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Judge Doesn't Immediately Rule on DOJ Motion to Drop New York City Mayor Case; Men Charged with Burglaries of Pro Athletes' Homes; Asteroid's Odds of Hitting Earth in 2032 at Record High. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 19, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Breaking news into CNN. Just moments ago, the federal hearing over the Justice Department's bid to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams wrapped up.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid is outside of court there. Paula, tell us what happened.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So the judge signaled that he is likely to grant this motion to dismiss, though he did not make a formal decision from the bench. Instead saying he wants to give these arguments careful consideration. But he also said that he intends to move quickly.

He doesn't want this hanging over anyone. This is high stakes, though, for the Trump Justice Department. This is the first test to see how far the federal judiciary will let the department go in its decision making.

But at the top of the hearing, the judge, a Biden appointee, acknowledged that he has, quote, little discretion when it comes to rejecting a motion to dismiss like this. Now, it's really interesting at the start of the hearing, he had Mayor Adams, who is in attendance, stand up because he wanted to make sure that the mayor fully understood the fact that if this case is dismissed, it's being dismissed without prejudice, which just means it could be refiled and that there is no guarantee.

And the Justice Department agreed that they won't take additional investigative steps against him or charge him in the future. So this will continue to hang over him. The mayor said he understood that.

The judge also had a lot of questions for Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general who has been the one spearheading this controversial move to dismiss this case.

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Bove laid out, once again, the two reasons he has previously laid out for why he thinks this case should be dismissed. He said he believes there is an appearance of improper reasoning for bringing this case. He also said that having this case hanging over the mayor prevents him from being able to enforce immigration.

Now, these are the same two reasons that he laid out in his initial memo to the U.S. attorney here in Manhattan, signaling that he wanted this case dismissed. That, of course, sparked a mutiny with over half a dozen prosecutors resigning in protest.

Now, the judge said he was also a little concerned, though, about the precedent. Does this mean that no public officials can be investigated or charged because having that out there could interfere with their job? The Justice Department said they did not believe that would be the case.

So the judge said, did not want to shoot from the hip. He is going to give this careful consideration. And I think we can expect a decision soon. And all indications in this hearing were that the judge is likely to agree to dismiss this case.

KEILAR: All right, really interesting. Paula Reid, thank you so much.

CNN senior legal analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig, with us. Your reaction?

ELI HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: A bit surprising that the judge does seem -- and I was following on live feeds as well -- that the judge does seem prepared to dismiss this case. He has not done that yet. But the judge's questioning was fairly gentle. It was academic. It was theoretical. It was sort of where could this lead.

But he really didn't push back much on Emil Bove. When Bove said there was no quid pro quo, there's no agreement here. What I would have asked if I was the judge was, what if Eric Adams was not in agreement with the administration's political -- political preferences, political agenda? What if Eric Adams said he opposed your immigration agenda? Would you still be here making the same motion to dismiss? And I did not see that kind of pushback from the judge here.

But look, the judge is correct. And DOJ is correct that there is very broad discretion for DOJ to move to dismiss its case. Very narrow discretion for the judge to refuse that.

One thing I do want to point out, only one perspective was really presented at this hearing because it was Emil Bove obviously wanted to dismiss the indictment. Eric Adams, desperate to have the indictment dismissed.

But all the people who dissented, they've resigned and they're gone. Daniel Sassoon, Hagan Scott, and these conservative attorneys they're not there. Their perspective is not being aired in that courtroom.

SANCHEZ: Important to point out, these are folks who've clerked for a Supreme Court, justices who are in the Federalist Society. I wonder what you make of this comment from Emil Bove. Apparently in court, he said, unprompted quote, I want to be clear.

I think the only question is whether there's any basis to believe that I made these representations in court in bad faith. And the answer to that is absolutely not. He's staking his reputation on this.

HONIG: Yes, he's saying basically to the judge, I'm telling you what happened and you have to take it at face value and that's that.

Well, first of all, I disagree. I mean, if the judge wants, he can hold a hearing. I don't think that's a possible outcome. I don't think the judge is going to say, well, I need to hear from Daniel Sassoon. He could do that, but it sounds like he just wants to end this.

