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Russia Sees Talks With U.S. As A Chance To Rebuilt Its Spy Networks; Officials Investigate "Suspicious" Deaths Of Gene Hackman And Wife; Connecticut Teen Graduates High School With Honors But Says She's Illiterate. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired February 28, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:20]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

So the recent talks between the U.S. and Russia have given the Russians an opening to potentially reestablish their diplomatic presence in the United States and as a result rebuild its spy network on American soil. Now, following President Donald Trump's call with Russian President Vladimir Putin both countries agreed to begin talks on restoring regular operations of their embassies and consulates in each country.

I want to bring in CNN's Natasha Bertrand who has the latest reporting on this. So Natasha, what are you learning on this front?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well Omar, we talked to over half a dozen current and former U.S. officials who told us that Moscow really sees these talks with the U.S. about reestablishing its diplomatic presence on U.S. soil as an -- as an opening to rebuild its spy network in the West, which has been decimated over the last several years.

Since 2016, over 100 Russian diplomats who the U.S. believed were actually intelligence operatives working under a very thin diplomatic cover have been expelled from the U.S. And, of course, there was a mass expulsion of these so-called diplomats -- the Europeans said that they were actually also intelligence operatives -- from European capitals following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

And so this is now an opportunity for the Russians, who place an extremely high value on having intelligence operatives actually on U.S. soil to conduct espionage and also to make contact with human intelligence sources, to reestablish this network that they have really lost over the last several years.

Now this is such a priority we're told for the Russians that they have actually decided to withhold future high-level meetings with the U.S. at the Secretary of State level, for example, until serious progress is made on actually getting their diplomatic facilities and diplomats back on U.S. soil. The U.S. also closed several Russian diplomatic facilities across the

country beginning in 2017 in response to Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, including consulates in Washington, D.C., in New York, San Francisco, and Seattle where it was actually very close to a U.S. naval base raising concerns there about espionage.

But one U.S. official put this very bluntly to us -- to me and my colleague Zach Cohen -- saying that "The latest wave of expulsions" -- which happened in 2022 following Russia's invasion -- "were almost entirely operatives under thin cover. It is absolutely ludicrous that this is even in the cards given how endangering this would be to U.S. national security and how it would require more FBI counterintelligence resources to address, especially when the FBI is facing staffing reductions and dismissals."

Now this is really key because FBI agents have also told CNN that there is a wariness right now about pursuing cases related to Russian counterintelligence -- Russian counterintelligence cases and Russian intelligence operatives because they don't want to be seen as pursuing things that are apparently at odds with the Trump administration's stated desire to kind of reset relations with the Russians.

And so you are facing on the one hand the possibility that many Russian diplomats who are, in fact, intelligence operatives who are going to be coming back to the U.S. And on the other hand a lack of ability or a reduced ability for the FBI to place continued counterintelligence pressure on them.

So a perfect storm in the words of one official that we spoke to, Omar.

JIMENEZ: An interesting dynamic to watch.

Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New this morning a federal judge is blocking the Trump administration and DOGE's efforts to slash the federal workforce. The judge in San Francisco ruled the mass firings of probationary federal employees are likely unlawful. Labor unions and nonprofits are suing on behalf of thousands of probationary employees who have lost their jobs.

CNN's Rene March (sic) is joining me -- Marsh is joining me now from Washington. It's good to see you, Rene.

What else did the judge say about all this? The big headline being that he thinks that it is unlawful what DOGE is doing.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Sara. So this judge basically said that OPM overstepped its authority when it directed the mass firing of thousands of probationary employees government wide.

And the judge who was appointed by Bill Clinton -- President Bill Clinton said, and I'm quoting here, "OPM does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire or fire any employee but its own." [07:35:00]

So at the heart of this lawsuit is a February 14 OPM member asking agencies to send separation letters as soon as possible to probationary employees who are not deemed essential. Now, probationary employees are those who have been on the job for less than a year. And the judge ordered OPM to rescind its directive to inform -- and also to inform several agencies that it had no power to dictate these firings.

Lawyers for the Trump administration argued that OPM made a request, not a demand, and that agencies were not obligated to follow. And the acting head of OPM made a similar argument. The judge wasn't buying that.

