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Tsunami Alert; Federal Reserve to Announce Decision on Interest Rates; Trump Facing New Epstein Questions. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 30, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Forcing the issue, Democrats planning to use a law from a century ago to force the administration to release the Epstein files, as President Trump faces new questions about the controversy.

And a global tsunami warning. Waves race across the Pacific Ocean after a huge earthquake off the east coast of Russia, one of the strongest ever recorded.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And a big decision for the Fed coming in the next hour, what to do about interest rates. For the first time in a long time, officials at the Central Bank not all on the same page, especially amid some pressure from the White House.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN.

KEILAR: Democrats are pulling every lever, and this one they're polling now is almost a century old. Senators are trying to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the full Epstein files using a little-known rarely tested law from the 1920s.

Let's go to CNN's Katelyn Polantz on this.

OK, what is this law and is DOJ saying anything about it?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, right now we know the Justice Department is very unlikely to turn over documents to Democrats in Congress. That's just typically a nonstarter when you have a Republican administration and Democrats on the Hill asking for something.

In this situation, it's the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the Homeland Security Committee, the minority members of that committee from the Democratic Party.

They are asking and they're writing to Attorney General Pam Bondi: "After missteps and failed promises by your department regarding these files," the Epstein files, "it is essential that the Trump administration provide full transparency. Specifically, we request all documents, files, evidence and other materials in the possession of DOJ or FBI related to United States of America v. Jeffrey Epstein."

So that's his criminal case. They want everything the department might have. This, though, is something they're saying we want to do under this law that isn't used that often. It allows small groups of senators or House members on this particular committee, Homeland Security, to go and ask the executive branch for files.

But these sorts of situations are almost always nonstarters. They end up in court. They drag on for years. Usually, there's a negotiation where maybe some documents get turned over or the administration turns over or the Congress changes hands. It just isn't the sort of thing that is a law that Congress can use to get documents here and now exactly when they demand them.

It even was tested in court before in 2017 during the previous Trump administration. The Biden administration kept fighting to uphold the provisions that the executive branch had always had, saying, we're not giving Congress documents just because they asked for them, even if they cite a law like this.

KEILAR: DOJ did file this new memo overnight that details why it says testimony related to Epstein's case should be unsealed. Tell us the latest on this.

POLANTZ: Yes, so this would be a part of what those Democrats in the Senate are asking for. It would be the grand jury files of the case against just Epstein and the case ultimately against Ghislaine Maxwell, who went to trial and was convicted.

Now, it's grand jury documents, so those are transcripts. And in this case, the filing that the Justice Department made to a judge in the Southern District of New York federal court last night, it said there were only two witnesses, and the types of witnesses they were, they were summary witnesses, an FBI agent and a police detective, summarizing what victims and other witnesses had told them talking to the grand jury in the ability to just stand up the indictments against these two people, Epstein and Maxwell.

Ultimately, these are the sorts of records that might not reveal that much, because Ghislaine Maxwell, that indictment, prosecutors took that case the whole way to trial. They put on display the evidence and the witnesses at trial. And she was convicted.

So that all is sort of contained in that universe very likely, but they are asking the court to unseal these filings and we will have to see exactly what the judge says next. But at the end of the day, it's FBI files that really have not been released and could be the bulk of things. And then what does Ghislaine Maxwell have to say?

KEILAR: Ding, ding, ding. Katelyn Polantz, there you are, the FBI files. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it -- Boris.

[13:05:00]

SANCHEZ: With us now is CNN legal analyst and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs at the DOJ Elliot Williams.

Elliot, great to see you as always.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Talk to us about this century-old law. Is it likely that these lawmakers are going to get what they're looking for out of DOJ?

WILLIAMS: It's hard to see that happening, only because they're in the minority. And certainly the Senate works on a kind of bipartisan basis that the House does not.

Often, many things in the United States Senate happen with the parties coming together. But this is more, I think, a possibly successful political move by the Democrats in the Senate. But it's hard to see where it shakes out.

SANCHEZ: I wonder, if the DOJ is writing that there is a significant public interest -- whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what was that? What was that?

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: The camera was just on you there and didn't see me.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

WILLIAMS: OK, yes.

Let's back up and talk. So I think I knew what you were going to say with this. Yes.

SANCHEZ: Yes. DOJ is basically saying there's immense public interest in this.