The other thing is Emil Bove's comment presupposes that he's offering a proper basis to dismiss the indictment.

In other words, Bove assumes, take it as a given, that if we want to dismiss an indictment because it helps us further our policy agenda, that's OK. And that right there is the exact reason this is such a big deal, right? Yes, it's the New York City mayor, but it's one case against one guy, big cases come and go.

The reason that you saw this letter signed by hundreds of DOJ alum is because if this becomes the policy, if it's the kind of thing that DOJ feels comfortable going into court saying, we're going to let someone out of an indictment because they're in position to help us politically and policy-wise, that is a, first of all, a huge change from what DOJ has ever done. And second of all, a huge problem. And I would have loved to see the judge push, but he pushed back a little bit on it.

He said, well, could this apply to other public officials? And Bove said, well, it would depend on the case, not necessarily. But there was a lot more pushback to be had there.

SANCHEZ: We'll see what the judge does next. Eli Honig, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Still plenty more news to come on NEWS CENTRAL. Seven people now charged in a nationwide crime spree targeting famous professional athletes, who these suspects are, and why a key piece of evidence is apparently a selfie.

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SANCHEZ: Seven men have been charged in connection to a nationwide burglary ring that targeted some of biggest names in sports, taking advantage of their very public game schedules to know when they would likely be away from home. The victims included Kansas City Chiefs players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. Federal prosecutors say the thieves made off with more than $2 million in valuables.

CNN correspondent Polo Sandoval joins us now with the latest details. Polo, what can you tell us?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris, you're talking millions and millions of dollars worth of stolen goods and the list of potential victims is quite long when it comes to professional athletes. These seven Chilean nationals that have been actually, at least they're being charged by the federal government here, as part of a nationwide burglary string specifically targeting these pro athletes. And when it comes to what authorities have revealed in the probable cause affidavit, they've actually included a selfie picture, which has showed viewers a short while ago.

I want to give you a full view of it here so you can actually see what the FBI has shared in the selfie. They believe -- investigators believe these are several of the members of that current organization that's specifically going after the homes of pro athletes. One of these incidents, including what you're seeing here, roughly $1.4 million worth of watches, some high end purses and other products as well that were reportedly stolen in early November. That's on the same day that Bobby Portis, the Bucks forward, actually reported that his house was broken into with some property stolen.

But then you look at the gentleman there in the red, you see a Kansas City Chiefs top. Well, investigators believe that some of these men were also involved in a separate robbery that specifically targeted quarterback Patrick Mahomes and also tight end Travis Kelce at one point. So this is a massive investigation that has resulted in the charges against these seven individuals.

And speaking to intelligence officials and experts today, Boris, they do not believe that this will mark the end of this operation. This is really just scratching the surface. This has been described, including by federal investigators who are handling this as a highly sophisticated fencing network specifically going after athletes who you and I know and everybody else knows exactly where they normally will be for specific games, especially if they'll be playing away. And that's when they set up surveillance, these organizations, according to investigators, to know exactly when to hit these houses.

SANCHEZ: Polo Sandoval, thank you for the update. We'll see what happens in that case.

Next, astronomers have just upped the chances of a city killing asteroid hitting Earth. The risk level now the highest ever recorded.

There is some good news, though. Cue up the Aerosmith next.

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KEILAR: Earth is now facing the greatest risk ever recorded of being hit by an asteroid in seven years. According to NASA and the European Space Agency, the chance of the asteroid which is called 2024 YR4 hitting the Earth in 2032 has risen to a range of 2.8 to 3.1 percent. That's a little high for me, Boris. I'm not going to lie. And this thing is estimated to be between 100 and 300 feet wide.

SANCHEZ: The ESA says that is now the highest probability of impact ever seen for an asteroid in this size range. Important to point out, in recorded history, asteroids have hit the Earth before. Joining us now though is Adam Frank, professor of astrophysics at the

University of Rochester. He wrote the book, "The Little Book of Aliens." Adam, thanks so much for being with us. So this increase over a 3 percent chance, should we panic?