The judge did acknowledge that agencies themselves have the authority to fire probationary workers within their own agencies, and he also said he could not order the government to reinstate previously fired workers.

Still, though, with all of that, this is a win for the labor unions who brought his suit -- Sara.

SIDNER: Rene Marsh, thank you so much for all of your reporting on these issues throughout the government. I really appreciate it.

All right, joining us now, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton. And Democratic strategist and co- founder of Lift Our Voices, Julie Roginsky. Thank you both for being here.

Shermichael, first to you. These firings --

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning.

SIDNER: -- of probationary employees don't seem based on anything except that they are probationary employees, making them easier to fire.

Is that a good enough reason in your mind?

SINGLETON: I think so. And as Rene Marsh stated, the judge indicated that the agencies themselves can actually let some of these people go. And so that -- there's clearly a work-around here for the president to have his cabinet secretaries relieve many of these individuals of their jobs.

And as this becomes more complicated and as we see more lawsuits the president had stated a couple of days ago that they were willing to look at the appellate level process to see if they could get some of this stuff overturned.

And I would also probably advise the president, Sara, to consider going through Congress. And the reason I say that is because I'm looking at this politically in terms of giving Republicans in the House the opportunity to go back to their districts and articulate what they're actually doing to cut costs and save more for the American people.

Bill Clinton did something very similar with Congress in the early 90s. They approved a $25,000 federal buyout, which is the equivalent of $55,000 today. I think we could do something very similar, particularly as we get ready to head towards reconciliation and budget talks.

SIDNER: Julie, the -- you know, the court has said look, we can't reinstate these employees, so isn't the damage pretty much already done? To some of these agencies it looks like they will no longer really exist, like USAID.

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, CO-FOUNDER, LIFT OUR VOICES: Yes. And to Shermichael's point, Bill Clinton did do something similar. He did it with a scalpel. He did it methodically. Al Gore, who was in charge of it for him, went in and actually determined where the fat was and where he cut it. This wasn't a nuke of entire agencies and just randomly arbitrarily just cutting people jobs.

And to Shermichael's point, a lot of people are going -- Congresspeople are going back to their districts. Those are their employees who are being fired and their constituents because 80 percent of the federal workforce lives outside of Washington. I don't know if people realize that. A third of them are veterans and the very people who the Republicans claimed during the election to want to uplift the working people.

The veterans of this country are the people who are getting shafted right now because Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, is going out there and arbitrarily saying "You're fired, you're fired, but you're not fired" based on nothing other than his whim.

And that's what we're dealing with and that's why Congresspeople all across this country are hearing it from their constituents because they are the ones who are losing their jobs and also are not providing the care to the American people that American people expect to have provided for them from federal employees right now.

SIDNER: Julie, you and Shermichael both mentioned this sort of the lawmakers taking this back to their constituents, and things are getting really uncomfortable for Republicans at several town halls that we've seen. And also now on conservative radio talk shows, including one by one of the most popular Fox hosts.

Take a listen to what people are saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BOB ONDER (R-MO): No one voted for Elon Musk. And if you say he's doing all these great things, when is he going to go before Congress with his report of all these so-called savings?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: We are also seeing people get lambasted. Republicans, in particular, are getting lambasted at their town halls.

We heard from Speaker Mike Johnson who said oh, these are just paid protesters. Why would he say that Shermichael?

SINGLETON: Really, I don't know if they're paid or not.

But Sara, I want to go back to my original point as a strategist. I'm always thinking about an impact negatively on election cycles and how do I mitigate that negative impact as great as I possibly can, right? Because the job is to preserve power, increase your majority. Right now in the House we do have a very slim majority.

[07:40:00]

And so as I've been thinking about this more and more the big question for me is how do we empower Congress to be a part of this process so that when those congressmembers are going back to their districts they can explain where we're cutting. They can explain why we're cutting. They can explain that the cost savings to the taxpayers. They could explain what other mitigation efforts that they have considered or will come into effect to assist those individuals who have lost their jobs.

So I think the party as a whole needs to come around the messaging here with obviously the president being the chief messenger to the American people about why we're doing this versus Elon Musk. We've got elections coming up next year as you well know. We're going to be talking about those things in a couple of months.

I want to empower the Republican caucus to increase our majority, not decrease it, and I think this certainly makes it a little more complicated.

