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Top DOJ Official Emil Bove Denies Whistleblower Complaint; New Trump Administration Plan Could End Asylum Claims, Speed Deportations; Trump Meets with Ukraine's Zelenskyy at NATO Summit; Astronauts Launch to International Space Station After Extended Delay. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 25, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Just moments ago, a denial from Emil Bove, President Trump's former personal attorney, who has been serving as a top DOJ official. Bove rejecting a whistleblower's claims that he and other Justice Department leaders ordered prosecutors to ignore court orders amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

That whistleblower complaint, which was sent to members of Congress and obtained by CNN, alleges that during a March meeting, Bove, quote, stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts F-you. Bove, who has now been tapped to become a federal judge, was grilled by lawmakers during a heated Senate confirmation hearing earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EMIL BOVE, PRINCIPAL ASSOC. DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Senator, I have no recollection of saying anything of that kind to the extent I --

SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Wouldn't you recall, Mr. Bove, if you said or suggested during a meeting with Justice Department lawyers that maybe they should consider telling the court F-you, it seems to me that would be something you'd remember, unless that's the kind of thing you say frequently.

BOVE: Well, I've certainly said things encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take in defense of our clients --

SCHIFF: And if you mind, frequent?

BOVE: I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders. At the point of that meeting, there were no court orders to discuss.

SCHIFF: Well, did you suggest telling the courts F-you in any manner?

BOVE: I don't recall.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: CNN Chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid has more details on this. So Paula, the DOJ is claiming here that this whistleblower is a disgruntled former employee. What are you learning?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This whistleblower was actually fired back in April after disclosing in court that Kilmer Abrego Garcia was, quote, mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Then he submitted this complaint on Tuesday to members of Congress and the Justice Department's inspector general, seeking an investigation into these allegations. But this is by no means even the biggest controversy that Emil has faced over the past few years.

Now, let's start with where he came from, who he is. He graduated from Georgetown Law School in 2008. He spent over a decade at the federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan.

He then eventually joined President Trump's defense team in 2023. He worked on three of his criminal cases. Then, when Trump was reelected, he tapped Bove to oversee the Justice Department, while Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche were awaiting confirmation.

And during that time, he really found himself at the center of several major controversies. The biggest one was actually the move to dismiss the federal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. And this was the topic, the subject of a lot of questions in today's hearing, and whether this was some sort of quid pro quo to get Adams to help President Trump pursue his immigration agenda.

Now, I will note that eventually that decision to dismiss those charges, while it did prompt an exodus of prosecutors from that office, Bove actually had to argue the case himself in front of a judge. The judge did actually eventually agree that this was within their prosecutorial discretion. So he's had a very sort of short life in the public arena, but he has accumulated a lot of detractors.

[14:35:00]

But I've talked to people who work with him, who know him, and they say, look, he is someone who's a brilliant writer, he's a great lawyer, he was sent to the Justice Department to make changes, and that made him very unpopular. But now his confirmation is, of course, in the hands of these lawmakers.

KEILAR: All right, Paula, thank you very much for that report -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: CNN has new exclusive reporting that the Department of Homeland Security is planning to dismiss potentially hundreds of thousands of asylum claims, making the migrants who filed them immediately deportable. The move is part of a new immigration plan aimed at speeding up deportations.

Let's get more from CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. So, Priscilla, who exactly would this impact?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So this is specifically targeting people who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border unlawfully and applied for asylum here in the United States. Now, the reason that this is so unusual, according to all the sources that I've spoken with, is because to apply for asylum in the United States, it doesn't matter how you entered. But this is, however, going after those who entered unlawfully.

And we have a bit of a sense of the numbers here, though it's not a perfect number. About 25 percent have reported that they did cross the border unlawfully of those who applied for asylum over the last several years. That would be about a quarter of a million people.

And in the grand scheme of things, there are about 1.4 million pending asylum applications. So it doesn't give us the perfect calculation of who this is going to affect, but it certainly tells us it's going to affect hundreds of thousands of people who essentially, Boris, are in the process of seeking asylum in the United States. Only to learn in that process that that opportunity is going to be stripped from them and that they will then be potentially immediately deportable.

So what does that second half mean? It means that they can be placed in what we call fast-track deportation proceedings, meaning they don't have a hearing before an immigration judge. And another move that the administration has done as part of this broader plan is to delegate authority to U.S. citizenship and immigration services to order what is called expedited removal. So, again, those fast-track deportation proceedings.

