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Judge Cites Threats to Victim's Safety in Decision on Epstein Documents; Hurricane Erin Creates Life-Threatening Conditions Along East Coast; Interview with Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA): Russia Launches Largest Drone, Missile Attack on Ukraine in Weeks; Trump Ramps Up His Pressure Campaign Against the Federal Reserve. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired August 21, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What does it make you wonder then about the disclosure to Congress, right? Tomorrow is the day that Oversight Chair James Comer says that the DOJ will begin handing over some documents, but we don't know what, given what these judges now say the Justice Department tried to do. What do you think we might see?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, so I'm wondering about almost everything here. We really only know one thing about what's going to happen tomorrow, which is that DOJ is going to turn over some of the files, not the grand jury files, but the rest of the case, the 99 plus percent of the case, over to Congress. But there's so many questions here, John.

First of all, how much of that file, the whole thing, all 300 or so gigabytes or some smaller section? What -- how are they going to choose what within that whole section are they going to turn over? Are they going to redact out names?

Are the documents going to show us other people who were involved in criminality? If there are names of people who were co-conspirators with Epstein or Maxwell, will their names be blacked out?

And then the second part of that is how's Congress going to handle the documents. Once all the documents arrive on Capitol Hill, are they going to post them online for all of us to see? Are they going to review them first? Are they going to show us some, all or none of those documents?

So we know there's going to be important movement tomorrow, but there's a lot that we need to see how it's going to play out.

BERMAN: And many judges have really questioned the motivations of the Justice Department here along the way about how transparent they really want to be. Elie Honig, thank you very much.

A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, dangerous beach conditions and powerful winds being felt up and down the East Coast as the huge storm Hurricane Erin spins offshore. Riptide alerts, tropical storm warnings remain in place today.

Mid-air scare. Passengers on a Delta flight to Austin looked out their window to see that. The plane's wing -- part of the plane's wing breaking loose mid-flight.

And also the story of an 11-year-old girl finally getting a life- saving heart transplant after waiting more than 200 days in the hospital. Her inspiring story.

Sara is out. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BOLDUAN: The breaking news this morning. We just got the new forecast and track in of Hurricane Erin from the National Hurricane Center. A state of emergency is in effect for North Carolina.

And right now, these are some of the most dangerous hours for the Outer Banks after Erin makes its closest approach yet to land. The storm is now a Category 2 with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour. Here's a live look we're going to show you right here -- because it's causing concern all along the East Coast.

This is Ocean City, Maryland, as you can see. And you can see what the waves are looking like right now. From there, this hurricane is producing waves of 20 feet or higher, life-threatening surf, and definitely dangerous rip currents.

Erin underwent one of the fastest rapid intensifications on record in the Atlantic. Take a look. We're going to show you this 3-D model from NASA.

It shows the storm when it was still in the Caribbean, strengthening from a Cat 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in just over 24 hours. And it really gives you a sense and a new perspective of the sheer size of this thing.

And also just into us, we have video of surfers out in the water on North Carolina's Wrightsville Beach. Yes, they're going to probably catch some great waves, but this is exactly what authorities say you should not be doing right now anywhere pretty much along the East Coast. Beaches are closed, and authorities have been begging and pleading to stay out of the water.

Dianne Gallagher is in Kill Devil Hills along North Carolina's Outer Banks with much more.

What do you do -- what are you feeling now?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kate, we still have the winds that are kicking up here, and we still have some angry seas. I'm going to get Nick to sort of pan over, show you the waves we've got going on at this point. Still in high tide here in the Outer Banks.

At this point, as the sun has come up, DOT now just letting us know about certain areas down further through. And, again, remember, the Outer Banks, these barrier islands, nearly 200 miles of barrier islands that are connected overall by this one highway, North Carolina 12. It is closed in most parts, but we are getting reports this morning about major over wash in Ocracoke and Hatteras Village.

We're talking about the flattening of dunes in Ocracoke, according to DOT. They also said that in Rodanthe there was significant over wash as well.

[08:05:00]

And other areas, they have, of course, that sand that has been deposited from the dunes. We were there when they were trying to sort of fortify them and build them up in preparation for Erin.

