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Texas House Authorizes Civil Arrest Warrants for Democrats Who Fled State; Bondi Orders Grand Jury Inquiry of Obama Officials Over Russia Probe; Department of Justice Seeks Release of Five Days of Epstein, Maxwell Grand Jury Testimony. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 05, 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]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: A redistricting war in Texas. Republican state lawmakers set to reconvene this morning as their Democratic counterparts face arrest warrants for leaving the state to stop the GOP-led effort to redraw Congressional lines. The Texas governor now threatening to remove them from office, as blue state governors joining on the fight.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And pay no attention to the Epstein questions behind the curtain. Attorney General Pam Bondi orders federal prosecutors to start a grand jury investigation into top Obama officials over the 2016 Russia probe.

And overnight, exploding in size, a wildfire in Southern California has now charred some 72,000 acres.

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

DEAN: Good morning to you. A lot of new developments this morning in the standoff in Texas that could have major national consequences. The state house is set to convene again today after the Republican governor, Greg Abbott, ordered the arrests of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state. Those Democrats left on Sunday in order to block the GOP effort backed by President Trump to redraw the state's Congressional map. The Republicans plan, if successful, could potentially eliminate five Democratic seats in the U.S. House ahead of the 2026 midterms.

By leaving Texas, Democrats are denying the state house the minimum number of members needed for a quorum to advance that redistricting plan. Now, Republicans have accused them of running from a fight. Here's what the GOP Texas House speaker said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE REP. DUSTIN BURROWS (R-TX): I have signed the civil arrest warrants. We will work with DPS to locate members. So, for instance, there is one member who said that they're doing a fundraiser here in Austin tomorrow, and I've sent that fundraising letter to DPS and said they should be invited to attend as well. We'll see how that goes forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Legal experts have warned those arrest warrants are not likely enforceable outside of Texas, and most of the Democrats have fled to other states. If Republicans push the plan through, though, some blue states like New York and California have threatened to then retaliate by redrawing their own maps. New York's governor declared on Monday, quote, we are at war and the gloves are off.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is joining us now from Austin. Ed, you pick this up now. Where do things stand this morning, 6:02, where you are?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we'll look forward to that reconvening of the Texas House. Yesterday's session lasted only just a few minutes, enough to establish that the quorum wasn't met, that indeed the Democrats did not show up here at the Texas State Capitol and had fled the state. And then enough time to begin the process of signing those civil arrest warrants.

But Democrats are saying that all of these threats from the governor threatening to remove the lawmakers who left the state from office the threats of bribery charges, for accepting donations to cover the cost of fines, that all of these things are simply hollow threats. But Republicans continue to say that there can be more ways for these lawmakers to be punished if they do not come back here to the session.

And from hearing various Democrats say, many of them say that they're willing and ready to be gone for as long as it takes.

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STATE REP. JOHN BUCY (D-TX): Look, I didn't run for office to walk out of the Capitol, but I also didn't run for office to stand by while democracy is stolen in broad daylight. Texas Democrats broke quorum because sometimes the only way to uphold your oath is to refuse to play along with a rigged game.

Look, the governor can lie all at once, but we're not running away. We're running into the fight. Texas Democrats are standing up for one of our most basic American principles, the right to representation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: So, these Democrats are for you, the choice they're essentially facing at this point is, and the question is, at what point do they come back to the state.

[07:05:01]

This special legislative session where this redistricting bill is being considered still has two weeks left in it. So, Democrats would have to be gone at least that long to kill the bill for this particular session. But the governor here in Texas can simply call another special session. The question becomes, what will Democrats continue to do as the calendar moves forward here? And, you know, sometimes as the days drag on the group begins to splinter, and I think that's what Republicans are counting on here. Jessica?

DEAN: All right. Ed Lavandera for us in Texas, thank you so much for that. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, President Trump's political retribution taking a new turn, a source confirms the CNN that Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed federal prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation into members of the Obama administration over the 2016 Russia investigation. The probe comes after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents that she says shows Obama administration officials manufactured intelligence to make it look like Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

A review of that investigation shows Gabbard's claims conflate and misrepresent some of what the intel community actually concluded.

With us now, CNN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson, Counselor, thank you for being with us. First, the basis, what does it mean if Pam Bondi is launching a grand jury investigation.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: What it means is that a grand jury, good morning, John, will convene. A grand jury consists generally of 23 members. A simple majority would have to vote out an indictment. An indictment is an accusation accusing someone of a crime. In a grand jury, it's run by the prosecution. The prosecution presents evidence, and generally speaking, the grand jury does what the prosecution expects it to do.

