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CNN Obtains Never Before Published Trump-Epstein Photos; Bryan Kohberger to Be Sentenced for Killing Four Idaho College Students; FDA's A.I. Tool is Hallucinating, Citing Non-Existent Studies. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 23, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A CNN exclusive, newly uncovered video and photos, shedding new lights on President Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Sentencing day for the man who confessed to murdering four students at the University of Idaho. Victims' families will speak. The question this morning, will the killer explain his actions?

And then hallucinating and citing medical studies that do not actually exist. Officials questioned the new A.I. tool from the FDA meant to speed up drug approvals.

Sara is out. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: And to that CNN exclusive, newly uncovered photos and video offering a new look at President Trump's path ties to Jeffrey Epstein. This as the president continues to distance himself or try to from the entire Epstein saga as it plays out now, and his administration's handling of questions around the files, taking distract and deflect to a new level today.

The photos from 1993 show Epstein at Trump's wedding to Marla Maples. Epstein's attendance at the wedding was not widely known until now. And CNN's K-File also uncovered video showing Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at the 1999 Victoria's Secret Fashion show. A reminder, though, that this was before Epstein was ever accused of sexual abuse.

Epstein's brother, Mark, tells CNN, he personally saw Donald Trump on his brother's plane in the 1990s. I want to play for you what Mark Epstein had to say about how the president is distancing himself from his brother now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK EPSTEIN, JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S BROTHER: He is trying to cover his butt. I mean, look, I understand people trying to distance himself from Jeffrey because of what he was charged with and the circumstances he found himself in. I understand that, you know? But I know that they were good friends and I witnessed it myself. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Epstein's brother also says the President Trump, he says -- he accuses President Trump of lying about having never visited Jeffrey Epstein's office.

Let's get over to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House for us. Another day, another moment the president is trying to distance himself from the entire thing, yet more details come out. The president is not accused of any wrongdoing here but the White House is having a strong reaction to all of this.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. So, Andrew Kaczynski, him and Emily Stack (ph), of course, the ones on this story who discovered all of this new footage, and Andrew called up President Donald Trump yesterday to talk to him about this.

And according to Andrew, essentially, the president answered the phone and said, you've got to be kidding me, before going on to talk -- to repeatedly call CNN a fake news and then ultimately hanging up, so it was a very brief phone call.

But then we also got this statement, Kate, from White House Communications director Steven Chung just kind of pushing back of course, on a lot of these photos. He said, quote, these are nothing more than out of context frame grabs of innocuous videos and pictures of widely attended events to disgustingly infer something nefarious. The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep. This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.

Now, I do want to put some of these photos that they have discovered, archival photos and video footage. Because I think what's important here is, look, we know that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein had a friendship, a relationship that has been well-known and well- documented. But these pictures do help, Kate, fill in the blanks of just how close their relationship was. I mean, and if we want to just walk through some of this, you know, that 1993 photo confirming for the first time really that Epstein was at one of the -- the president, not at the time, just Donald Trump, a civilian, at his wedding to Marla Maple, showing him walking in.

There was another photo of him in the background of some celebrities like Howard Stern and Robin Leach of Lifestyles and the Rich and Famous. And they have that video footage from the Victoria's Secret Show. It shows them talking closely, laughing together, also leaning over and chatting with each other when they were seated for the show. And you could see Melania Trump, of course, now the first lady seated there as well.

[07:05:02]

And then also that photo of him and Jeffrey Epstein at the opening of the Harley Davidson Cafe in 1993, you see Ivanka, the president's daughter, standing between the two men. She would've been just about to turn 12 years old in that photo. And, again, the reason some of this is so interesting and be is because people are so eager, Kate, to learn more about their relationship. And also it comes, of course, as many people, including a lot of Republicans and many of the president's allies and highest profile supporters are calling on this Trump administration to be more transparent about what exactly is in the Epstein files.

And I think the reason, you know, we continue to hear more and learn more about their relationship and the reason people are giving so much credences to it is because people are wondering why aren't they releasing the Epstein files, when we had heard so many people in this administration saying that they would do so. And so this is just kind of the next turn of the wheel.

I'm eager to see what we might hear from the president today. We know he's going to be giving remarks later if he talks more about this. We'll obviously keep you posted on that, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you so much, Alayna. John?