But look, you can even see it blowing the sand around here right now this morning. So this is what has been happening for about 12 hours now here in the Outer Banks.

And there are certain areas that are lower than others. There are areas that are effectively see -- like sandbars in the Outer Banks. And this is something they deal with quite a bit. They're quite prepared for how to handle it. But they've said there's no estimated recovery time at this point on reopening the highway. They still need to get crews out as soon as it is safe for them to do so to clean it up.

At this point, that's the major issue that we're seeing reported. We've had that storm surge, which, again, brought out the bigger concerns are going to be once they get out and inspect the road to make sure that they can reopen it, that there wasn't any breakage, that there wasn't anything that's going to prevent them from allowing cars to continue going on that.

Because, again, it's the only way on and the only way off for a lot of these different island residents. So they had the mandatory evacuations of Ocracoke and Hatteras Island. And at this point, once they say it's safe for people to come back, they can come inspect their property, see how much damage was done at that point -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Dianne, thank you so much for being there. I really appreciate it.

Now, let's go to CNN's Michael Yoshida. He's in Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. Mike, what are you seeing right now?

Don't worry. Everything is fine, guys. They're just adjusting the camera, and I think we have lost audio with Mike Yoshida right now. But we will get that back.

And John Berman is going to come out, and he's going to take it from here.

BERMAN: I'm going to be here by the magic wall right here emerging. Here I am! I had to move someone out of the way to get here. All right. Let's get right to Sam Proffitt, who is with us right now. He is one of the officials monitoring the situation near Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. Sam, great to see you again.

Let me give people a sense of where you are. You're down here by Cape Fear, about that area right here. Storm surge expected 1 to 3 feet. The worst area up here where it's expected to be 2 to 4 feet. I know you've been out a little bit today.

What have you seen?

SAM PROFFITT, DIRECTOR, WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH OCEAN RESCUE: Yes, so we did have some very high tides last night and again this morning. And so what we're dealing with now is a beach erosion from that. So, you know, no real damage to our stands or anything on the beach, but we do have pretty significant beach erosion going on.

BERMAN: So beach erosion, the big issue right now. And then, of course, there's the issue of the people in the water, the swimmers. What is your message today to people who might think it's safe -- to quote Jaws -- to get back in the water?

PROFFITT: So the messaging is going to be the same as it has been these past couple of days, right? It's still very dangerous conditions. I know people are getting tired of hearing me say that and how dangerous the ocean is, but we still have 4 to 5 foot swell coming in. We have massive rip currents occurring again today.

So the swim advisory or the ordinance is still into effect until tomorrow. So the messaging is the same. You know, please, if you come out to the beach, stay out of the ocean.

BERMAN: And again, you're talking about erosion. You're talking about some of the concerns of storm surge inside. But the big concern, you know, is the rip tides, which go right along the coast here.

Can you tell me what it's like? What does it feel like when you're caught in a rip tide?

PROFFITT: Yes, so, I mean, being caught in a rip current, it's nothing other than a channel of water that's flowing away from the beach. So if you can imagine sitting in a river and the river is taking you away from land, that's what it feels like. And the strength of them are, like I said, very strong, that of a river.

So you're not going to be, you know, you don't have the ability or be effective swimming against it. So that's why they're so dangerous.

The other thing that we're experiencing with these rip currents is the size of them. You know, some of them are 2, 2.5 blocks wide. So even if you swim parallel, you know, you're going to have to swim at least another block while you're getting pulled out to sea before you're going to be able to swim in. So that's just why these rip currents that we're facing this week are just so dangerous.

BERMAN: And how many days do you think, or what's your outlook for the next few days where you are?

PROFFITT: So I would, again, I'm not an expert when it comes to the weather, but I would predict that we'll probably be flying red flags through Saturday. Maybe Sunday it might calm down a little bit and we'll go back to yellow. But I would predict, you know, obviously definitely tomorrow red flags and probably Saturday.

BERMAN: All right, Sam Proffitt for us. Always great to speak with you. Best of luck over the next several hours.

PROFFITT: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: So mark this down as something you definitely do not want to see mid-flight.

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A piece of the plane's flap dangling off of the wing, as you can see, is happening right here. This happened during a flight from Orlando to Austin yesterday. The Boeing 737 landed safely. Thankfully none of the 68 people on board were hurt.