There's two real things to look for. Number one, is there reasonable cause to believe that a crime was committed? And number two, did the subject or subjects of that proceeding commit?

BERMAN: Is it clear to you what crime there really even investigating here?

JACKSON: It is not clear at all, and I think it's important, John, to pause and think about where we are in American history. Generally, the Department of Justice is an independent entity. Yes, it's under the executive branch of government, but all norms and all policies and everything else point to a Department of Justice that's detached from the White House. We're in a situation now where we're really investigating political enemies.

We had the 2019 Mueller report. You remember him, special counsel relating to Russia. We had a 2023 report relating to John Durham, who really investigated the origins of the report for Russia to see if there was any wrongdoing.

Look, it resulted in two acquittals because people were charged and one person was an FBI lawyer pled guilty to lying. That's it. And now we're here revisiting the same stuff.

BERMAN: I applied to law school, so I know exactly this much about law. Federal charges, are statute of limitations for most of them five years? JACKSON: So, generally speaking, yes, there are statute of limitations, but it depends upon the conduct, the nature of the conduct. Is it a continuing violation? There are things that you can do certainly to circumvent that or to elongate --

BERMAN: If there's an ongoing conspiracy.

JACKSON: Correct. Correct.

BERMAN: But, basically, this was nine years ago, so that's a whole separate bar here. The alleged crimes would've taken place nine years ago, statute of limitation, five years.

Okay, what would she have to prove? What would the Justice Department have to prove here to get a conviction taking all of you -- you know, accepting all of what you said before?

JACKSON: So, here's my problem, John. We live in an age of a lot of misinformation. Many of might have seen the A.I.-generated piece that Obama -- with Obama getting arrested right in the Oval Office. It looks real. Why do I say that? Because that's something that the current president was putting out there. And the concern is that this new information that they're speaking about, that is Gabbard, right, and other people in the administration, it could be flawed, highly flawed. In fact, they're relying upon information that was debunked.

And so my problem here before we get to what to prove is what information are you going to be relying upon to prove it? To the extent that we know, and we've spoken about the fact that a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich, you put information before them, and if it's misinformation, there's a problem. And there's a couple of emails at issue, which might seem to suggest that there was this grand conspiracy. But guess what? The special counsel in 2023, John Durham, indicated that they were not real.

And so the fact is, are you putting that before the grand jury? And are you saying that there was collusion by an officials with regard to manufacturing evidence against the, you know, former president -- current president? It's a problem by the former president. That's a problem.

And so, you know, we'll have to see how it plays out, but I'm very concerned about misinformation and the documentation that will be presented to the grand jury with respect to getting any type of indictment here.

BERMAN: Joey Jackson, good to see you this morning. Thank you very much. Jessica?

DEAN: Breaking overnight, the Justice Department clarifying what it wants from the Jeffrey Epstein grand jury files after two of Epstein's victims slam the Trump administration's request to unseal that testimony.

[07:10:00]

And lawmakers back home for August recess facing furious constituents at some very intense town halls.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Plus a new confirmed sighting in the manhunt for a Tennessee quadruple murder suspect. Surveillance video capturing the man carrying a rifle and a backpack. We have the new warning from authorities this morning.

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[07:15:00]

Breaking overnight in a new court filing, the Justice Department specified it wants to make public five days of grand jury testimony against Jeffrey Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. This comes after two victims of Epstein's abuse condemned the DOJ's request to unseal that testimony. In emotional letters, the victims expressed frustration with the government's latest handling of the case, one of them writing, quote. I am not some pawn in your political warfare.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is in Washington. Katelyn, what more do we know about these court filings?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, it's two victims who are writing to the judge now. They are both calling for the transparency of what is in the court files from the grand jury transcripts related to the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell Grand jury testimony, but they're also not happy with how the Justice Department has gone about asking for transparency here in court, something that is still going to be decided by the judge.

These letters from two victims writing to one of the judges here overseeing the Epstein case, they're capturing frustration. They're capturing the sensitivity of this situation. They're capturing the effect of the political debate that just doesn't seem to want to end in any way over the transparency around the Jeff Epstein case, and they're also capturing just blatant anger here.