ADAM FRANK, PROFESSOR OF ASTROPHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: Yes, just when you thought things were chaotic already, you know, now we get this. No, we shouldn't panic because what's going to happen is as we get more data on this asteroid, how fast it's moving, its exact motion, its orbital path, if history shows us anything, the odds are going to go down. And they'll probably go down to the point where it really becomes, you know, you don't even have to really worry about it.

So this asteroid in particular, I don't think is going to be a big issue. But what it shows is, is that there are many of these smaller, what we call city killer size asteroids that we've never seen before. And we're going out and discovering them.

And each time we discover one, we've got to check to see if it's got a dangerous orbit, because we may have to try and figure out how to divert it if it really, the odds got too high.

KEILAR: OK, but let me just play devil's advocate here. I mean, why couldn't the odds get higher? Is it just because -- I mean, actually, we're just this tiny little earth in so much space? Is that -- I mean, explain to us why you expect the odds to go down?

FRANK: Well, it's because we, you know, it's about the getting better data. Right now, the error bars that we have, you know, our uncertainty in the orbit is still quite large for these kinds of calculations. So there's still -- there's so much room for us to be wrong right now, that as we get more data, what's going to happen is the error bars, you know, the uncertainty is going to shrink.

And when that happens, most likely it'll shrink past the point where earth is in the target zone. So that's sort of what has happened in history when we get better and better data. But of course, we only can get better data by looking really carefully, by using the most advanced telescopes, by using the most cutting edge kinds of science that we have.

SANCHEZ: 97 percent of the time, it works every time, right? Adam, I think this might be a dumb question.

SANDOVAL: You know probability, that's great.

SANCHEZ: Yes, yes. This might be a dumb question. It's called a city killer. What kind of damage could it do? Is it limited to a city? Let's say it lands in the ocean. Are we looking at a tsunami?

FRANK: Yes, that's a great question. And it's called a city killer because it's about the amount of energy that would be released if it hit the earth. And probably something like this wouldn't actually hit the earth. As it dove into the atmosphere, it would get so hot, it would explode in the atmosphere itself. The last one of these we had, big one was in 1908 in Siberia, and it flattened hundreds of miles -- of square miles of trees. Just a few years ago, we had a smaller version of one of these that went over a city in Russia that actually injured about 1,200 people from the blast wave.

So if it hits near a populated area, it can do, you know, a fair amount of damage. It could actually, if it hit close enough, it could really wipe out the city. But of course, if it hits in the ocean or something, then there wouldn't be spectacular fireworks, but there wouldn't be much effect.

SANCHEZ: Something to keep an eye on. Adam Frank, appreciate the expertise. Thanks for joining us.

FRANK: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, who doesn't want to eat an entire chocolate cake all in one go? The sneaky bandit with a sweet tooth and a cute, cute face.

KEILAR: No, not cute.

SANCHEZ: Look at that little guy.

KEILAR: No.

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KEILAR: A cake bandit has gone viral after being caught eating an entire chocolate cake on a homeowner's back porch. And the culprit? Well, it's this guy right behind Boris, the possum. She was found at the end of an incriminating trail of chocolatey paw prints out of breath after downing this entire Costco Tuxedo Chocolate Mousse Cake.

SANCHEZ: Brianna, why was the cake outside?

KEILAR: It was because -- I read the homeowners ran out of space in the fridge, and so they sometimes just park things outside. It's cold there, and they were just keeping it out to keep it preserved.

SANCHEZ: This is obviously a risk that could come with that. If you squint, it looks like a puppy.

The Nebraska Humane Society took the possum in. They say its indulgence may have actually saved her life. She's being treated for unrelated lead toxicity, which could have been fatal if she had stayed in the wild, so eating an entire cake has its benefits. The wildlife rehab where she's being treated is now selling merch of the viral critter.

You see there, Wanted Cake Bandit.

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She's adorable. KEILAR: They called it in to the animal control because cake, you know, as you know, as a dog owner, is very dangerous --

SANCHEZ: Yes, chocolate for sure.

KEILAR: -- for dogs and other animals. They were so concerned, they thought, oh my God, have we poisoned this possum? So they called it in, and unbeknownst to them, they saved the life of the possum for some other reason.

SANCHEZ: Sounds like a heck of a Friday night. Good time.

KEILAR: "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

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