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Interview with Rep. Dave Min (D-CA): House Panel Releases Alleged Trump Letter From Epstein Birthday Book; DOT, FBI Investigating Gruesome Charlotte, North Carolina Train Killing; Trump's Police Takeover in DC By the Numbers. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 09, 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]

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: I think it's more complicated than that. You have an aging father, a patriarch of the family companies. They've been at odds for years. You know, Rupert imagined this as something called Project Family Harmony. He told one of his ex-wives he wanted to bring the family together and achieve peace. But there's no way that he achieved peace by cutting three of his children out of the family trust and paying them to go away. So in some ways, this is the end, but with the Murdochs, it's never over. Just watch the serious succession to know that.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Brian Stelter, as I said, you've been covering this closer than anyone for a long, long time. Thanks so much.

Brand new, our CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, the White House pushing back hard on the Epstein birthday book released by the House Oversight Committee, denying that Trump had anything to do with it, though signatures and such bear a striking resemblance. Why deny it if it's not a statement of wrongdoing anyway?

The horrific stabbing death of a woman on a train now has the secretary of transportation threatening to pull funding from the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.

And two American tourists thought they'd booked a dream vacation in France. They end up in North Africa. The backstory.

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

BERMAN: And new this morning, we're standing by for reaction from President Trump on the major new development of the Jeffrey Epstein case. The House Oversight Committee released an image of something we'd only heard about till now, a letter bearing the president's signature included in a book for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. This is part of a trove of Epstein documents released by the committee.

The note is outlined by a suggestive drawing of a woman. At the bottom, the president's alleged signature. Now the president has denied the letter is his, and the White House says he did not draw the picture and he did not sign it. But compare the signature from the Epstein book to others from Donald Trump over the years. They appear awfully similar.

And Democrats on the committee also highlighting another purported page from the book showing Epstein and a longtime Mar-a-Lago member joking about selling a woman to Donald Trump with a huge mocked up check.

With us now is Congressman Dave Min, a Democrat from California. He is on the Oversight Committee. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. The White House denies that the president made the drawing, sent the letter, or signed it. What's your view?

REP. DAVE MIN (D-CA), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Look, last week we had the opportunity to sit down with six survivors of Epstein's sex trafficking ring, heard their horrific stories. But one thing that one of them said really stuck with me. Girls and young women around the world are watching right now to see what happens here. And that we right now, those of us who care about justice, who care about protecting girls and young women, we owe a duty not just to these survivors, but to girls around the world right now to show that America is not going to tolerate a sex trafficking ring of this scope, not let this go unaccountable.

But unfortunately, what we've seen right now is a cover-up that goes all the way to the top. Remember back then in July, Donald Trump called this whole thing a hoax and later denied that this birthday letter ever existed. Now, I want to just point out, this letter was sent to the oversight committee by the Epstein estate. It didn't come out of the ether. It didn't come from some random place on the internet. It was produced by the Epstein estate and only under subpoena.

So if this is fake, as Trump is claiming, and note that this is not a person known for his honesty, nor is Karoline Leavitt or anybody else saying that this is fake, they're not known for their honesty, who would have given this to the Epstein estate like 30 years ago? That's the question that they can't answer right now. This was produced to us. Nobody planted it. So it looks real to me.

But again, this looks like a cover-up going all the way to the top. Going back to last year when, you know, you had Kash Patel, Pam Bondi promising to release the Epstein files, then refusing to do so once they actually realized that Donald Trump's name was all over these files.

BERMAN: You say it looks real to you. Can you prove it? Is there a way to prove that it's Donald Trump's signature? And in the end, what does it matter?

MIN: So I think as far as proof, what are we going to do? We could have forensic people look at that. That's not my role. I am a lawyer. I was a prosecutor earlier in my career. I think we look at the weight of the evidence. Where did this letter come from? How was it produced? What's the chain of authentication? Here, the fact that it came from the Epstein estate and not from somewhere else that was only produced under a subpoena tells us a lot about the authenticity of this letter.

As you guys pointed out earlier, the signature seems to match. Some of the language sounds a lot like stuff that Donald Trump would say. And again, I just look to the lack of honesty from Donald Trump and his cohorts over the last year on this whole topic. They've said that this whole thing is a hoax.

[08:05:10]

You had Pam Bondi parading around the Epstein files phase one. You had her claiming that she had the Epstein list on her desk and then later walking that back. Somebody here is lying, and I think it's the Trump people, honestly.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about that other picture we showed briefly of that novelty check with Jeffrey Epstein there, part of the book also, where it talked about basically selling a woman with depreciated value. Now, the check has a fake signature from Donald Trump. It really doesn't look anything like his. There's no reason to believe that Trump was any way involved with this thing here.

But I guess my question is, you were talking about the girls and protecting the girls. What does this tell you about the whole atmosphere that existed at that time and the way it was discussed so freely?