SIDNER: But I've got to ask you as a strategist when somebody completely sort of dismisses people's concerns saying oh, they're paid protesters, these are constituents. I mean, some of the Republicans are saying yes, these are my constituents. They are telling them where they live.

Is that a good idea?

SINGLETON: Look, I think the speaker's point is Democrats are obviously going to take advantage of this opportunity politically. And as a strategist, if I were a Democratic strategist, you would be smart if you're trying to win back the majority to say look at what Republicans are doing and how this is negatively impacting you.

I certainly understand that which again goes back to my point, Sara. How do we as Republicans avoid giving that opportunity to Democrats to message against Republicans as we prepare to increase the majority in the House?

I don't think this is the way to do it. I think there is a way to make the cuts. There's a way to alleviate unnecessary workers. There is a way to save more money for the taxpayers while also maintaining Republican majority. And I don't think this is quite the way that I would personally want to do it.

SIDNER: Julie, when it comes to Democrats and what they're doing, when you see these town halls, when you see what's happening on conservative radio, clearly these people are not paid protesters. Clearly, they are constituents in most of the cases. You're hearing that even from the Republicans who are there.

But do -- does this, do you think, mean that there is going to be less fealty from Republicans are they are getting a barrage of concern mostly over DOGE and mostly over what Elon Musk is doing? Will this change how Congress deals with what Trump wants done?

ROGINSKY: Well, the problem for Republicans is that they are subsumed by the cult of Donald Trump, and they're terrified of being primaried by somebody who Trump supports. They're terrified of having Elon Musk spend money against them in primaries.

On the other hand, if Mike Johnson thinks that the people in his state of Louisiana, which has a disproportionately large number of people who are on Medicaid, are protesting because they are paid as opposed to the fact that they're scared and terrified that he's taking their health care away, I don't know what he's smoking but I want some of that. Because that's absolutely contrary to every single fact that's been on the ground. I mean, there's no way that people are not terrified that their health care is being taken away, that their benefits are being taken away, all to give tax breaks to the wealthiest among us, most of whom do not live in Louisiana, his home state.

So he's told people not to do town halls anymore, which I find fascinating, because he knows -- he knows that this doesn't benefit him politically. And yet, if he doesn't want his members doing town halls, the town halls will come to them. He cannot escape what they're doing because it's their constituents who are being harmed.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you to you, Julie Roginsky --

SINGLETON: Sara, Sara --

SIDNER: -- and to you, Shermichael. Yes, Shermichael?

SINGLETON: Just really quickly I was just going to say I think over time we're going to probably see some shifting in the political strategy here coming from the White House in part. Because if Donald Trump wants to see his agenda move forward, which the vast majority of the country would like to see, you've got to maintain that support on the House side. You can't lose any of those seats.

SIDNER: All right, appreciate it. Thank you to both of you -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: New this morning an investigation is underway into the deaths of Hollywood legend Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. Now, the couple's bodies, along with their dog, were found in separate rooms in their New Mexico estate Wednesday. And moments ago the Sante Fe County sheriff told NBC that the couple were likely dead for days or weeks before they were discovered. Joining me now is Joseph Scott Morgan, distinguished professor of applied forensics at Jacksonville State University. Professor Morgan, thank you for being here.

So I want to start with -- OK, no external trauma. No immediate signs of foul play, at least according to preliminary autopsies. I mean, what sticks out to you of all the details we know so far?

JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF APPLIED FORENSICS, JACKSONVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY (via Webex by Cisco): That this is a multiple death scenario. This is not common, particularly --

You know, I worked for the M.E. in Atlanta and for the coroner in the New Orleans area. And Omar, I've got to tell you, in my recollection I've never worked a case with multiple deaths in a single structure that weren't either trauma-related, or there was some type of toxin in the air, or it was something that had been ingested.

[07:45:00]

And then on top of it we have this dead canine as well that was found adjacent to her in the bathroom.

And for me you're going to have to dig deep and take your time with this case because in my opinion this is very, very complex.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, the Santa Fe County sheriff, as we just mentioned, said it appears to have been days and potentially --

MORGAN: Um-hum.

JIMENEZ: -- even up to a couple of weeks before they were found.

MORGAN: Right.

JIMENEZ: And the affidavit said there were signs of mummification on the bodies.

