the Trump administration looks to shrink the federal workforce, and breaking overnight, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency agreeing in court to limited access to the treasury's payment systems.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us. What can you first of all tell us about this ruling? A lot of people concerned about how much power Elon Musk and this group of associates have when it comes to the Treasury Department.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Sara. Over the last two weeks, really, we saw Musk and his associates or representatives at the Department of Government Efficiency really cracked down. They're moving to gut thousands, hundreds of thousands, I should say, federal workers clean out what they argue is red tape bogging down the federal bureaucracy. But also we've seen them gain access to some of these highly sensitive systems.

Now, on all of that, of course, is raising questions over whether this is legal. And we saw one of those court battles play out yesterday. There were emergency court proceedings regarding two different associates of Elon Musk and at DOGE, who gained access to the Treasury Department's highly sensitive payment system.

Now, the ruling that they came to is that these two people, only these two people with DOGE, are going to be able to have access to this, but limited access. They will only be able to have read-only access, according to these emergency court proceedings to the system and they cannot share it with others working with DOGE. That is according to this new court filing.

[07:15:00]

Now, one key thing as well though, Sara, is it's not just the Treasury Department, and there's not just concerns over the access to the Treasury Department. We've also learned that some of the representatives at DOGE have kind of landed at the Center for Medicare Services and are also seeking access to those as they continue to hunt for what Musk cause waste, fraud and abuse.

Now, we actually saw Musk post on X yesterday about this kind of confirming that this is a goal of his. He wrote, quote, yes, this is where the big money fraud is happening, in response to someone who was sharing The Wall Street Journal article on their access to the Center for Medicaid Services, which The Wall Street Journal, I should say, broke this story.

Now, according to The Wall Street Journal as well, DOJE's representatives have been granted access to the payment and contracting systems, but they have not yet received access to the databases containing identifiable health information about Medicare and Medicaid employees. So, again, this is all evolving as we're learning more of the access that these different people are having.

One key thing though, as well is it's not just legal concerns. There's also concerns about conflict of interest, particularly when it comes to Elon Musk, who, of course, not only has all these different business interests, but he has contracts with the government as well. A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about this yesterday. Take a listen to how she answered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: And the two of them, with a great team around them, were going to look at the receipts of this federal government and ensure it's accountable to American taxpayers. That's all that is happening here.

If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts. And he has, again, abided by all applicable laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Sara, there you have her saying that he's abiding by all applicable laws and that he will remove himself from any sort of situation where he could be approaching a conflict of interest, which is given, again, how wide spread Elon Musk influences and how widespread we're really seeing these different people working for DOGE are. I mean, we are bound to see this continuing to be something that causes a lot of concern, particularly with the legal system. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes. And we know that there are still more lawsuits that are showing up out there as well. So, we will wait to see what happens in court. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting.

Ahead, a second judge has blocked President Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship. Why the case could end up in the hands of the Supreme Court again.

It's media day for the Super Bowl. The Big Easy entertainers expected to perform during Sunday's big game.

Those stories ahead.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: We are just three days from kickoff of Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans. The Chiefs and Eagles, they're preparing for battle on the field. Well, so many of the rest of us are preparing for the halftime show, the headliner, Kendrick Lamar, fresh off winning multiple Grammy awards.

Also a Grammy award winning artist Andy Scholes is in New Orleans joining us now. I am looking forward to this performance. And you are looking forward to possibly seeing Taylor Swift.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR : Yes, well, Kate, don't expect me to sing anything for you because that would not be a grand Grameo performance. But, yes, there's all the rumors. Could Taylor Swift show up during this halftime show? You know, Kendrick Lamar and her do have that connection. They collaborated on the remix of Bad Blood. So, there's that there.

And I tell you what, if the Chiefs score a touchdown in the second quarter and they don't cut away to Taylor Swift celebrating in her suite, that could be a signal that something is going on, so something to keep an eye on. We'll see if Lamar has anything to say about it when certainly someone will ask him about surprise performances. It happens every one of these press conferences and every single time the artist says, wait and see. So, we'll, of course, have to do that.

But as for the game, the Chiefs of course trying to win their third straight Super Bowl. This is a rematch from two years ago. And if you look at the numbers around Patrick Mahomes, I mean, it's just so hard to bet against him in this game. Mahomes is a perfect 15-0 when playing in domed stadium. Of course, the Superdome is going to be a domed stadium inside. He's 8-0 against Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. And he's 7-0 in the playoffs when the point spread is less than three. The Chiefs are favored by 1.5.

And yesterday Mahomes was asked just how is he able to always come through in these big moments. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: I'm so focused on just the process of making the best play possible for the team. And you don't worry about the moment or where you're at, the environment or anything like that. You just go out there and just go about your process step by step through your checklist and then make the play happen.

And so none of the football field, I think, makes you insecure. I probably couldn't think anything in real life. I feel like I'm pretty confident who I am. And I know there's a couple things here and there that people might make fun of, but I'm confident in myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And, Kate, I got one more Mahomes stat for you. So, he started seven years now in the NFL. He's made the Super Bowl five times. That's a 71 percent rate he's more likely to make the Super Bowl, Mahomes is, than throw a completed pass. He only completes his pass at 66 percent. So, just another wild stat for you and just another reason why it's really tough to bet against the Chiefs in this game.

BOLDUAN: I love football stats. We've even taken it down to like he's 15-0 in domed stadiums. He's 15 -- he's 100-0 when the weather is 72 degrees or above.

[07:25:01]

I mean, I love football stats. It's the best.

Andy Scholes, thank you so much. John Berman?

BERMAN: So, the Philly fans backstage, when Mahomes was asked, how do you always manage to come through? They all universally answered, well, there's the refs.

BOLDUAN: Oh, nice.

BERMAN: So, Mahomes could have said that. He chose not to, but he could.

BOLDUAN: Of course, John's trying to be agnostic. I didn't say it though.

BERMAN: I didn't say it. It was others. I heard.

BOLDUAN: Some would say. Some would say,

BERMAN: All right, this morning, new orders from the freshly minted attorney general. On her list of priorities, what could be seen as revenge against those who investigated President Trump?

And President Trump has, quote, made something snap in us. It is supposedly hard to anger a Canadian, but it seems to have happened. What are the implications now?

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