MIN: One of the things that all of the women spoke to us about was how they felt commodified. And they were between the ages of like 12 and 22 when they were victimized. And all of them felt like they were disrespected, that they were talked about as things rather than as people. And you saw that whole attitude permeate Epstein's inner circle. And I think at this point, it's clear that Donald Trump was part of that inner circle.

And we've seen that in other aspects of Donald Trump's life when he talks about grabbing women by their genitals when, you know, he talks about walking in on beauty pageants unannounced so that he can watch women changing or girls changing. We've seen that this is just kind of the casual misogyny, disrespect for women that we've seen come out of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.

BERMAN: Again, I do want to say we have no reason to think that he was in any way involved with that check itself. Also, no reason to think he's conducted any wrongdoing involving Jeffrey Epstein. You noted you're a prosecutor, you're a lawyer here. There's this dedication --

MIN: We have lots of reasons to think he was involved wrongdoing. I mean, at this point, there's a lot of smoke. There may be some fire, but I would just push back and say, I think there's a lot of reason to think Donald Trump was involved.

BERMAN: Involved with what? I'm sorry, what exactly, what truth do you have that he was involved with wrongdoing in regards to Jeffrey Epstein? And if that's the case, why have there been no prosecutions over 20 years here? Because there haven't really been any allegations that he was involved with wrongdoing. MIN: There are a lot of connections where Donald Trump was named, right? We had a 14-year-old claiming that she was raped by him, then withdrew that claim after she was apparently threatened. His name appears a lot.

And again, we at this point, our job is to find justice for these survivors, and that means that we need to continue digging, knowing that there is a cover-up taking place right now. And I didn't say that we have proof. At this point, we have a lot of smoke. But Donald Trump's name is clearly mentioned multiple times. We've seen him lie over and over about things that we now know to be true.

So, again, I think that we, as the oversight committee, deserve -- we owe an obligation to the girls, the American people out there, to keep digging and find out the truth, whoever's involved.

BERMAN: Again, you know, Donald Trump has not been named in any connection or charged with any wrongdoing there. Ghislaine Maxwell, take this for what it is, but Ghislaine Maxwell said, you know, she never saw Donald Trump or anyone, for that matter, engaged in any wrongdoing connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

Dave Min, Congressman of California --

MIN: I would just point out that Ghislaine Maxwell was indicted for perjury after she made that statement that you mentioned, transferred to minimum security prison in Texas, so, again.

BERMAN: Look, Speaker Johnson sat right here and told me he doesn't really believe anything Ghislaine Maxwell says. I was merely stating what was in that transcript, but there are plenty of people on both sides of the aisle who don't put much weight in it. Congressman Dave Min, thanks so much for being with us -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: New this morning, ICE agents are now have been given the green light to resume immigration enforcement operations in Southern California. Agents making indiscriminate immigration-related stops in the Los Angeles area that challengers had called blatant racial profiling. The Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling. The lower court had found the patrols unconstitutional. Now ICE can start back up with stopping people based on their apparent ethnicity, their spoken language, and their particular location where they're being seen or found, like a farm or a bus stop.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in support of the High Court's decision, saying in part that apparent authenticity -- sorry, apparent ethnicity alone cannot furnish reasonable suspicion. But the justice also writes this. However, it can be a relevant factor when considered along with other salient factors.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissenting wrote this clearly a very different take and interpretation. We should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job.

Both Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A.'s Mayor Karen Bass are vowing to continue fighting this now -- John.

BERMAN: All right, the White House threatens to take action against Charlotte, North Carolina, after a horrific murder there.

[08:10:00]

New data out this morning shows Americans have never been this pessimistic about getting a job.

And a woman who was participating in a YouTube survival challenge rescued after getting lost in the woods for hours.

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BOLDUAN: New this morning, after a deadly train attack in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, and the FBI director say they're investigating. It was an unprovoked stabbing on Charlotte's light rail system, and a young woman, a Ukrainian refugee, was killed. Secretary Duffy now threatening to pull federal funding over this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I can't pull money today from their transit system. I actually have to do an investigation. That's what the law requires. I guarantee all your viewers that if I find what I think I'm going to find, they are not going to have your federal tax dollars going to their public transportation system. Zero, none, nada.

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[08:15:00]

BOLDUAN: Making this woman's death all the worse, it was the attack was caught on video. A warning, it is disturbing that you will see. What you're looking at is 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who had fled the Russian war to find safety here. She got on the train on August 22nd, sat down. Four minutes later, the man sitting behind her out of nowhere and with no warning gets up and stabs her in the neck. CNN's -- she died on that train.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher following this for us from Charlotte. And there is a lot more being learned and said about the suspect who is now facing charges today. What are you learning, Dianne?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. And if you look at that video, you see there's no interaction between Iryna Zarutska and the suspect, 34 year old Carlos Brown. They ride that train for about four and a half minutes before she is stabbed and killed. Brown was arrested, charged with first degree murder. He was hospitalized for a laceration and a judge put a 60 day psyche pediatric evaluation on him.

