Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Maurene Comey, Epstein Prosecutor And James Comey's Daughter, Fired; Trump Tells Fictional Story About His Uncle And The Unabomber; Prosecutors: Dentist Poisoned Wife Over Financial Troubles, Affair. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 17, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight Maurene Comey, the lead prosecutor who handled the Jeffrey Epstein case back in 2019 and the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, fired from her job. Her firing comes as the Jeffrey Epstein -- whatever you want to call it now -- saga continues to unravel and also with President Trump offering his newest approach to try to make it go away, which is blame the Democrats.

The president now saying that the outrage around it all is a hoax and not on him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's all been a big hoax. It's perpetrated by the Democrats. And some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net and so they try and do the Democrats' work. It's been run by the Democrats for four years. You had Christopher Wray and these characters, and Comey before him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Paula Reid here with us for more on this.

OK, so let's start with the firing of Maurene Comey. What are you learning about this?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So a person familiar with the situation tells CNN that it has become "untenable" for her to continue to work at the Justice Department because her father, James Comey, is constantly going after the administration.

Now, you may remember that Comey is under investigation for possible false statements to Congress. He was separately questioned in May by the Secret Service after he posted a photo on social media showing seashells on a beach that spelled out "86 47," which he has denied was a call for violence against the president. But we know since he was fired by Trump in his first term, he's been a very outspoken critic of the Trump administration.

And this all happens though as there is pressure on the administration to release more information related to the Epstein investigation and criminal case. We know Maurene Comey was a lead prosecutor in the Ghislaine Maxwell prosecution. She also worked on the Sean "Diddy" Combs case.

But what's unclear right now is if she is being fired in any way in connection to the Epstein controversy or if this really is about her father. Because we have seen a series of firings at the Justice Department of people that this administration does not believe align with their priorities.

For example, people who worked on the cases against now-President Trump. People who even communicated on behalf of the people who prosecuted those cases, in addition to other people that they believe just were not aligned with the president's agenda.

So that's what we'll be watching to see play out. Is this an attempt to pin blame on James Comey or the Comey family for Epstein or is this just another purge of someone that they do not believe aligns with this administration?

BOLDUAN: Yeah. Are they trying to bank new reasons and other people to blame for it as this Jeffrey Epstein saga begins -- continues to unfold?

There's a lot going on here.

Paula, thank you so much -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. With us now our political commentators Maria Cardona and Scott Jennings.

And I want to play you both something that happened last night on stage at the ESPYs. Shane Gillis, who is, you know, not a liberal comedian and is somewhat seen as a more conservative comedian. Listen to what he was joking about on the stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANE GILLIS, COMEDIAN, ACTOR: Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted. It must have -- probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually. Let's move on as a country and ignore that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Shane Gillis, Scott, is joking about this on stage at the ESPYs. How successful has the White House been at moving on from this?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, not, obviously. I mean, we're still talking about it. The country is talking about it, and it seems to be continuing on.

I mean, look, it's hard to know what they can do because I don't what they have. I don't know what's in the documents that they have.

But my political advice would simply be just make a decision -- a definitive end to this. We can do nothing. We can do everything. We can do something in the middle. Whatever you decide that you can do, just do it and make that the end of it. Otherwise, you know, you're going to have people that will continue to perpetrate it.

I understand why the president is frustrated. He's having an amazing six months and now this is all anybody wants to talk about. And so -- but the way to end something is to end it.

BERMAN: It's possibly he's got a role in making this story linger on. Because I want to listen to an interview that, again, that he did last night and he seems to be calling for a new FBI investigation into, I guess, the FBI investigation -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are the things that are most important that you would like to see the FBI get to the bottom of?

TRUMP: I think they're going to look at all of it. It's all the same scam. They could look at this Jeffrey Epstein hoax also because that's the same stuff. And that's all put out by Democrats.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

TRUMP: And, you know, some of the naive Republicans fall right into line like they always do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So Maria, the president saying the FBI could now look at the Jeffrey Epstein hoax.

What does it tell you -- the way he's talking about this?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It tells me that he's desperate, John. He's desperate for people to move on from this. But he's not some Jedi master. He can't just wave his hands and say these are not the files you are looking for -- move on. That's not going to work.

[07:35:00]

And everything that he does actually works to gin up his base even more because here's the problem. Democrats did not come up with this. Democrats did not make this up. He is the one who ran on this. His campaign ran on this. They promised his MAGA base that as soon as they got the White House, they were going to release the Epstein files.

