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Trump Asks Bondi to Release Pertinent Epstein Grand Jury Testimony; Trump Scores Win as House Passes $9 Billion DOGE Cuts Package; President Trump Diagnosed With Chronic Vein Condition. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 18, 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]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, President Trump tells the Justice Department to release any and all pertinent grand jury testimony related to the Jeffrey Epstein case hours after The Wall Street Journal publishes explosive new details alleging Donald Trump sent a raunchy birthday message to Epstein on his 50th birthday. This morning, Trump furiously denying that report.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we've got new details on President Trump's health. After the White House reveals he's been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency.

And fix you? How is anyone going to fix this? The Coldplay kiss cam controversy. The internet might never be the same again.

Kate is out today. I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner, and this is CNN News Central.

All right, and the breaking news this morning, trying to relieve the pressure, a major sign that President Trump is feeling the heat of the controversy surrounding his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Overnight, he authorized Attorney General Pam Bondy to produce, quote, any and all pertinent grand jury testimony related to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Now, Bondi immediately agreed to the president's request, which seems to undercut her own department memo that there was really nothing left to see related to the case. It could be months before anything is released, if at all, as grand jury testimony is heavily protected by law and remains subject to court approval. The testimony itself would only represent a small fraction of the material collected during the Epstein investigation.

Now, the President's request, coincidentally or not, came just hours after a shocking report from The Wall Street Journal, that in 2003, Donald Trump sent a personal letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday. The letter reportedly contained a hand-drawn sketch of a naked woman signed, happy birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret.

Now, the President has strongly, furiously, as we said, denied the existence of a letter and is now threatening to sue The Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch in the wake of all this. There is a lot going on, a lot changing over the last few hours.

So, let's get right to the White House. CNN's Alayna Treene is there busy, to say the least? What do you see?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean, absolutely. And your question of whether the president asking for the attorney general to turn over some of this grand jury testimony or to publish it, I should say, it's not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence that it's coming after that Wall Street Journal report. The president is very angry about this. From my conversations last night, just after this -- that story had dropped, it's very clear that what we're going to see today in some of the, you know, turning of the wheels on this Epstein case is going to be results of that anger.

Now, I just want to read for you what the president posted last night directing his attorney general to do. He said, quote, based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent grand jury testimony subject to court approval. This scam perpetuated by the Democrats should end right now.

I do want to note as well, we did see Bondi shortly after responding to that post from the president posting herself with a picture of the president's post saying, President Trump, we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.

So, this is a huge deal, in particularly among a lot of the president's supporters who have been wanting exactly this. This is the President Trump that they want to see. They want to see some sort of evidence. They feel like they deserve more information as it relates to the Epstein case.

Now, of course, it's very unclear what this would actually show. It's also, as you pointed out, very unclear how quickly we actually will see some of this given, you know, with the courts, it's probably going to be a lengthy process despite the attorney general saying that she's ready to move the court tomorrow, as in today, Friday, to unseal some of this.

So, still a lot of questions on what this will look like, but I will say this is exactly what a lot of the presidents -- you know, part of his base, part of his MAGA high-profile supporters have been asking for. They believe that they have a right to see some of the evidence and, you know, hard documents in this case, not necessarily, you know, the publishing of these so-called files, but wanting really to see what more there is. We'll see if this actually ends up kind of, you know, quenching some of that thirst from his supporters.

BERMAN: And, Alayna, very quickly, this Wall Street Journal report that the White House and the president vigorously denies, what exactly does it say?

[07:05:06]

TREENE: Yes, so this report, just to get into it, they report on what they call a bawdy letter from Donald Trump. Now, this was a letter that was apparently written for Epstein's 50th birthday that was put into a broader book. And they say that the letter is framed by the outline of a naked woman and says, the letter concludes happy birthday. May every may every day be another wonderful secret.

Now, as you pointed out, the president very harshly pushing back on this. We've also seen the vice president, J.D. Vance, as well as the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, all online, going hard after this post. The president wrote on Truth Social, quote, The Wall Street Journal printed a fake letter supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a scam that he should imprint this fake story, but he did, and now I'm going to sue his ass off and that of his third rate newspaper.

So, a lot in this and we've seen a lot of other posts as well. John, really trying to furiously dispute what The Wall Street Journal says was a letter from the president.