He has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for armed robbery, felony larceny, and breaking and entering. State records show that he spent more than five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon.

CNN spoke with his mother and his sister. They say after he got out of prison, his mental health showed very serious decline. His sister described him as aggressive, sometimes said he'd been diagnosed as schizophrenic and suffered from hallucinations as well as paranoia. And in January of this year, he actually began calling 911. He wanted police to investigate what he said was a man-made substance that had been placed in his body and was controlling what he did. They told him it was a medical issue and he continued to call 911. A judge let him out on a promise to appear.

And that is what the White House is saying left him, quote, free to slaughter an innocent woman just months later. The Trump administration has also used that video and this crime to criticize other Democratic-led cities for being soft on crime. Of course, that is a hot-button issue that President Trump has vowed to crack down on in mostly Democratic led cities.

Now, look, the mayor of Charlotte releasing another statement on Monday saying quote, What we know is this was a tragic failure by the courts and magistrates. Our police officers arrest people only to have them quickly released. She goes on to say they need a bipartisan solution to address repeat offenders, but also those who cannot get treatment for mental illness and are allowed to be on the streets.

Today is primary election day here in Charlotte, and there is a lot of political attention as well here on this city at this point. There are now, of course, the threats that you highlighted from Secretary Duffy. The FBI director says that they have been investigating this crime from day one. No other details on on why or what about this they've been investigating. But I will say that in speaking with the suspect's family, our Jeff Winter says that his sister spoke with him after the killing, and she asked him why he did it. And he told his sister, she says, that he thought the girl was reading his mind.

BOLDUAN: Dianne, thank you so much for your reporting on this. I really appreciate it.

So President Trump's DC takeover coming at a high price, coming at a cost to local businesses now. New reporting that the National Guard deployments are deterring crime and tourism.

And Tunis, a city in Tunisia. Nice, a city in southern France. Two different continents, one very big mix-up when it comes to a pair of Americans going off on a vacation.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, new data analyzing President Trump's crackdown in Washington, DC shows crime is down the past month, but the surge in federal law enforcement and troops comes at a cost.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has all the details. Marshall, what have you learned here?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: John, good morning. For those of us who live in Washington, DC, it's been a long month, but we wanted to take a look back and see what the data tells us about whether or not this is working, and, of course, that means we need to start with crime, because that's the whole reason why this is happening.

We looked at police reports from the last three weeks, compared them to the three weeks before this crackdown, and there is a 10 percent drop in reports of violent crime. That's good. Even better, a 25 percent drop in reports of property crime. The White House likes these numbers, but they love what's coming next. Immigration, a huge part of this crackdown. ICE really was not a regular presence in this city before Trump took over the local Police Department.

But they are now and there have been 151 arrests of undocumented immigrants on average each week, and we actually believe that's an undercount. Look at what it was before the crackdown. It was only 12 per week on average. This is a significant uptick.

I also want to show you another important component of this homelessness. The president said that he was going to eradicate homelessness in DC, and that's why they've taken down 50 homeless encampments. 80 homeless people have agreed to go into shelters, but that's only 10 percent of the homeless population. The other 90 percent they've gone mobile. They've gone into hiding, and that's why the head of one nonprofit here in DC said that they've seen 40 percent drop in homeless people coming through their doors for important essential social services like free breakfast and and mental health treatment.

Last piece of the puzzle here, John, tourism has taken a hit. We spoke to some museums. They said that a down year got even worse because of this crackdown. The folks at Planet Word, which is a really cool museum all about language near the White House, 22 percent drop in August when this crackdown was happening.

And then OpenTable hooked us up with some information about the state of play for the restaurant industry. And after month and month and month of growth in terms of the number of reservations each month, at restaurants, it was totally flat in August, which means if it was going up and then it flatlines, we all know that that's not what you want to see.

[08:25:00]

So, John, some good news that the White House likes when it comes to crime and immigration, but clearly it has come at a bit of a cost for the people of DC.

BERMAN: Important to look at all the data there. Great demonstration, Marshall Cohen, thank you very much.

Twenty-three guns, boxes of ammo, and what officers call an obsession with school shootings. New details this morning on the arrest of a 13- year-old police say was making threats to kill. And the Gen Z divide, how demands in the workplace are changing the

definition of American values.

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BOLDUAN: New this morning, evidence that tariffs are hitting the auto industry hard. There's new data showing that car companies paid more than $1.4 billion in tariffs to import cars and car parts from Canada and Mexico in July. 25 percent tariffs on cars and car parts took effect in the beginning of April and May. As you'll remember, automakers have been able to claim exemptions for most imported cars under that trade agreement, the USMCA, but that changed then in July. Auto giants like GM, Ford, Stellantis assembled many of their cars in the United States ...

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