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Trump Asks AG Bondi to Release "Pertinent" Epstein Grand Jury Testimony; New Poll Reveals Impact of Trump's Foreign Policy Decisions; Daughters Testifies in Accused Colorado Dentist's Trial. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 18, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

WEIR: In a couple of weeks you won't be breathing diesel fumes 24-7 for eight days. Thanks to Billie Eilish she demanded a battery powered hybrid stage. But she's just one of many artists we talked to, from Jack Johnson to Bonnie Raitt, and look at Willie Nelson, Coldplay's influence, Sunday night. If you love live music, you got to check this one out.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I think a lot of people do. And boy, are you lucky to be able to talk to all those greats. Really appreciate your reporting here, Bill Weir.

WEIR: Thank you.

SIDNER: Thank you. "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER" Sunday night at 8:00 right here on CNN.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news overnight, President Trump now calling on the attorney general to try and release grand jury testimony from the Jeffrey Epstein case. Why this move is only a fraction of what he could do, and why this comes after an explosive "Wall Street Journal" report on a birthday letter to Epstein, allegedly sent by Donald Trump. The president vigorously denies this.

New CNN polling this morning shows a sharp drop in support for Israel's actions in Gaza and growing doubts about America's role in the world stage. And A.I. ready to run your life. A new ChatGPT feature thinks, plans and takes actions for you.

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

SIDNER: This morning Trump's fury over new reporting from the "Wall Street Journal" concerning him and Jeffrey Epstein. Within hours of the report overnight, the president authorized Attorney General Pam Bondi to release, quote, "any and all pertinent grand jury testimony related to the accused sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein," because as much as Trump wants his base to let this go, they aren't. "The Wall Street Journal" now says that in 2003, 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." The president furiously denying the letter even exists and is now threatening to sue "The Journal" and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, in the wake of the report.

CNN's Alayna Treene and Paula Reid are with me now to break down these developments.

Alayna, first to you. We're getting brand new reaction this morning from the president on this case, specifically. You had talked about him being furious earlier today. What are you learning now?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, it's no secret that the White House is very angry about this. I can tell you, Sara, they have known about this story for a few days now. The president himself saying that he had called Rupert Murdoch directly, of course the owner of News Corp or has a stake in it, and "Wall Street Journal" falls under that, now saying he's going to sue him because arguing, you know, he said that he would drop it. He isn't.

But I do want to read for you what the president posted this morning because of course this is something that is still on his mind as he's waking up this Friday morning. He said, quote, "If there was a smoking gun on Epstein, why didn't the Dems who controlled the files for years and had Garland," referring to the former attorney general, and Comey, the former FBI director in charge, "use it, because they had nothing."

Now, Sara, this is something we have heard this argument before from the president, from some of his top supporters here in the Trump administration, arguing that, look, if he was implicated at all in this Epstein case and the so-called Epstein files, why wouldn't have it come out during the former Biden administration or when a Democrat was in power? They are sticking with that argument.

But I do want to get back to what we've also heard the president saying about this "Wall Street Journal" report. I think we have to be clear, CNN has not independently verified the contents of this alleged letter. The president is calling it fake. He argued in a Truth Social post last night, he said that it's a fake letter, supposedly to Epstein. "These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures," going on to say, "I told Rupert Murdoch it was a scam and that he shouldn't print this fake story, but he did. And now I'm going to sue his ass off," the president's words, not mine. "And that of his third rate newspaper."

This is likely going to get messy very fast. But one thing that I think is also important to note that you pointed out, Sara, is that this Epstein, you know, saga really, it's been over a week now, about 10 days since the Justice Department had first released that memo saying that they believed that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and that there was no so-called client list, something that has really infuriated the president's, you know, most high profile MAGA supporters, part of his movement because they are not satisfied with what has been coming out of this case. They believe that they deserve more information.

[09:05:01]

They believe that the president and his top officials here had promised that. But now we're actually seeing it turn a little bit. And, you know, in my conversations with people both inside and outside of the Trump administration on this, they're saying nothing unifies them like the MAGA movement believing that there is a fake news story. And so we're seeing some of the people who have been the sharpest critics of specifically Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of this, arguing that she should be fired, criticizing that.