BERMAN: All right. We are standing by for the sentencing hearing to begin for Bryan Kohberger, the man who admitted to killing four college students in hi Idaho. Kohberger is expected to be sentenced to four consecutive life terms without parole and will be given an opportunity to formally address the court. He stayed silent during his plea deal, leaving the families of the victims asking if they'd ever fully comprehend the motive behind the crimes.

CNN's Veronica Miracle is live in Boise with the latest. What do we expect to see?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we expect this is going to be a very busy courthouse today. Already it's 5:00 A.M. local time, and we estimate there are about 70 people in this line, people who say they have been driving from all over just to be here today, to see the culmination of this nearly three years-long case. Some people saying they want to hear from those families, hear from the victim's families, see what they have to say.

And this will be an opportunity for the victims' families to speak directly to Bryan Kohberger. This is when they will get a chance to tell him how these crimes have impacted their lives and devastated their families. We expect that the Goncalves family, they have been very outspoken during this whole entire process. They've also been very upset about the plea agreement. They wanted to see this go to trial. We expect that they will be here. Will they speak? That's not confirmed.

We also understand that Madison Mogen's family will have their stepfather speak on their behalf for an impact statement. But there is one family, the Chapins, who we understand will not even be in attendance today. Not only will they not speak, they will not be here.

So, this will be the opportunity, though, for all of those victims' families to speak directly to Bryan Kohberger. We also understand that the prosecution and the defense will have an opportunity to speak to the judge. The prosecution, they can lay out their case as to why they believe this sentence, this plea agreement is the best option. They could potentially call up witnesses to bolster their case, or they could just simply lay out a narrative.

And then on the other side of that, the defense could also lay out exactly why they believe this is the best plea agreement, Bryan Kohberger by law will also have an opportunity to speak to the judge if he so chooses. John?

BERMAN: We will see if he takes that opportunity, which is something that at least some of the families, I think, would hope for, but we'll see.

Veronica Miracle standing by for us in Boise, thank you so much for being there. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Right. There's new CNN reporting coming, the FDA using artificial intelligence to fast track drug approvals and streamline work at health agencies. But it is also made up non-existent studies, misinterpreted research, one employee saying, quote, it hallucinates constantly.

And breaking overnight, President Trump announces that he -- what he calls a massive trade deal with Japan. The economic impact on everything from jobs to us automakers.

And a passenger is being called a hero after she stopped a man from trying to open the cockpit door midflight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She didn't want to be on the plane no more. She said God told her to do it. She had a call in. And I'm just like, wait a minute. I don't know nothing about this conversation you got going on, but not today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, alarm bells over the Food and Drug Administration's new A.I. tool known as Elsa. Several current and former FDA employees tell CNN that Elsa is making up non-existent studies and misrepresenting research.

CNN Medical Correspondent, our friend, Meg Tirrell is here with us this morning all over this story. So, not so good, if, you know, A.I. tool is making things up.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Perhaps not. So, this was introduced in June at the FDA. It's called, Elsa which stands for Efficient Language System for Analysis, or I did at one point, but now it's just called Elsa, which makes all parents of young children think of the movie Frozen, of course.

But the goal of this is to try to make things more efficient at FDA, perhaps speed up drug approvals, and yet conversations with employees at FDA who have tried out this tool have suggested perhaps it's not quite there yet. One FDA employee telling us, quote, anything that you don't have time to double check is unreliable, it hallucinates confidently. Another saying that A.I. is supposed to save our time, but I guarantee you that I waste a lot of extra time just due to the heightened vigilance that I have to check those fake or misrepresented studies.

[07:15:01]

And so it's at the point where folks might be using this maybe to summarize things, but you've got to check it closely, maybe to write emails or take notes, but it's not at the point that necessarily it's speeding up drug approvals or helping you review actual information.

We did talk about this with the FDA commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary. Here's what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MARTY MAKARY, FDA COMMISSIONER: The main purpose in which it's used according to many of the scientists that I talk to is its organization ability. It is identifying a study in the literature. And so it's the responsibility of the scientific reviewer to click on that link that Elsa provides and look at the study and read the abstract.

You have to determine what is reliable information that I can make major decisions based on, and I think we do a great job of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: So, the idea right now that this is speeding up drug approvals, from what we're hearing from inside the agency, this is great reporting from our colleague, Sarah Owermohle down in D.C., perhaps not quite there yet, but they are working on improving it.

BERMAN: Yes. I mean if you have to click on every link, it kind of slows you down a little. You get the motivation, but obviously needs to work out some of the details here.