I'll read a little bit more from one of those victim letters. I come forward to you today in disdain, disgust and fear of how the United States of America's Justice Department, DOJ, has handled the promise to release the Epstein files. I am not some pawn in your political warfare. What you have done and continue to do is eating at me day after day as you help to perpetuate this story indefinitely. That's a victim writing essentially to the United States of America.

The Justice Department, however, Jessica, they are getting into more specifics with the judge, saying, we do want you to release files. We want you to redact names of victims that would not be public. And we also want to remind you that much of this in the Epstein files is already public, at least what is captured in five grand jury transcripts from two days in 2019, two days in 2020, and one day in 2021.

The Justice Department says that much of what was captured in those grand jury sessions secretly, that they're now asking to have release, it was already made public at trial or it's been discussed publicly in other venues.

That too is something that is causing frustration among the victims. There's the other victim letter writing that the highest priority here does not seem to be about the victims. It seems to be about protecting people who are not the victims, high-profile people, high-profile men. This victim even mentioning our own president, whose name apparently appears in these filings. And that second victim is calling for the judge to have a third party go through these documents, redact victims' names, and then make a decision, or help make a decision on what should else should be released. Jessica?

DEAN: Yes. It is certain that these victims have, have suffered tremendously.

Katelyn, thank you so much for that reporting, we appreciate it.

Still ahead, the rise of a familiar name in Trump world, Corey Lewandowski is taking on more power at the Department of Homeland Security. Why one source is telling CNN everyone is terrified.

And new evacuation orders as a rapidly expanding California wildfire is close to becoming the biggest in that state this year.

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[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. Get your brackets ready, new this morning, a big announcement from the NCAA on March Madness.

Let's get right to CNN's Andy Scholes for the latest on this. What's not happening, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, I thank goodness nothing is happening, John, because I'm not sure why we need to mess with the NCAA tournament. It's one of the most perfect things in all of sports. 64 teams in the bracket, 4 teams make the plan. That's perfect. And at least for this upcoming season, it's staying that way.

There were conversations about expanding the tournament to 72 teams or even 76. Logistically, you know, adding teams is tough because the games all would still need to fit in between selection Sunday and then finish by the Tuesday before the Masters.

Not going to happen now, but expansion is not dead though. NCAA Senior V.P. Dan Gavitt said they are going to continue to have conversations on expansion, potentially starting for the 2027 tournament.

All right, college football season, meanwhile, it's right around the corner and Texas will start at number one in the coaches poll. The Longhorns will have Peyton and Eli's nephew, Arch Manning, under center this season, the defending champs, Ohio State, coming in at number two, Penn State, Georgia and Notre Dame, round out the top five.

Now, Texas and Ohio State, they are playing each other on August 30th in the horseshoe. It's going to be the first time ever we have number one versus number two the first week of college football, certainly going to be awesome.

All right, it's baseball where Kyle Schwarber continued his MVP campaign last night. The Philly slugger up in the third crushes this one for his National League-leading 39th home run of the season. But he was not done. With the crowd there in Philly of more than 41,000 chanting, MVP, Schwarber comes through with the grand slam in the sixth. That sent all those fans there into a frenzy. Phillies won big over the Orioles 13-3.

Yankees fans, meanwhile, not as happy as Phillies fans this morning, New York was two outs away from a win in Texas last night, but Joc Pederson coming through in the clutch with a game-tying home run for the Rangers.

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Then in the bottom of the tenth, Josh Jung at the plate two on and that's a three run walk-off home run.

Rangers win 8-5. Yankees have now lost four in a row. Good news for the team though, Aaron Boone said Aaron Judge will play today after missing more than a week with that elbow strain.

But, Berman, I know it's your favorite type of morning, Yankees lose, your Red Sox have now won six in a row, hey, but I'm excited because we're going to get some meaningful Yankees-Red Sox games here down this stretch as they're both fighting for those wild card spots.

BERMAN: I mean, the Yankees don't look like they're fighting. Look, never take pleasure in a team's misfortune. Thoughts and prayers with the New York Yankees and their fans this morning.

Andy Scholes, thank you. I mean, really, thank you for that. I appreciate it.

All right, a Republican town hall goes off the rails.

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REP. MIKE FLOOD (R-NE): The Republican party now more than ever represents the heart and soul of the working class.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. More of the answers that filled the room with boos.

And the circle of life, question mark, exclamation point. A zoo in Denmark asking for pet donations to feed its hungry predators. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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