One passenger though talking about it said there was bad turbulence, they could feel the plane shaking and that is when she looked out her window and saw this broken wing. That's also when she said she got scared which I think may be the understatement of the year.

The FAA is now investigating. Delta says the aircraft is out of service and undergoing maintenance.

Also new this morning, the Federal Trade Commission is suing LA Fitness claiming it is quote exceedingly difficult for gym goers to cancel their memberships.

In the complaint the FTC accuses the company of illegally charging consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in unwanted recurring fees. Right now customers can only cancel a membership in person or by mail which seems kind of outdated in this day and age -- John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy signals he may be ready to make some compromise on his ceasefire demands before any potential one-on-one with Vladimir Putin. The key to remember here is Russia hasn't said that they're ready for a one-on-one yet.

So new information, new guidelines about alcohol and what it might mean for your blood pressure.

In a new video which shows the moment Good Samaritans helped pull a mother and toddler from their car after a crash into a river.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight, Russia launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine, its largest in more than a month. Ukrainian officials say nine civilians were killed in this. Russia used 574 drones, 40 missiles in this attack. That's according to President Zelenskyy.

In Kyiv, you can see Ukrainian air defenses responding in this attack. The bombardment comes -- I mean it's notable any day -- but this also just comes days after President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and also follows the major White House summit between Trump, Zelenskyy and European leaders.

President Zelenskyy posting this about it all overnight. The Russians carried out this attack as if nothing had changed at all, as if there were no efforts by the world to stop this war. Pressure is needed, strong sanctions, strong tariffs.

Joining us right now is Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. She sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congresswoman, thank you so much for being here.

I mean you have this, you had the --

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA), HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Well Good morning, Kate.

BOLDUAN: -- you had the Russian president launching an attack on Ukraine as leaders were arriving at the White House for that summit, and then you have this overnight. What message is this sending?

DEAN: Well, that Mr. Putin hasn't moved off the mark whatsoever. Let's think about this. This is three and a half years into this war, as you reported last night and the night before.

On the heels of this attempts at diplomacy, Russia is killing more and more people. This matters to my district a lot. I have a tremendous population here in suburban Philadelphia and the Philadelphia region of Ukrainian Americans, whom I have met with since 2014 with the invasion of Crimea. But they are heartsick, heartbroken over the continued killing of civilians.

This is a murderous Mr. Putin, who appeared in Alaska, rolled -- our president rolled out the red carpet literally for Mr. Putin and believed he had some sort of leverage going there. And then I was very proud of the West Wing meeting or the White House meeting with European leaders standing so strong with Mr. Zelenskyy.

But no ceasefire, no stopping of the killing. In fact, in the last six months, more than 1,000 civilians have been killed, more than this time last year. So Mr. Putin is not serious about an end to this war. The crazy statements around security guarantors and including Russia in that shows that this erratic diplomacy on the part of Mr. Trump is not moving Mr. Putin.

BOLDUAN: And President Zelenskyy now says that he -- and this is new also today -- that he is ready to make -- the way he put it is some compromise on his demand that a ceasefire takes place before any talks with Putin occur as long as some security guarantees are established.

And he said this. And based on that understanding, we aim to hold a trilateral meeting. That was my logic, Zelenskyy says.

Do you think Putin has any intention of meeting with Zelenskyy at any point?

DEAN: It doesn't appear so. And Lavrov said as much. Mr. Trump said that he thought maybe there could be a trilateral. I encourage Mr. Trump to use the leverage that he has. We are the indispensable nation in the end of this. But we also have friends and allies that we must lift up the European allies who came.

[08:20:00]

There should be a trilateral meeting. Mr. Trump should want to champion that. But as I say, I'm very concerned about the erratic nature of the Trump administration's diplomacy.

Walking right up to Mr. Putin in Alaska and warmly welcoming him. Contrast that with what happened on February 28th with Mr. Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and the shameful display by the vice president and the president there. I wish we could keep the president, our president, on a course that says Putin is the murderous dictator. He will not dictate whether or not they can have security relationships with Ukraine. I wish the president would see this clear eyed.