Meg Tirrell, great to see you, thank you very much.

All right, quote, just for the record, I will never drug you, allegedly says the man accused of drugging and killing his wife. The text messages as prosecutors say, he sent to his mistress.

And she not competed in 16 months, hadn't won in years, what a morning to be Venus Williams.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00] BOLDUAN: Venus Williams made history at the Washington Open Tuesday at the age of 45, now the second oldest woman to win a singles match on tour.

CNN's Andy Scholes has much more. Tell us more, please, sir.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Kate, I tell you what, I'm rooting hard for Venus because she is one of the few athletes still competing that is older than me. So, I can act like a kid rooting for her.

But, you know, 45, well, it become the new 35. Venus taking the court for her first official singles match since March of 2024. So, she missed some time while having surgery to remove uterine fibroids. But Venus backed by the D.C. crowd playing great. She beat Peyton Stearns, who is 22 years younger than her, 6-3, 6-4. This was Venus' first singles win since August of 2023, and she's now the second oldest woman to win a tour level match behind only Martina Navratilova, who won at age 47.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VENUS WILLIAMS, BEAT THE WORLD #36 PEYTON STEARNS IN D.C. OPEN FIRST ROUND: It's so special. And you know, I'm here in the U.S. Open Series and it's not a lot of time to do it right. So, definitely a lot of tension, but a lot of belief, but it's not over until it's over. When that last shot was over, I was like, oh my God, thank you, God. It's beautiful to be back and hopefully I can keep playing well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now was a big day for 45-year-olds in sports yesterday, Rich Hill taking the mound for the Royals and the 45-year-old was called up to start against the Cubs and he actually made his MLB debut for Chicago back in 2005.

He'll pitch pretty well going five innings, giving up only one earned run. He's now the oldest player in the big leagues, became the oldest player ever to play for the Royals. K.C. did lose that one by a final 6-0.

Elsewhere, Big Dumper ending the Brewers' 11-game winning streak. Cal Raleigh crushing this one for his league leading 39th home run of the season. And it was a big home run because that's all the Mariners got, but it was enough because they beat the Milwaukee Brewers 1-0.

And, Kate, Big Dumper now on pace to hit 62 homers, which would tie Aaron Judge's American League record. So that's certainly going to be fun to watch the rest of the baseball season if he's able to get close to that number.

BOLDUAN: You have got to stop with the nickname. I know that he's fine with it, but you just -- because you can't do it with a straight face. It's not even allowed.

SCHOLES: I love saying big dumper. BOLDUAN: But he's also not allowed to be part of the segment because he is not 45, the last time I heard, because it's only -- 45 is the new 35 is the entire theme of this segment today.

SCHOLES: Well, he's getting close to 45 home runs though, Kate. There you go.

BOLDUAN: Well done.

SCHOLES: there's the symmetry.

BOLDUAN: Well played. It's good to see, Andy. thank you so much.

Coming up for us, we have those newly discovered videos, much more on that, and photos of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein together decades ago, just as the president tries again to turn the page on this saga, and House Republicans just made a big move to make sure that does not happen.

And there's that mid-air drama, new details from a woman about how she helped stop a passenger trying to enter the cockpit midflight.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, President Trump touts a trade deal with a major trading partner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: But I just signed the largest trade deal in history, I think maybe the largest deal in history with Japan, And that was done with Japan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He announced this new deal with Japan. You can see stock futures this morning up, some up a little bit before the opening bell. We'll see where it goes once the markets open at 9:30.

CNN's Matt Egan is here to talk about this deal with Japan, which is a major trading partner.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, absolutely, John. And look, for weeks it felt like all we were getting was escalation on the trade front. Now, we're starting to get a string of deals, the biggest one being this U.S.-Japan deal. Let's go through some of the things that are in this.

So, a $500-plus billion investment from Japan into the United States, we're still awaiting some of the key details on that, but a Japanese official says that this is going to be an investment into key industries, like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. Japan also, according to President Trump, agreeing to open up trade with the U.S. on cars, rice, and other agriculture.

Now, there's this 15 percent tariff the US is going to charge on imports from Japan, and that tariff critically extends to cars and car parts. However, a 50 percent tariff still remains on steel and on aluminum.

[07:30:00]

Now, just to remind you of where we are when it comes to US tariffs on Japan, back in early April, the president threatened and actually briefly imposed.