MORGAN: Right.

JIMENEZ: What does that mean? And how does a body that may have gone many days before being found change the nature of a death investigation?

MORGAN: Well, yeah. So to that point it makes it a bit more complex because a lot of the things that would be obvious as far as trauma goes -- you know, initially -- particularly at the scene where you've got poor lighting and those sorts of things, you might not pick up on it as quickly. It's going to be to their advantage, and they've done that. That's probably occurring today. Those bodies are actually at the M.E.'s office under the best type of circumstances to examine remains.

Secondly, I begin to think about what they're going to be tasked with relative to kind of running down those things that are unseen. It's my opinion that they should do a very broad spectrum toxicology report. And this issue of carbon monoxide inhalation perhaps has come up time and time again. They're going to do a carboxyhemoglobin level on all parties concerned here.

And in addition to having autopsies performed, which should involve head-to-toe full-body x-rays, they're going to do a necropsy, hopefully, on this canine that is deceased.

To the point of mummification though, we have to understand that Sante Fe, New Mexico is a very arid environment, and you only get mummification most of the time in very arid environments where you're absent any kind of significant humidity. And plus, you're in the winter months now, too. It makes it particularly dry in that environment.

So there's a lot going on here. Reflectively, I'm thinking about these medications that were found scattered upon the vanity in the bathroom. This toppled heater.

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

MORGAN: And Omar, one of the most troubling things about this is that this house was not secured. The door was actually open. And for me, as a death investigator, that's significant. And hopefully, they will be exploring that very, very deeply.

JIMENEZ: A lot of factors to explore right now just in the preliminary stages. As you know, these investigations typically take time.

Joseph Scott Morgan, I really appreciate you being here. Thanks for the time and perspective.

MORGAN: You bet. Thanks.

JIMENEZ: All right. Coming up, dozens of Mexican cartel kingpins are now back on U.S. soil, including a notorious drug lord who was portrayed in the Netflix series "NARCOS" and wanted for the murder of an undercover DEA agent.

And I'm sorry to you, NFL fans. You're going to have to deal with the Swifties one more year -- specifically, because of this guy. We'll talk about it coming up.

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[07:53:12]

SIDNER: I'm just warning you this is going to sound outrageous. A teenager says she graduated high school with honors without being able to read or write in English. Aleysha Ortiz is now suing her former school district. How the heck did this happen?

CNN's Danny Freeman has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did you ever think you'd be going to college here?

ALEYSHA ORTIZ, COLLEGE STUDENT WHO CAN'T READ OR WRITE: No, never. Never in a million years.

FREEMAN (voiceover): In some ways, Aleysha Ortiz is living an American dream. The 19-year-old began her freshman year at the University of Connecticut in Hartford this fall. She's excited to study public policy, the culmination of hard work after moving north from Puerto Rico as a child.

FREEMAN: Do you remember when you first came to Connecticut?

ORTIZ: Yes, I remember. I was very nervous, but I knew it was going to be a better opportunity for me to learn.

FREEMAN (voiceover): But Aleysha says those opportunities never came to fruition.

FREEMAN: Even today, could you read this, or would it take you a long time?

ORTIZ: It's impossible. All I see is words everywhere.

FREEMAN (voiceover): Aleysha graduated from the Hartford Public School System last year, but she says today she is illiterate. She still doesn't know how to read or write.

When she was in early education --

ORTIZ: They would just tell me to stay in a corner and sleep or just draw pictures of flowers for them.

FREEMAN (voiceover): And when she was in high school she relied on speech-to-text programs and other apps to read and write essays.

FREEMAN: So if you had an assignment where you had to write something you'd open up a document like this --

ORTIZ: Um-hum.

FREEMAN: -- and then do what?

ORTIZ: I would go here -- so use text-to-speech.

FREEMAN: It says dictate.

ORTIZ: Dictate, yeah. I love pizza.

[07:55:00]

FREEMAN: This is how you would do your assignments?

ORTIZ: And then --

SIRI: Cats of the world (INAUDIBLE) sporting a twin-prop airplane.

FREEMAN: If you had to read something that's how you'd do it?

FREEMAN (voiceover): She said her mother, who does not speak English well, tried to get answers.