I mean, people like Laura Loomer, Charlie Kirk, many others. Elon Musk has weighed in on this. Now they're kind of arguing that this seems like a fake story as well, and defending the president here. What I can also say is from a lot of them, this is what they have been asking for, this idea that the president is directing the attorney general now to release some of the grand jury testimony.

Of course, a small portion of what I think many of them actually want in this. We'll see what ends up happening. And if we're actually able to see some of that testimony, it's up to a judge. But that is exactly what they've been wanting the president to do up until this point. They have been wanting him to take a much firmer stand on this and really become the person that, you know, he's known as a speaker of uncomfortable truth.

So trying to break open some of these controversies, not really the case when it came to the Epstein case here. We'll see if that changes and if this really quenches the thirst of many of his supporters -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, and that is the big question in the end. Thank you so much for your reporting there, Alayna Treene, from the White House for us. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now, CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid.

Paula, great to see you this morning. And I want to use specific language here. The president asking the attorney general, directing the attorney general to ask for the release of the grand jury testimony. Actually, the pertinent grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein case. What precisely, what part of the overall Jeffrey Epstein case does the pertinent grand jury testimony constitute roughly?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So, first of all, this is a long shot because we are talking about a very narrow slice of the overall evidence that's been gathered related to Jeffrey Epstein. We're talking about grand jury material. This is a by default issued confidentially. You have to go to a judge to release it. But this is the evidence that is presented to a panel when you want to indict someone.

It's a pretty low bar to get an indictment. So you don't have to bring in everything you have, just enough to get that indictment. Like I said, there's a presumption that this is confidential. So now the attorney general needs to go to a judge and make some sort of argument that it's not clear what she's going to say, that that needs to be released. But what we have to remember is the bulk, millions of pages of additional evidence is in the hands of the government and the Justice Department.

So nothing here is going to happen soon. It's going to take a minute. They say today they're going to go to the judge. I don't have details on exactly what the choreography is, but that's what they said on Twitter last night or on X last night. And then the judge is going to need to get input from other stakeholders because much of the information that is under seal could potentially have an impact on victims or accusers, which is why this is a long shot.

It's going to be tough for the attorney general to convince a judge like, hey, could you help get me out of this jam? This is kind of a mess. People need to know, especially when she's sitting on millions and millions of pages of additional evidence. So it will take a while for the judge to decide. Even if by some longshot the judge decides, sure, I'll release this, people are not going to forget.

People who care about this issue are not going to forget about all the additional evidence that is in the possession of the Justice Department. So this might buy them a little bit of time from this larger controversy or potentially temporarily divert attention from the "Wall Street Journal" story. But it's clear that their current strategy that they have adopted of just telling everybody, it's fine, we're moving on, move along with us is not working.

So you see the attorney general and the president going down the menu, the list of options that they have, one, which they're also not doing, as I've noted, is to release the information they have. Two, they could go to the court. That's what they're doing now. They also have this option that some right-wing influencers have called for, to appoint a special counsel. Now, the drawback there is that just kicks the can down the road, but that is at least someone who would, we would expect, review the additional evidence the Justice Department has.

But the idea that going to a judge, trying this long shot, to convince them to release a tiny portion of that tiny portion of evidence that was brought into the grand jury, this is unlikely to quell all of the controversy that they're currently facing over this.

BERMAN: You know, you -- both you and our senior legal analyst Elie Honig have brought up something which I think I didn't realize as I woke up to this bevy of news this morning, which is that President Trump is asking for the release of information that actually they don't control. A judge is the one who will make that ultimate decision.

What he is not calling for is the full release of information that Attorney General Pam Bondi does, in theory, control at least more directly, which is the investigatory information you were just describing in the case. That's interesting.

[09:10:06]

REID: Yes, earlier this week -- well, earlier this week, he sort of tiptoed towards that. He said that he would support Pam Bondi releasing credible or relevant additional information. I asked her about that. A few minutes later she was at a press conference. Will you do it? She refused to engage, so he was kind of putting the onus on her if she wanted to release additional information, but kept with that qualifying word that you're rightly picking up on, you know, just you know, what is relevant, what is -- what is credible. And when you're talking about millions and millions of documents, this is someone who I'm not sure is the appropriate arbiter at this point.