Pam Bondi said it is on my desk. You're going to get this immediately. Breaking news, possibly tomorrow was one of the interviews that she did on Fox.

And then all of a sudden there's nothing to see here? I mean, it's incredibly suspicious. It's not coming from the Democrats. It's all coming from inside the House. And every time that he tries to make people move on and now he's insulting his base, to me just wreaks of desperation because maybe they're worried about what's actually in the Epstein files.

So I actually agree with Scott. They need to make a decision and either do it or not do it, but then they need to explain why they're not doing it. And Donald Trump is not just someone who is good at actually understanding what's going on and trying to get over it, if that's what needs to happen, and then explaining why he's doing something or not.

BERMAN: Just very quickly, Donald Trump didn't exactly run on it. He was asked about it a couple of times and he said yeah, I guess they should be released. It was people like J.D. Vance and certainly a lot of other supporters -- firm supporters of President Trump who were out there much more actively calling for the files to be released. But certainly, people within that orbit.

And the second thing --

CARDONA: Uh-huh.

BERMAN: The "Star Wars" quote. You definitely earned the respect of both the 50-something-year-old men standing at this desk right now. Both Scott and I were like aha, well done with that.

Scott, I'm going to move on from Epstein in just one second, but what about antagonizing the base? What about calling them weak? The likes of Michael Flynn are responding, right? I mean, there is no fiercer supporter of Donald Trump than Gen. Michael Flynn.

And Michael Flynn is now saying, "The Epstein affair is not about who killed him or if he committed suicide. Personally, I'm glad this known pedophile is dead. But neither is this a hoax."

I mean, Trump is calling it a hoax and Michael Flynn is saying uh-uh.

JENNINGS: Yeah. Look, there are a lot of people who supported him who have believed for a very long time that there is a story to be told here about powerful people -- elites getting away with something. A two-tiered system of justice, right? You know, why do some people get away with things? Why -- this is a recurring theme.

And so you understand the passion and the emotion for it because it has been talked about for a long time -- not necessarily by, as you pointed out, Donald Trump but a lot of people in his orbit.

You know, I will say I've heard him say this week if you have something credible -- sure, let's go ahead and release it. I feel like we're somewhere between -- it sounded like instructions to me. That phase versus the end of it, which would be them deciding what to do. I don't know how far along we are in that decision-making process. But again, it would be better --

BERMAN: Yeah.

JENNINGS: Faster is better than slower.

BERMAN: But saying the FBI should investigate the Epstein hoax is a little bit north of sort of like saying release something credible there.

Maria, we have this new CNN poll out which does show there are -- that Democrats are enthusiastic about the midterm elections, but it also has these favorable-unfavorable views of each party.

And the Democratic view -- the view of the Democratic Party is 28 percent favorable, 54 percent unfavorable. That is an all-time low for the Democrats. I will note the Republicans are only at 33 percent, which is a low since January 6, which was a pretty low point for the Republicans there.

But why are the Democrats stuck at 28 percent, Maria?

CARDONA: Well, I think part of the problem is, John, that there is still a lot of disappointment and hangover over the fact that we lost the presidential election.

But here's why I'm not so worried about that number. Because, especially during a midterm, people don't vote for a party; they vote for a candidate. They vote for the person who they are looking at to say, "What are you going to do for me?" So it all depends on the candidates.

And what I am hoping that the Democrats do, and I am actually seeing them do it because we actually are on a winning streak. We've been winning most of the special elections that have been done since the elections, and we have overperformed on the ones that we haven't won. So we are on a very good trajectory.

It all is going to be about the candidate and how a candidate runs and how a candidate speaks to their own voters. And what I am seeing across the board is that Democrats, whether they run in very progressive areas or districts, like in New York, or whether they run in more conservative moderate places, they are talking to their voters about what their voters care about.

And the number one issue that is really popping across the board, John, that I see Democrats really taking advantage of is this issue of affordability. Because the one thing that they are seeing is that Donald Trump has completely betrayed the American people -- working class voters, middle class families -- who gave him their support and trusted him to bring down the cost of groceries, gas, and rent. He has done completely the opposite, taking away Medicaid, Medicare from them, and that is going to be a winning message for Democrats going into the midterms.

BERMAN: All right. Scott, you have 20 seconds.

[07:40:00]

JENNINGS: Well, how could you unpack every lie that was just told in the last 20 seconds?