WILLIAMS: Sure.

SANCHEZ: They're asking a judge, put out these grand jury records.

WILLIAMS: Right.

SANCHEZ: You're skeptical.

WILLIAMS: I'm skeptical only because the grand jury rules are one of the rare areas of law that are abundantly clear. They are quite explicit that grand jury materials under normal circumstances typically are only released to other prosecutors or for official government business.

Now, there's a little bit of wiggle room that some judges have left and some courts have left in different courts of the country that there might be a way or a basis for revealing grand jury materials. It's so exceptionally rare. We're not talking about Watergate here, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Sure. WILLIAMS: We're talking about something that's very important to many

people, but it's not the kind of news that perhaps would warrant that.

SANCHEZ: There is not sufficient evidence to argue that there's a national security concern, perhaps?

WILLIAMS: National security concern, official government business, anything like that.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

WILLIAMS: It's just so rare, exceptionally rare.

SANCHEZ: Something I find interesting is that, while DOJ says there's sufficient -- significant public interest, intense public interest in this...

WILLIAMS: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... a few days ago, President Trump was saying -- was asking, why are we still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?

Do the president's remarks or could the executive brand, their prerogative, their desires on this have any influence on whether we get to see these files?

WILLIAMS: Yes, so certainly a judge will weigh -- I don't want to pooh-pooh it so much. A judge can weigh, there is public interest in this matter, and I think the fact that you and I are talking about it today and have many times over the last several weeks, there is public interest in this and people care about it a great deal.

SANCHEZ: Right.

WILLIAMS: It is just overcoming the law on grand jury secrecy, which exists for very important reasons -- grand jury materials are for the prosecution of people, the protection of victims and also the protection of people who are accused of, but not charged of crimes.

For those reasons, you want prosecutors to be able to do their work in private without those materials being made public. And so there's a host of legal reasons why we as a country have for I think a century, probably century at this point, been so touchy about grand jury materials ever being released to the public.

SANCHEZ: Understood.

I want to ask you about Ghislaine Maxwell not only potentially testifying before Congress, but also some of her conversations with the DOJ. I was speaking to Democratic Congressman Suhas Subramanyam yesterday of Virginia, and he made the case that because Todd Blanche, who's now at DOJ, was a former personal attorney of Donald Trump, there's a conflict of interest there.

And he brought up the idea that he might even be coaching her. He didn't have any evidence to back that up, to be totally clear. WILLIAMS: Right.

SANCHEZ: But is there anything in place to prevent that, to delineate an official's role as an operator of the Department of Justice versus someone who in the past has been aligned with the president?

WILLIAMS: Sure.

It's always a fair question whenever anyone serves in government to take a look at what their background was prior to the role and maybe how the public sees them. And certainly people are fair to ask questions about Todd Blanche's past employment.

Now, the simple fact is, he's a deputy attorney general of the United States. That's his role. Now, because of -- she has litigation pending...

SANCHEZ: Yes.

WILLIAMS: ... that the Justice Department has an interest in. They are opposing her getting out of prison and opposing her appeal.

So there's an argument to be made that perhaps she's trying to curry favor with the Justice Department or might be censoring what she says so as to maybe position herself for lenient treatment or a pardon at some point down the road.

But is Todd Blanche's past career disqualifying or a conflict of interest? No, but that's up to the public to decide whether there is an actual perceived conflict of interest.

SANCHEZ: And, quickly, just on the idea that she would testify before Congress based on the subpoena, she's perjured herself before. Is she the most credible witness? Do lawmakers potentially get more risk than they bargain for by having her come to Capitol Hill?

WILLIAMS: They do. Well, I think that the risk comes from the fact that she's also been convicted of aiding sexual assault.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes.

[13:10:00]

WILLIAMS: And I think that hurts your credibility even more.

Our law provides for the fact that, when someone is convicted of a crime, you can judge their testimony more harshly. And so that's not anybody's opinion. That's literally written into the federal rules of evidence. And so certainly she's got some credibility issues to overcome.

But Congress ought to tread carefully here as well, because if they're seen as giving her favors or making things easy on her, remembering her past, it could be bad for them.

(CROSSTALK) SANCHEZ: She's asking for immunity and also to get the questions ahead of time as well.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Important to note.

WILLIAMS: Yes, not happening.