That's unprecedented. That is usually something that comes from Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But what we are seeing here and what advocates and experts are warning about is that USCIS, the federal agency that has been charged with managing federal immigration benefits, is now part of this deportation campaign.

And that can certainly have a chilling effect to the many immigrants in the United States who are trying to obtain relief from this very agency.

SANCHEZ: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much for the reporting.

Still to come, President Trump compliments Ukraine's leader after the two hold a closed-door meeting at NATO. He even admits that Russia's Vladimir Putin could have his sights on territory beyond Ukraine as well.

CNN's Erin Burnett will join us from the UAE next.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWS CENTRAL. I'm Erin Burnett here in the Middle East joining Boris and Brianna. And here we are watching the ceasefire and the intelligence on the U.S. strikes from Iran as well as Iran's meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Now, Putin, of course, is not at the NATO summit. His lack of presence, though, looming large because of his alliance, of course, with Iran and also because of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which is so central to the NATO summit.

President Trump today sitting down on the sidelines of the summit with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who called the meeting that they had long and substantive.

How it happened was this. Reporters and cameras thought they might get images of them together. There might even be some sort of a joint appearance, as there had been in the Vatican. But then reporters were kept out of the session, and we just got the images released from Zelenskyy's office of what happened behind closed doors.

Now, long and substantive meeting it may have been, but Trump says a possibility of a ceasefire with Putin was not discussed. And it comes as Putin continues to bombard Ukraine. Dozens of deaths reported this week, according to Ukrainian officials.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor joins me now. And Ambassador, you know, what stands out to you from what happened today?

You know, you got to think about the juxtaposition, right? The Iranian president meeting with Putin in Moscow, that big backing of what's going on here in the Middle East with Iran from Putin. And then Trump and Zelenskyy have this meeting and choose to do it behind closed doors. But it's long and substantive, according to Zelenskyy. That's diplomatic speak. What was it in real English?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Well, we heard what President Zelenskyy said, and we heard what President Trump said. President Trump said it was very nice, that he had a good conversation with them. It's important that the two leaders talk.

We saw that in the Vatican, as you've indicated, Erin. So that kind of communication where President Zelenskyy can make the case that they are -- the Ukrainians are holding off the Russians, that the Ukrainians are providing most of their own weapons. They still need some from the United States and from Europe. But that kind of direct conversation behind closed doors is where they can be very frank.

BURNETT: So when Trump says a ceasefire was not discussed, and I know, you know, standing where I'm standing, where we're in the midst of a still fragile ceasefire that everyone hopes will hold. You know, it's a word we put a lot of weight on, Ambassador, but it really means a ceasefire in a moment. And Zelenskyy has made it clear that he thinks it's a whole lot of rhetoric in the context of Vladimir Putin.

So when Trump says a ceasefire was not discussed, does that give him a reason to say that?

TAYLOR: On the Russian side against the Ukrainians, that needs to stop in order that they could go on to broader things. I'm not convinced that the broader discussions are ever going to agree because Putin has one goal is to eliminate Ukraine and the Ukrainians are never going to be eliminated as far as they are concerned. So there's no longer term thing.

But the ceasefire can happen. But in order to make that happen, President Trump is going to have to put pressure on President Putin. And that needs to be discussed.

BURNETT: And is anything like that going to happen? You know, Trump's sort of tongue in cheek comment about talking to Vladimir Putin about the Iranian crisis was sort of you know, Putin said, how can I help you with Iran? And Trump responds, well, no, you know, you can help me with you, which, you know, I don't mean to make light of it, but that's the way he phrased it.

TAYLOR: That's the way he phrased it. But it's also the case that he said that Trump said he was going to call Putin this week or sometime soon. That's important.

Trump puts pressure on Putin. If Putin understands that the United States and the Europeans are going to support the Ukrainians with weapons, with more sanctions on the Russians, if once Putin understands that, then he will be forced to start thinking about a ceasefire.

BURNETT: So a Ukrainian reporter, Ambassador, asked Trump about, you know, weapons supplies. And obviously this has been the back and forth with the Trump administration, which at one point put the aid on hold with a dramatic impact on the battlefield. The question was whether the United States was going to provide more anti-air missiles, Patriot missile systems to Ukraine, right? That crucial missile defense, you know, that I've seen the battery near Kyiv. Trump suggested that that is being considered but added that they're in high demand. And the reason is obviously because they're currently being supplied to Israel as well.

So would there make a difference for more of those to be delivered to Ukraine at this time?

TAYLOR: Absolutely make the difference. It would make a big difference. And if there's a ceasefire in the Middle East, that will relieve some pressure on the Patriots.