I will just point out your Democratic --

CARDONA: Ha! JENNINGS: -- strategist this morning, my friend Maria, said the key to winning in the midterms is for Democrats to pretend that they're not in the Democratic Party. That ought to tell you everything you need to know about how their party is fairing today.

BERMAN: All right.

CARDONA: Oh, come on, Scott. Don't lie.

BERMAN: Scott Jennings, Maria Cardona --

CARDONA: Come on, honey.

BERMAN: -- we will speak to you again both soon. You guys can take this off-air. Thank you so much -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right.

President Trump raising eyebrows this morning with a strange story. This one is about his uncle, a former professor at MIT who Trump claims taught Ted Kaczynski, who you all know as the Unabomber.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When I first heard about AI -- you know, it's not my thing, although my uncle was at MIT, one of the great professors -- 51 years -- whatever. He longest serving professor in the history of MIT. Three degrees in nuclear, chemical, and math.

Kaczynski was one of his students. Do you know who Kaczynski was? There's very little difference between a madman and a genius, but Kaczynski -- I said, "What kind of a student was he, Uncle John -- Dr. John Trump?" I said, "What kind of a student?" Then he said, "Seriously, good." He said he'd correct -- he'd go around correcting everybody. But it didn't work out too well for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: He's saying this at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit.

CNN's Daniel Dale is here to fact-check this story. Daniel, fact or fiction?

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's fiction. This story is imaginary. It's made up. It's a lie -- and frankly, Sara, it didn't take too much research to figure that out.

So how do we know this story cannot even possibly be true? Well, first of all, the president's late uncle, the esteemed MIT Professor John Trump, died in 1985. The Unabomber was not revealed to be Ted Kaczynski until 1996, the year he was arrested -- more than a decade later. So there is, frankly, no reason why Donald Trump would be asking anyone about Ted Kaczynski in 1985 or earlier when Ted Kaczynski was living this reclusive life in a Montana wilderness cabin.

Number two, that's the case even if Kaczynski had been one of his uncle's students, which he wasn't. John Trump taught at MIT for decades. Kaczynski went to Harvard and the University of Michigan.

I reached out to MIT about this. They said they have no record -- no information suggesting that Kaczynski ever attended MIT (audio gap) this story.

It's also not true that John Trump was the longest serving MIT professor ever. He was there for decades. He was a renowned guy. But the school says not the longest serving.

And number two, his degrees were not in nuclear, chemical, and math. He did have three degrees. Two were in electrical engineering and that's what he was a professor of. The other was in physics.

So look, this, I think is small potatoes compared to all the other stuff this president lies about on a daily, weekly, monthly basis from the economy to the war in Ukraine to this record. But when the President of the United States is just flat making up a colorful story, I think it's important to point that out.

SIDNER: Yes, and you do it so well, Daniel Dale. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your reporting -- Kate.

DALE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: So the East Coast is absolutely drenched right now. Intense rain set off flash -- set off flash flooding from Virginia to New York this week. And New Jersey has been in the thick of it. Two people in New Jersey -- in New Jersey died after a car was swept away in the floodwaters. Dozens of people were rescued from overflowing roads. And we saw the video from the New York subways.

CNN's meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking all of this and more rain. What are you seeing?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. So we do still have the potential for some flooding, it's just going to be in different spots than we've been seeing the last few days.

The main concern, at least for today, has been in the Midwest. Take a look at the video behind me. This is actually from Wisconsin. We had half a dozen tornado reports yesterday. The vast majority of them were in Wisconsin.

Now the other concern we're going to have today is the continued threat for flooding. Now most of it, again, is still focused over the Midwest right there along the Mississippi Valley, but it does stretch back down into the south as well.

Right now, some of the heaviest rain is actually moving across the Kansas City area. Several flash flood warnings in effect. You can see right here. The good news is the heaviest of the showers are finally starting to push eastward. However, that doesn't mean that we're in the clear. When you look at how much rain has fallen in just the last 24-48 hours, we've had several areas that have picked up half a foot of rain or more, and there's still more rain coming.

Down to the south, also looking at some very heavy rain here, especially along the Gulf Coast region of Louisiana, portions of Alabama, and Mississippi. Now, there's a flood watch in effect for a lot of these areas as we go through the day today, but the key thing here to note is it's not just today that we're expecting the rain. It is -- we are looking at high-end rain chances for a lot of these areas Friday as well as into the weekend.