SANCHEZ: Elliot Williams, thanks so much for the perspective.

WILLIAMS: Of course.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it -- Brianna.

KEILAR: One hour from now, the Federal Reserve will release its highly anticipated decision on interest rates.

The Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady for a fifth straight meeting, maintaining its cautious approach during President Trump's ongoing trade war. The president has very publicly tried to force the Fed to lower rates, putting significant pressure on its Chair Jerome Powell.

Earlier today, Trump touted on TRUTH Social a better-than-expected second-quarter GDP report, demanding that the Fed -- quote -- "must now lower the rate, no inflation, let people buy and refinance their homes."

CNN's Matt Egan is live at the Federal Reserve. He's with us now.

Matt, what are you watching for as we're getting ready for this announcement?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Brianna, all signs point to the Fed keeping interest rates exactly where they are. And, of course, this is going to be a disappointment to borrowers and also to the White House.

President Trump has been really pounding the table all year for interest rate cuts. And he doesn't want slightly lower interest rates. He wants dramatically lower interest rates. But I got to tell you, that's just not going to happen. The market is pricing in almost no chance of even a tiny interest rate cut this year, let alone the monster-sized cut that the president is seeking.

And that's because the Fed is really in wait-and-see mode. They're trying to navigate through the fog of this trade war. They're concerned that all of these tariffs, historically high tariffs, are going to be inflationary.

And even though White House officials, they dismiss this idea about tariffs boosting prices, we have heard from a growing number of companies that have said, look, we do plan to raise prices because of tariffs, everyone from Nike and Best Buy to Ford and Subaru. Just this week, Procter & Gamble, the company behind Tide detergent and Dawn soap, warned that tariffs are going to cost it a billion dollars just this fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble (AUDIO GAP) of its products. And I do think it's that kind of announcement that we hear from companies that's going to give Fed officials pause when they (AUDIO GAP).

Bottom line here, Brianna, is that rates are unlikely to change today, but everyone's going to be listening very closely to what Fed Chair Powell says during the press conference about whether or not he's open to a possible interest rate cut later this year, perhaps as soon as the next meeting in September.

KEILAR: All right, we will be keeping an eye on that with you.

Matt Egan at the Federal Reserve, thank you.

And still ahead: Multiple countries are on high alert after this 8.8- magnitude earthquake, just a huge earthquake off the coast of Russia, triggers a tsunami.

Plus, House Republicans intensifying their investigation into former President Biden's cognitive decline and the possible efforts to conceal it. Ahead, new details on the two top Biden aides now set to testify in front of that panel.

And an NYPD team heading to Nevada to investigate the home of the gunman who killed four people in a Manhattan office building. The investigation is coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:18:14]

SANCHEZ: Right now, multiple South American nations are on high alert, ordering evacuations amid fears over the potential for a powerful tsunami triggered by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded.

In fact, the sixth strongest ever on record hit off the coast of Eastern Russia yesterday, and these images show Russian towns on the coast inundated by waves. In another part of Russia, the 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked a surgery room. You see doctors there gripping the table and equipment to stay afoot.

And check out these sea lions panicking amid the shaking, scrambling and diving into the water. The danger, fortunately, for the United States largely has passed, but tsunami advisories remain in parts of the California, Oregon, Washington coastline, as well as stretches of Alaska and Hawaii.

The highest tsunami wave in the U.S. was reported in Maui at 5.7 feet.

Let's get the latest from CNN meteorologist Chris Warren, who's tracking the tsunami.

So, Chris, take us through the areas of largest concern right now, especially in South America.

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, Boris, I want to start off with a look at the whole Pacific Ocean, because remember how big this is as well.

And what this is right here is the tsunami timing from where the earthquake happened, remember happening underwater at the ocean's surface. So, at the time of that, which we're going on about 18 hours ago, this was the forecast. Five hours, here's Hawaii, 10 hours, West Coast, and now 15 hours.

And so we're now in this zone here, so from Colombia down to Chile and Ecuador in the zone now to start to see or already seeing on the northern part of South America already seeing some of the water rises and expecting more here. So, as you mentioned, the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii, the Aleutians in Alaska still under advisories.

[13:20:04]

It takes a while. Even though the forecast, you know, it's past, it takes a while for the water to calm down. It's not just one push of water. As far as the amount of water level rise, here in Kahului in Maui, almost six feet, 5.7 feet, but here in California also something interesting, Crescent City.