But absolutely, the Russians are bombarding the Ukrainians every day. They're bombarding Kyiv, but also around the country. The Patriot missile systems are limited, as President Trump says. That's certainly true. And President Zelenskyy has made, as you say, over and over the case that they need more to be able to protect not just their soldiers on the battlefield, not just Kyiv, but other parts of the country. So, yes, those Patriots are going to be very necessary.

And it was good that that Ukrainian reporter asked President Trump, and President Trump seemed to be pretty sympathetic to that request.

BURNETT: Yes, yes, he did. And putting it in the context of Israel, to your point, now that there is, at least for now, this ceasefire here, what would possibly indicate his willingness, his openness to the idea? Ambassador, it's a pleasure to talk to you again. And thank you so much from all of us.

We are staying on top of all the developments here in the Middle East. Much more news after this.

[14:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: After a long delay, the Axiom 4 crew of four astronauts is on its way to the International Space Station to conduct a private mission that includes dozens of science experiments. The team blasted off this morning from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, and it includes former decorated NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, along with astronauts from Hungary, India and Poland, three countries that have never sent anyone to the space station before.

SANCHEZ: This launch had been repeatedly sidelined because of tests showing leaks plaguing the orbiting outpost. Operators are now worried that the entire station is beginning to lose air.

Let's discuss with CNN aviation and aerospace analyst Miles O'Brien. Miles, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. This is Axiom Space's fourth private mission to the ISS. What makes this one different from previous flights?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION AND AEROSPACE ANALYST: What's different this time, Boris and Brianna, is it's a bit of a hybrid between private and public. When we think of private astronauts, we think, generally speaking, of well-heeled space tourists, for example. In this case, the countries paid for the tickets for their astronauts, Hungary, India and Poland, because they just couldn't get a seat any other way and get to the International Space Station.

So this is a good example of how a private sector player can provide a little more capacity to give other nations access to the orbiting laboratory that wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity. They'll have a chance to be up there for a couple of weeks, not a full duration space station mission, but at least a taste of space and life on board the International Space Station.

KEILAR: And Miles, talk to us about this leak. Why is the change in the way it's leaking such a concern?

O'BRIEN: Yes, leaks are difficult on a vehicle like this. It's more than the size of a football field. And the source of the leak is focused upon the oldest piece of the International Space Station, the Russian Zvezda module, which actually construction began 40 years ago in 1985.

The Russians were going to use it for a successor to their Mir space station. And then when everything collapsed in the Soviet Union, it got morphed and remodified and used for the International Space Station. So the obvious concern is something that is that old is giving way to either stress, fatigues or materials degradation, or it could have been a strike from a micrometeorite.

But they thought they had solved the problem, you know, basically patching it with duct tape, etc. And then the concern became maybe there's a leak in another part of the station and they're not properly detecting the fact that there's still a leak where they think they fixed it. So they're still kind of hunting them down. These are slow leaks.

[14:55:00]

Literally, this has been going on for years. But ultimately, it's a serious problem that the space station has to contend with. It's due to be deorbited in 2030. So they're trying to get to that point.

SANCHEZ: They're going to need more duct tape, it seems. Talk to us about this relationship between U.S. astronauts and the Russian team, because essentially it's partly the core of a disagreement over how to handle this, right? The Russians don't believe that it's a serious problem, but they don't have evidence -- enough evidence to prove that it's not serious.

The U.S. thinks it's a serious problem, but they don't have enough evidence to prove that it is a serious problem. So how do you resolve that?

O'BRIEN: Yes, it's been a bit of a challenge. You know, we've talked a lot about it, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine, how would this partnership continue? And on board the space station, by all accounts, the crew members are doing fine.

But the exchange of information among the two teams in Moscow and in Houston on this particular issue has been problematic. NASA has wanted to see more data to better understand from their perspective what's going on with the leaks. The Russians have not been forthcoming.

And ultimately, the real concern is here the Russians do not want to be accused of producing a shoddy vehicle. And that's their concern. And they're a bit defensive about that.

This is something, after all, that is 40 years old. You could say it has lived past its warranty for sure. But there is a sensitivity here, which is making it difficult for the teams to work together, which ultimately is very unfortunate.

KEILAR: Yes, that certainly is. Miles, thank you so much for helping us understand this. As always, Miles O'Brien, thank you.

And next, Israel backs up President Trump's claims. It says Iran's nuclear program has been set back years following U.S. strikes. The latest details right after this.

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END