This is someone who said, I have stuff, I'm going to release it. Ha- ha, just kidding. I'm not going to release it. We're moving on. Not taking questions. I wouldn't be surprised if in a week or so we're here talking about them either tapping Ed Martin, who oversees a weaponization group that kind of incubates some investigations inside DOJ, or tapping a U.S. attorney to do an independent review.

But again, at some point that ends and at some point, all of this is going to get dredged up again, which is why they haven't taken that option. But I really don't think that this, what they're doing here, is going to solve this.

BERMAN: Yes. Heavily nuanced requests here and heavily nuanced language.

Paula Reid, it's great to have you on walking us through all of this step by step. Thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, their father is accused of poisoning their mother to death. Now they're taking the stand against him. What two daughters in the protein shake murder case say that their father asked them to do to their mother.

All right. Allegations immigrants are being not only locked in swampy conditions, but silenced. An advocacy group now suing the Trump administration over the migrant detention facility in the Florida everglades, known as "Alligator Alcatraz."

Plus, flying is about to get a little bit easier. The TSA making another change to try and speed up security lines nationwide.

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[09:16:35]

BERMAN: We get new CNN polling this morning that shows that 53 percent of those polled believe that President Trump's decisions on foreign policy have hurt U.S. standing in the world. Just 31 percent believe his decision have helped America's standing. The same poll shows that Americans are increasingly skeptical of Israeli actions in Gaza, and are less likely to support U.S. intervention abroad.

With us now is State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.

It's great to have you on the show in the morning. Thanks so much for coming on.

TAMMY BRUCE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: This new CNN poll, you know, we did ask voters what they thought of U.S. standing based on the president's foreign policy. You saw a majority say that it hurts U.S. standing. I imagine you disagree with what the voters told us.

BRUCE: Well, yes. And of course, we see a different reaction. The fact of the matter is, it's difficult when you inherit a world that is in disarray and at war. And the Americans were not used to seeing America stepping in and making a difference. That's what they voted for when they voted for Donald Trump last year, giving this man a mandate, who was very clear about his agenda and his approach to the world.

We also know what he accomplished, of course, in his first term. So yes, we're looking at a framework where the president, not to his design, has had to become a peacemaker. And he's dedicated this term to making peace around the world. Getting ceasefires, addressing conflicts that would not have happened if he had been president as they emerge.

But also, you know, John, the long-term conflicts like Gaza, generational conflicts that deserve new ideas and deserve an end to the framework of what the world has been dealing with. That's our focus. It is, of course, the economy is doing well. We know the dynamic here at home, domestically is going well, but the world deserves and America deserves, America is safer and stronger when the world is at peace. And that is the president's commitment.

BERMAN: Well, OK, you say the president stepping in and making a difference. Of course, he campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine on the first day. How has he stepped in and made a difference there? What's different in Ukraine this morning than was the case on January 20th?

BRUCE: Well, I'll tell you what he was able to accomplish in a matter of months is something that couldn't have happened in the last -- in the three years since that war started, which is getting the parties to the table. The difference is enormous, is that individuals are discussing how to stop this. That conversation was not even started. Joe Biden and his team hadn't talked to Putin throughout that entire process.

So not only is there a discussion about ceasefire, how to make that work, the world demanding it, the pressure on Russia because of sanctions and our position, the willingness of the president and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio to speak with everyone, to get them to the table and to come to an end of this. Those things were not even conceived of in the process. And yet, within months, he's gotten people not just with Russia and Ukraine, but across every dynamic where there has been problems in the world.

So obviously peace can start on the first day when the outreach and the agenda is made clear and leaders engage in it. And that has to start the first step, President Trump took that first step, has made a huge difference in every conflict with our envoys of course, Witkoff and Barrack, the Syrian situation, other ceasefires and peace, the ending of the India and Pakistan dynamic that it's a remarkable accomplishment.

BERMAN: Le me --

[09:20:07]

BRUCE: That's what Americans want to see. But it takes action and it takes movement. And that's what Americans are seeing.

BERMAN: So the president just issued this demand on Vladimir Putin, Russia, a few days ago saying if they don't move toward a peace deal within 50 days, he would move for these secondary tariffs, secondary sanctions. I guess we're on 46 days left? Over those last four or five days, what moves have you seen Vladimir Putin take toward a peace deal?