We have seen in the past with earthquakes and tsunamis all the way on the other side of the Pacific, water rises here in Crescent City that are more than some of the surrounding areas. The shape of the coastline and what's happening at the surface, valleys and mountains, the surface of the ocean floor, help direct some of the water here.

So let's also take a look at this. This wavy action right here, this is the forecast for water rises in -- wave heights, I should say, at Crescent City, so going with the tides, high tides. And then, as the water came in from the tsunami, a lot of ups and downs.

And each one of these bars essentially here is an hour. So you can see turbulent, rough conditions with a series of waves over several hours. That threat is going down. But how this all played out with the earthquake that was, again, at the surface, what happens is, there's a subduction zone here and there's that thrust upward, and it's that volume push that creates that initial surge of water, so, yes, still seeing some areas along the west coast of South America, Boris, that are at threat for some more water level rises.

SANCHEZ: Chris Warren, thank you so much for breaking that down for us.

Let's get some perspective from a seismologist. We're joined now by Maureen Long. She's a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Yale University.

Maureen, thanks so much for joining us.

What's your latest assessment of this tsunami event across the world and what the danger level is primarily for the South American continent? MAUREEN LONG, PROFESSOR OF EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES, YALE

UNIVERSITY: Well, it's always very sobering when we have a very large underwater earthquake that does trimmer -- trigger -- excuse me -- a tsunami that travels all the way across a very large ocean basin.

So this event is really a reminder that we are vulnerable to tsunami waves that are generated by large earthquakes. Thankfully, what we have seen in the last 18 or so hours, it's that the tsunami waves, while they are measurable, a tsunami was generated, have not generally been so large to cause extensive damage.

And we can certainly be thankful for that.

KEILAR: And when is the risk over? Because I think people looking at that map say, wow, this takes a really long time to get to some places. When can you say, OK, you don't have to be on alert anymore?

LONG: Yes, that's right.

I mean, and, interestingly, tsunamis do travel very fast. They travel about as fast as a jet airplane flies. But the Pacific Ocean is a very large ocean. And, as we have seen, it takes about 18 or 20 hours for the waves to reach the other end of the Pacific Ocean Basin.

So, certainly, I would encourage anyone listening to heed local advisories about when is it safe to be back down on the beach, be back in the water. As Chris mentioned, even after that initial first wave has passed, for several hours afterwards, sometimes, we see unusual currents or some later successive waves.

Sometimes, the later waves can actually be a little larger than the first wave. So my advice would be to certainly always heed local advisories and local warnings about when it's safe to be back on the beach or at the coastline again.

SANCHEZ: Talk to us about the science behind tsunamis and this very powerful earthquake, again, the sixth most powerful ever recorded.

LONG: Yes.

And whenever you have an earthquake this large underwater in a subduction zone environment -- so that subduction zone is a tectonic setting where we have one tectonic plate that is diving beneath another, in this case, off the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. We have the Pacific plate that is actually diving beneath a portion of the North American plate.

When you have a large subduction zone earthquake that happens very shallow, what that does is, that displaces some of the water column. And whenever you have vertical motion of that water column, that can trigger a tsunami wave.

And so, in this case, the tsunami wave was triggered. It travels out in the open ocean. Actually, in the open ocean, those wave heights or amplitudes are actually pretty small. So, tsunamis are not a threat to ships or boats out on the open ocean. But when tsunami waves hit that coastline, they can steep in. The

waves basically steep in and their amplitude grows. And that's when it poses a hazard. So, this earthquake, as you said, the sixth largest earthquake that has ever been recorded since we have had modern seismic instruments, a really vivid reminder of these kinds of hazards.

[13:25:04]

And, luckily, we were very prepared for it with our earthquake monitoring and with our tsunami warning networks.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a reminder of what Mother Earth is capable of.

Maureen Long, thanks so much for joining us.

LONG: Thanks.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Coming up -- of course.

Coming up: a top aide for former President Joe Biden testifying on Capitol Hill today, as Republicans ramp up their investigation into Biden's mental state while in office. We have details next.

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KEILAR: Happening today, there's a new effort on the Hill that's seeking to ensure Jeffrey Epstein's convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell will not receive any form of clemency, including a potential presidential pardon, in exchange for testimony.