[07:45:05]

Now, the reason for this isn't the same as what we saw up north near Kansas City. That was all due to the front. This is a little bit different. This is due to this tropical disturbance that's just kind of sitting here hovering off the Gulf Coast. Now it has a low-end chance of becoming the next named tropical system.

But regardless of whether it gets a name or not it's still going to bring some flooding concerns. Again, as I mentioned, not just today but also for the next several days as we head into the weekend. Because that flow -- the onshore flow of a lot of this is just going to continue to push a lot of showers and thunderstorms across much of this area over the next several days.

BOLDUAN: All right. A lot still to keep track of.

Allison, thank you very much for that -- John.

BERMAN: All right, a deadly lightning strike. One killed and more than a dozen hurt, including several children.

And a California professor murdered in Greece. His ex-wife and her new partner now under arrest.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:50:18]

SIDNER: Happening today, the lead detective in the case of a Colorado dentist accused of killing his wife by poisoning her protein shakes is set to take the stand in the trial this morning. James Craig is also accused of plotting to kill the detective to cover his tracks.

On the stand yesterday a witness testified that Craig received a package containing potassium cyanide at his office just days before his wife Angela died. Another witness took the stand telling the jury that Craig told her that cyanide was bought as a "game of chicken" between him and Angela, and that Angela was suicidal.

Here now, Joey Jackson, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney.

What stood out to you in this witness testimony knowing that the lead detective, who he's accused -- JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- of plotting to try and kill from his jailhouse -- what stood out to you in that testimony?

JACKSON: So, Sara, good morning. Quite a bit, quite frankly, OK?

So you have a person you're working with in the office and there's two things that stood out about the person who was in the office.

Number one is, right, Ms. Romero --

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON: -- a dental assistant. She testifies as to him -- that is, Dr. Craig -- in this private exam room, although he has an office of his own. And everything is dark. But he's on this computer that doesn't belong to him -- you have one in your office -- and then you find out that there are these searches that are very specific with respect to how do you kill someone undetected. Taken, by the way, from that specific computer. All these other issues with respect to cyanide and poisons and what it can do. So that is damning.

And then, of course, you have the same witness give the indication that cyanide is delivered to that specific office and so that becomes problematic.

And then you have his partner questioning him, right? That is, Mr. Craig and other dentists -- Dr. Craig's partner questioning him as to hey, what's this all about? Oh, there was a ring in the box. That's what it's about. Come on, what are you talking about?

So all of these things lead to damning evidence and you need for a jury, Sara, reasonable explanations. If it's not plausaible, it's not believable. If it's not believable it leads to notions of guilt.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you. Prosecutors say the motive it seems for this poisoning of his wife had to do with a few things. They talk about there were financial troubles that the couple was having. But they also talk about a mistress, saying that he wanted to make a life with the woman who was -- who had flown there while his wife was in the hospital, who had been poisoned.

Here's how the defense tried to poke holes in the idea that this was about trying to be with his mistress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEY WHITHAM, ATTORNEY FOR JAMES CRAIG: The marriage was broken, OK? You are going to hear evidence of cheating. But what's interesting and what the prosecution doesn't tell you is this cheating had happened for 23 years. There were lots of women. This wasn't just about three women or four women. This is something that had been going now on throughout the whole entire relationship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: How do you think that landed? She's basically saying he's been cheating on his wife for almost the entirety of their relationship.

JACKSON: Yes. So the defense is in a box here, Sara, and what they have to do is they have to give the indication of what made this relationship of three weeks, by the way, so special. Why would he have been so smitten with this particular affair such that he would engage in such horrific behavior as this?

So the defense is trying to say that this is just another day at the office -- and by the way, will say the defense, this is not a case about husband of the year. This is a case about murder. And so with respect to him cheating -- bad guy, right, doing all these things. But this specific relationship would not allow him to do this.

And, of course, we know, Sara, you never have to show motive if you're a prosecutor, but jurors always want to know what motivated the behavior behind it.

SIDNER: Right. And I want to -- something else that stood out to me in the opening statements that the defense made. Craig is also accused of plotting from his jail cell to kill the lead detective --

JACKSON: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- who is going to be taking the stand today in this case.

The defense said his children are now on the outside -- this is a quote. "His children are now on the outside -- out a mother and now without a father. He is anxious and yeah, it does not seem great -- the things that he said in jail."