ORTIZ: She advocated so much. She went to the school. The principal would promise her that they would do better. And sometimes there would be people from the district or the directors promising her that they would do better.

FREEMAN (voiceover): Now Aleysha is suing the Hartford Board of Education and the city for negligence. The suit alleges the school district documented and acknowledge Aleysha's learning challenges through multiple grades, but because they were not adequately addressed, she continued to struggle academically and began exhibiting maladaptive behaviors in the classroom.

ORTIZ: Sometimes I will feel proud to be the best child because at least I was something to them and I wasn't invisible.

FREEMAN (voiceover): While the city of Hartford and an educator named in the suit declined to comment when contacted by CNN, in a statement Hartford Public Schools wrote, "While Hartford Public Schools cannot comment on pending litigation, we remain deeply committed to meeting the full range of needs our students bring with them when they enter our schools -- and helping them reach their full potential."

DR. JESSE P. TURNER, PHD, THE LITERACY CENTER AT CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY: What's a Dog Man?

FREEMAN (voiceover): Dr. Jesse Turner is the leader of the Literacy Center at Central Connecticut State University. He feels the main issue here is inequality in public education.

TURNER: America should be asking a question. Do we really care about our children -- all of our children? And I would argue that maybe we don't.

FREEMAN (voiceover): A 2019 report from EdBuild, which promotes equity in public schools, found that majority non-white school districts get $23 billion less than districts that serve mostly white students. Minority enrollment in Hartford's public schools is about 90 percent.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Department of Education is a big con job.

FREEMAN (voiceover): Plus, Turner fears a crucial guardrail will be lost if the Trump administration follows through with abolishing the Department of Education.

TURNER: How do I protect the special education children? Who do I go to if I close it down?

FREEMAN (voiceover): College as presented its own obstacles but Aleysha says UConn has been accommodating, but she doesn't want any other student to go through what she experienced. ORTIZ: I know we can do better, and I know we have a powerful

community that wants to do better. I want to be the voice for them.

FREEMAN (voiceover): Danny Freeman, CNN, Hartford, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Wow.

A routine bus ride turned into a nightmare for a dozen Ohio middle- schoolers when their bus suddenly caught fire. You can see it behind me. Thankfully, they all got out safely.

But here's how one student said they were able to get out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITT MOSBY, 13-YEAR-OLD STUDENT: The bus just caught on fire and we were all scared. We called our parents. But luckily, the bus driver got us out safe and he already called for backup.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now, the school district credits the bus driver's quick response and yearly bus evacuation drills for the students' safe escape. They're now trying to find out what caused the fire. The bus had just passed its state inspection a few weeks ago.

Also, a notorious drug lord from Mexico is back in the United States after spending nearly 40 years on the DEA's most-wanted list. Rafael Caro Quintero was allegedly involved in the kidnapping and murder of DEA special agent Enrique Camarena Salazar -- Kiki Camarena Salazar as he's known -- back in 1985.

Quintero was released from a Mexican prison in 2013, but Mexico's Supreme Court later overturned that decision but didn't find him again until 2022. Now he and dozens of drug cartel members have been extradited to the United States for prosecution.

And Taylor Swift is staying in Kansas. OK, this is more about her love for Travis Kelce. But the Chiefs' tight end contemplated retiring after the team's miss on a Super Bowl three-peat. But now he says he's back for year 13. He told ESPN host Pat McAfee the game left a bad taste in his mouth, and he didn't want to go out like that.

As a competitor I understand because if you're a Chiefs fan that was not a good game.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Department is planning to supercharge the hiring of air traffic controllers, but with ongoing concerns about flight safety some are questioning whether speed will come at the expense of quality.

CNN's Pete Muntean has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Set all this against the backdrop of federal job cuts, air traffic controllers, so far, have been exempted from being axed by the Trump administration since a shortage of thousands of air traffic controllers has been a years' long problem for the federal government. Hiring them has not been easy with the training academy still backlogged by the pandemic.

Now Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says he is going to supercharge hiring. And even Elon Musk is wading into this. More on that in a second.

Duffy's plan opens up a new hiring window for controllers starting March 17. It's a good gig if you can get it. The average pay, according to the Trump administration, is $160,000 per year. Duffy insists he will also make the hiring process easier, trimming an eight-step process into a five-step process.