Something that was revealing to me, Kate, was that hot mic moment. You heard that Mr. President Trump said that he thought Putin wants to do this for me. It's a very strange ending of that sentence.

If you were really interested in peace and diplomacy and an end to the killing and a return of the children, you wouldn't be talking about for me --

BOLDUAN: Well, that's actually what I wanted to ask you about as we're as we're short on time is about the children aspect of this, because some 20,000 Ukrainian children were abducted and kidnapped by Russia during this war. And the estimates even range to go even higher. We know Melania Trump actually penned a letter to Putin that Trump hand delivered to him in Anchorage about this.

Zelenskyy says that his wife wrote a letter then to Melania, thanking her for her attention to this. And Senator Lindsey Graham is now threatening to push legislation to designate Russia a state sponsor of terror if the abducted Children are not returned. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I intend to push the return of these Children. I can't push anymore. If they do not return these Children to Ukraine, the 19,000, then I'm going to push legislation to make Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: This is one of the most painful and difficult issues of this war. How do they get those -- these thousands of Children back home?

DEAN: I don't know. I do know that the International Criminal Court has done a tremendous amount of investigation around these children. But Kate, we can't even conceive of it.

These Children, some of them taken at very young ages, removed from their homes, from their families, from their parents, from their culture, from their language. They may not even have memories of that, which is Ukraine. They may be missing memories of their own families.

It is so heartbreaking to me. I'm glad that anybody, the Senate leaders that are saying something about this. But my God, this should have been demanded by the world immediately.

3.5 years later, tracking down these missing children of all different ages. It is horrifying. The world should demand better.

And I really ask our president to stay on track to demand the return of the children to demand an end to the killing and a protection of Ukraine and its sovereignty.

BOLDUAN: It would be a good thing if these children were front and center in these discussions as they go forward. Whatever discussions do occur between Russia and Ukraine.

DEAN: I do want to compliment. I do want to compliment Mrs. Trump, the first lady. It is appropriate that she would reach out to Mr. Putin and say, Bring these Children back. Save these Children. I compliment her for that.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Congresswoman, thank you so much for your time.

Coming up for us. President Trump is now upping his pressure campaign on the Federal Reserve, calling on another Fed official to resign. We'll tell you the reason.

And new body cam footage showing the moment Rhode Island's assistant attorney general is arrested outside of a restaurant.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, it is on out in Jackson, Wyoming. Federal Reserve chair at this annual conference in Jackson Hole, where he will speak. It comes at a time when President Trump has been on the attack over Fed policy and personnel.

The president has pushed for the Fed to cut interest rates while going after Jerome Powell, and now he's calling for a different Fed official to be fired this time over allegations of mortgage fraud.

CNN's Matt Egan is here with us with all the details. Good morning to you, sir. MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Good morning, John. Look, Jackson Hole is always a very big deal, but there's even more drama than usual this year. Normally, the focus is on Fed policy.

Now it's on Fed personnel. There's all these major questions swirling. Is the president done trying to push out Jerome Powell? Who was he going to replace Powell with? And now will he be able to push out any of Powell's colleagues?

So yesterday, the president surprised some by posting on True Social that Cook must resign now.

He was referring to Lisa Cook. She's a Biden nominated member of the powerful Board of Governors at the Fed. She's the first Black woman on the Fed board, former Harvard professor, economic advisor to former President Obama.

Now, this call for her to resign came after a Trump ally and housing official Bill Pulte accused Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud and urged the Justice Department to investigate her, saying that she falsified her residence status at properties in Michigan and in Georgia to try to get better loan terms.

Now, Pulte urged Cook to resign, and he said that she could potentially face getting fired by the president. Now, Cook fired back in a statement late yesterday.

She said, I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.

Now, Cook did say that she does plan to take some questions on her financial history. She said she's going to gather facts, information to try to answer any legitimate questions here.

Now, as you know, John, this is not the first time the Trump administration has used accusations of mortgage wrongdoing to go after an opponent of theirs or a perceived opponent of theirs in the federal government.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, she put out a statement where she said that Trump is scrambling to try to find a pretext to intimidate or fire Powell or one of his colleagues, Warren urged the president not to weaponize the federal government to try to illegally fire a member of the Fed board.

[08:30:00]