We'll have to see where this goes, but I can tell you that people, again here at the White House are very, very angry about this and, you know, I think, believing that they really want to go forward and suing the paper over this, John.

BERMAN: All right. No doubt, we will hear more and hear more soon, I imagine. Alayna Treene following a lot of developments at the White House, thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

Breaking overnight, Republicans give President Trump another legislative win. Trump is expected to sign $9 billion in DOGE spending cuts into law after House Republicans pushed it through early this morning. The package, which only two House Republicans voted against along with Democrats, caused back billions in already approved spending for foreign aid and public broadcasting.

CNN's Lauren Fox is joining me now from Washington. Give us some sense of what this package includes.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This bill was going to have to be passed by a deadline of midnight tonight. Obviously, the House of Representatives passing it about 24 hours before that deadline, it includes $8 billion in cuts to foreign aid programs of money that Congress had previously appropriated. It also includes about $1.1 billion in cuts to public broadcasting. And, of course, that funds organizations like NPR and PBS, as well as local affiliates around the country.

Now, there were two Republicans who voted against this package, Mike Turner, as well as Brian Fitzpatrick. But, largely, this passed with overwhelmingly Republican support. We should also note that it really was a nail-biter right up until this vote in part because of the Epstein files and concerns among conservatives that they wanted more of that information released.

About seven hours before this vote, leadership had to huddle with some of the most conservative members on the Rules Committee for several hours, trying to find some way for them to allow a rule to come forward in order to pass this bill. Ultimately, what they landed on was a non-binding resolution that Speaker Johnson has not even committed to bringing to the floor at this point that would essentially unveil some of those files.

But, again, it's non-binding. That means that there's nothing that guarantees that the Justice Department would follow it. And even if it passed out of the House, even if Johnson put it on the floor, we have heard from Majority Leader John Thune in the Senate that this is not something he's interested in wading into. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, our Lauren Fox there live for us from Washington.

Ahead, major legal questions now surrounding President Trump's Epstein controversy. If the grand jury testimony is released, how likely is it to go public, because it's normally supposed to be kept secret?

Breaking overnight, Congress passes President Trump's $9 billion DOGE cuts package, headed to the president's desk. We will give you a sense of the impact of those cuts ahead.

And the end of an era, CBS canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, saying it's just business. But it comes days after Colbert cowled out the network's parent company for its settlement with President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: It is not just the end of our show, but it's the end of the late show on CBS. I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, President Trump is directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce, quote, any and all grand jury testimony regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case subject to court approval. The directive comes hours after The Wall Street Journal published a report detailing a birthday letter sent to Jeffrey Epstein, allegedly by President Trump, which the president vigorously denies.

Here now, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. And, Elie, this is important. The president telling Attorney General Pam Bondi directing her to release any and all grand jury testimony. What exactly is grand jury testimony first and then what isn't it?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, grand jury testimony is going to be the written transcript taken by a court reporter of any live witnesses who went into that grand jury room and gave live testimony upon questioning by the prosecutor. What it isn't is everything else in a file. And, John, in my experience, those written grand jury transcripts are a very small part of an entire criminal file.

You have so many other documents in a criminal file. You will have phone records, bank records, surveillance video, other video.

[07:15:02]

In fact, even within just the universe of witness statements, most witness statements are given to prosecutors outside of the grand jury. They're given to prosecutors in the FBI. So, the universe of documents, even potentially covered by this instruction by Donald Trump to Pam Bondi is quite small within the realm of the entire file.

Now, it could be very important, but just percentage-wise, quantity- wise, we're talking about a fraction of a fraction of the file.

BERMAN: And I'm just going to name some of the things that are allegedly connected to the Epstein case over time, things like flight logs, people who flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane. Would that necessarily be something that's in the grand jury testimony?

HONIG: Right. So, generally, if you have a written list, a flight log, if you have bank records, if you have phone records, if you have a videotape, that kind of thing, that would not count as, and, again, to use Donald Trump's words, grand jury testimony.

Now, it could sneak in if a witness was shown one of those things. So, if you were a grand jury witness and I say, Mr. Berman, I'm handing you a flight log that's been marked exhibit B, I'd like you to take a look at that could be swept in.