Did that just help the prosecution?

JACKSON: So it did, and I think that's a major misspeak. What you want to do, right -- everybody does things differently. No one has, right, a monopoly on wisdom.

But when you're talking about jailhouse information you're talking about credibility. How credible are people in jail telling prosecutors that oh, we were aiding him in coming up with a story? We were aiding him in coming up and fabricating evidence, meaning Mr. Craig -- Dr. Craig, right, because allegedly the allegation is that he went to the actual inmate and said hey, I need your help.

[07:55:10]

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON: I need you to get evidence that she was suicidal. Let's get your wife involved. Let's talk about -- let's fabricate witnesses to say who she was. Are you really credible? And by the way, the same jailhouse informant has -- happened to be an issue relating to fraud. Had an issue, right, several years earlier. So that's what you want to attack. You don't want to make admissions

with respect to hey -- yes, of course, he did this. I think that was problematic to say the least.

SIDNER: All right, Joey Jackson. This case has a lot of people's attention and we're so glad you're here to break it all down for us. We appreciate you.

JACKSON: Always my pleasure. Thank you, Sara.

BOLDUAN: Well, right now, 21 children are in protective custody while authorities investigate a couple and whether they misled surrogate mothers around the country into carrying babies for them.

Also, police say, security footage from inside the couple's home shows a nanny violently hitting and shaking a 2-month-old baby who was later admitted to the hospital with severe head trauma. Fifteen children were also -- have been removed from their custody after police found more footage of several nannies abusing the children.

Investigators then located the couple's six other children who were living elsewhere. The children range in age from two months old to 13 years old -- most of the children between just the ages of one and three.

Now several surrogate mothers have come forward saying that they carried children for the couple. One of these women is suing the couple after learning the baby that she carried ended up -- carried for them ended up in foster care.

The couple faces felony child endangerment and neglect charges. It is unclear if they will face additional charges over their agreements with the surrogates.

So one man was killed and more than a dozen others were injured after a lighting strike at an outdoor archery range in New Jersey. Many of those hurt in this strike were young children who were part of a Boy Scout troop. The youngest was just seven years old. The area was under a thunderstorm warning when the strike happened.

Storms have been slamming the state, as we were just discussing, and much of the East Coast all through this week.

Organizers of Tomorrowland, one of the world's largest electronic music festivals, promise that the show will go on. That is despite the fact that the festival's main stage went up in flames just two days before the festival was set to begin. Officials in Belgium say it almost completely burnt down.

Here's how one witness described the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN HERMAN, LIVES NEAR MUSIC FESTIVAL SITE: We just heard, like, fireworks going off, which was a bit weird because the festival only starts tomorrow. So we went outside and there was just a big cloud of fireworks and smoke, yeah, very near us. So that was a bit scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Here's the thing about Tomorrowland if you don't know. The main stage is renowned for being massive and elaborate. I mean, this -- they said this one took years to build.

Officials say thankfully, no one was hurt in the fire. So far, it's unclear how it started -- John.

BERMAN: I didn't realize you were such an electronic music fan.

BOLDUAN: There are so many things you don't know about me.

BERMAN: So many facets.

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, five people accused of killing a UC Berkeley professor near Athens, including the victim's ex-wife, are expected to testify. Investigators say the victim was in Greece for a child custody hearing and was gunned down near his ex-wife's home.

With us now is Elinda Labropoulou. What are you learning about this?

ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: We know that the five have appeared in front of a prosecutor this morning and they are facing very serious criminal charges, including in the case of the ex-wife's boyfriend who is facing murder charges. She's also facing charges for a moral accomplice, and we understand that the other three are facing charges of accomplices to the murder as well.

So now they have been given until Monday to prepare their plea and will appear at court on Monday again.

We know that this is a story that obviously made headlines in Greece as well because simply of the severity, first of all, of the murder. You know, this was a coldblooded murder at very close range at a busy part of Athens. The man just walked up -- the shooter just walked up to the professor and shot him at close range as police told us and then fled.

The professor, at the time, was close to his ex-wife's home. He was there to see his children. The two were involved in a custody case. There had been a hearing the previous day that investigators are now looking at and trying to see whether this is something that is part of what has led to the shooting.

The family of the professor has come to Greece. They have asked for justice. They thanked Greek authorities for proceeding with this arrest. And soon enough, on Monday, we'll get to find out more about what has been going on -- John.

[08:00:00]