BRUCE: Well, obviously the president sees everything. It's his guiding hand. I don't know. And even if I was included in negotiations or diplomatic conversations, I wouldn't discuss that here. But the president of the United States knows all the fronts. The secretary of state is there and knows all the fronts, also, as his acting role as the NSA. So we've got great leaders here. And I think that, you know, as the president also said about that timeline, about 50 days, he said it could be sooner.

These are initiatives and negotiations where you might have a static beginning, but then things move. It's fluid. And you make decisions as you move forward. And this is what the president has committed to. He wants diplomatic solutions to these issues.

BERMAN: I mean, let me just ask you.

BRUCE: And he has, though, he knows that Putin knows that we have more tools in that tool chest.

BERMAN: All right. Let me just ask one specific question again.

BRUCE: Sure.

BERMAN: Your briefing yesterday, you were talking about the situation in Syria. You said you unequivocally condemned the violence there.

BRUCE: Yes.

BERMAN: You do not support Israel's actions. The airstrikes on Damascus. Why?

BRUCE: Well, obviously, we're in a dynamic there with our ambassador, who's a special envoy, Tom Barrack, as we're stabilizing Syria. Syria is coming out of a horrible regime, and now there's a chance for the Syrian people after -- again, another dynamic, of generations of suffering and carnage, that we have a chance to stop that. And of course, because we want to create a stable Syria, it means it's been unstable.

And the clashes, as an example between the Bedouin and the Druze, that's been going on for 400 years, John. So we know that there's going to be skirmishes. We know that there's something new that has to occur, and that is what President Trump, Ambassador Barrack and Secretary of State Rubio want to do. And this is -- and the good news is the story. The real story there is, is that this began as a tribal clash. Syria moved in to slow that down. The understanding or communication. Israel goes in, seeing a certain dynamic, but the president and the secretary stopped it.

We managed to stop it because of our relationships with everyone in the field. And that is -- that's the story. That's the good news. We know that to stabilize Syria will take time. Again it's been hundreds of years.

BERMAN: Yes.

BRUCE: But if anyone can do it, it's Donald Trump.

BERMAN: Well, we will see obviously, the situation there very dynamic.

BRUCE: We will.

BERMAN: Tammy Bruce from the State Department, again, thank you for coming on this morning. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. President Trump's controversial DOGE cuts could soon be law very soon, expected to sign the bill, while House Republicans dodge questions on exposing Epstein's secrets to the public. And ChatGPT just leveled up. A new update to the popular chatbot now lets it do things on your behalf. We have the details just ahead.

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[09:28:03]

SIDNER: Next hour court resumes in the murder trial of the Colorado dentist accused of poisoning his wife. After some really difficult testimony from one of the defendants' daughters. She testified that her father asked her to help create a deepfake video to make it appear that her mother wanted him to order the dangerous chemicals that ended up killing her.

CNN's Whitney Wild joins me now.

Not just one daughter, but two daughters testified here for the prosecution, one of them having to have a comfort dog next to her. I can't imagine the stress on these two young ladies. What did you learn from the testimony?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: The second oldest daughter testified and this is a really crucial part of the prosecution's evidence because what they are alleging here, Sara, is that James Craig, as you had said, poisoned his wife to death in March 2023. And they know that the defense is going to allege that James Craig saw that his wife, Angela, was suicidal.

But prosecutors say she was not suicidal. And in fact, James Craig was manufacturing a plot to make it look like Angela Craig was suicidal to cover up his own crimes. So the second daughter testified that he had asked her to make this deepfake video, and he gave her very explicit details in a letter. As you said, the deepfake video was meant to try to show Angela Craig saying to her husband that she wanted him to buy these poisonous materials to take her own life.

And so the very explicit details he gave to his older daughter were to buy a cheap laptop, to install a private network, and a dark Web browser. To pay for this he called a project using a prepaid Visa card. And to create this video that would look like it had been made in the weeks leading up to Angela's death. And then he asked her to burn that video onto a thumb drive, and then claimed to investigators that she had just found this thumb drive in one of Angela's bags, and that actually Angela Craig was suicidal.

And this was very upsetting to this daughter who testified. She was just 20 years old. It is, you know, it was an incredible ask.