BERMAN: This letter that The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Trump, then Donald Trump, wrote to Jeffrey Epstein as part of this birthday book in 2003. The president vigorously denied this and says he's suing The Wall Street Journal. That piece of physical evidence, would that be part necessarily of something that's handed over as part of this request?

HONIG: I highly doubt it. I can't imagine a scenario where that would've played into a grand jury presentation. But, John, also that's another good point that I want to make. It's not necessarily up to the president or the attorney general. In fact, it's not up to them whether to release grand jury information. All that Pam Bondi can do, and she said she's going to do this today, is go to the judge and request permission because grand jury records are secret. That's the very nature of them.

And if you look at the rule, it doesn't say, well, they can be unsealed, they can be made public for any old reason. It lists a specific limited number of reasons why you can release grand jury information. For example, if a defendant in an active case needs those records to make his defense, I don't see that applying. If a prosecutor needs to provide those records to some other investigative agency, to a state D.A. And, again, I'm not sure any of those exceptions will even apply. So, even if and when Pam Bondi asks, a judge may well decide not to grant the request.

BERMAN: It may relieve some of the political pressure in a certain sense because President Trump asked for something but may not go as far as to meet the demands of so many who would like to see a lot of evidence in this case.

Elie Honig, I really important explanation this morning, I appreciate you being here.

Private planes, tax prep firms, drug manufacturers, new CNN reporting this morning on how lobbyists shape President Trump's spending bill.

And this morning, we're learning new information about President Trump's newly diagnosed health condition.

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[07:20:00]

SIDNER: This morning, we're learning more about President Trump's medical condition affecting blood flow to his legs. The diagnosis is called chronic venous insufficiency. The White House says he recently noticed swelling and doctors confirm the condition after an exam.

CNN Chief Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is walking us through what this means for the president's health and how it's treated.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, we're talking about chronic venous insufficiency, venous referring to the veins. We know arteries carry blood away from the heart. Veins return blood back to the heart. When there's a problem with the veins, as the president's diagnosis suggests, that means that blood cannot return as easily and people often develop swelling, swelling around the ankles, and that's what's gotten a lot of attention lately.

Now, I will point out, back in April, the president had a physical exam and there was no mention of venous insufficiency, no mention of swelling at that time. So, now fast forward three months, we know there is a significant problem and that is really what prompted this exam, this swelling that has occurred over the past few months.

They looked at his blood, no evidence that there was any problems that should be causing this. They looked for blood clots, which can sometimes block the veins, making it harder for blood to return through the veins, no evidence of blood clots. They looked at his heart to make sure the heart had good function and that it was pumping blood well through the body, that appears to be the case. And they did an ultrasound of the legs, and that's how they diagnose this, again, this chronic venous insufficiency.

So, that is the diagnosis. The goal of treatment really is to try and decrease that swelling and move that blood back up through the body. Sometimes simply elevating the legs at night, so sleeping with a couple pillows underneath your ankles and your feet, that can sometimes be helpful. Using things like compression socks, that can be helpful as well. And obviously encouraging the person, in this case, the president, to walk around as much as possible. Sitting, that tends to be something that can make this venous insufficiency worse.

So, it's non-life threatening, pretty common problem, especially as you get older, and also probably has nothing to do with what we've seen with his hands. People have noticed bruising on his hands, really, you know, going back several months, even to February. The doctors commented on this as well and said, basically, this looks like it is primarily irritation to his hand, maybe due to lots of handshaking on top of the fact that he takes aspirin as a blood thinner. Those things in combination could cause that bruising that we see in his hands. They try to cover that up with makeup. But you can see that bruising on his hand there in those images.

Again, common problems, non-life threatening. But, guys, that's a little bit of a sense of what the president's dealing with.

SIDNER: Our thanks to our Sanjay Gupta.

All right, ahead explosive new allegations in the Wall Street Journal about a birthday letter for Jeffrey Epstein allegedly written by President Trump, as we're learning the president is directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to release information on the Epstein case.

[07:25:10]

Plus, a plane forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger allegedly tried to open an emergency door and then got into a fight with the flight crew. What we're learning about that midair scare.

Those stories are more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Breaking overnight, President Trump, after being under extremely intense pressure from some of his most loyal supporters, now telling Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release any and all pertinent grand jury testimony on Jeffrey Epstein. On Truth Social last night, the president saying he came to the decision because of the, quote, ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein.

[07:30:06]

The president's announcement came hours after The Wall Street.