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Former FBI Director Comey Says, I'm Innocent, So Let's Have a Trial; Hegseth Orders Top Generals, Admirals to Virginia; Humberto Now Cat 1 Hurricane as Another System Forms in Atlantic. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 26, 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]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: One outlet dubs it, Trump's revenge strike, another, Trump's retribution campaign, after calling for in getting an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. Who might the president target this morning?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And you must have blinked because the president has launched a new round of sweeping tariffs, kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, medicines, all that to get more expensive.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And really incredible video, a daredevil makes history skiing down Mount Everest Death Zone.

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

BERMAN: This morning, will the president push more indictments of more political targets that raise even more legal and foundational questions? Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted days after a U.S. attorney was fired after raising concerns that there was not enough evidence to indict.

Overnight, Comey responded, quote, I'm innocent, so let's have a trial. He's facing two criminal charges, making a false statement and obstructing a Congressional proceeding. It all stems from his testimony nearly five years ago involving the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and it comes just days after the president publicly pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute Comey and others he views as adversaries.

Comey says he's not afraid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either.

Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she's right. But I'm not afraid, and I hope you're not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does.

My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system and I'm innocent. So, let's have a trial and keep the faith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The president who fired Comey in 2017 celebrated the indictment, posting, quote, justice in America and calling Comey one of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to.

Let's get right to CNN's Katelyn Polantz for the very list on what many are calling simply unprecedented.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Unprecedented is a word we use a lot, but this is quite the moment, John. This is one of the top people that Donald Trump has wanted to have some sort of what he says justice for. Jim Comey now indicted by the Justice Department of the Trump administration for two things, obstruction of a Congressional proceeding and making a false statement.

Both of those charges, they did go through a federal grand jury and get approval yesterday in the federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia. Both of those charges relate to Congressional testimony that Comey gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30th, 2020. So, five years ago, almost to the day the prosecutor is getting this set of charges against Jim Comey secured just before the deadline that they would've had to do it in.

This is what Comey's exchange was with Senator Ted Cruz that forms the basis for this indictment now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): On May 3rd, 2017, in this committee, Chairman Grassley asked you point blank, quote, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation of the Clinton investigation? You responded under oath, quote, never.

Mr. McCabe, who works for you has publicly and repeatedly stated that he leaked information to The Wall Street Journal and that you were directly aware of it and that you directly authorized it. Who's telling the truth?

COMEY: I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:00]

POLANTZ: The alleged lie, John, the prosecutors say, it is that Comey is asserting there that he had not authorized a leak to the media about a 2016 FBI investigation. The prosecutors, they also say in the court document now, that they know, that James Comey then and there, he knew he, in fact, had authorized a person to serve as an anonymous source in news reports regarding an FBI investigation. So, that's the false statement charge. And then it also allows the prosecutors to charge obstruction of a Congressional proceeding.

Two very serious charges, both felonies with the maximum prison term, five years. This is now something though that has not been proven against Jim Comey. John, this is something that is now before a judge and a court, and as Jim Comey is calling for, very likely to go to trial.

BERMAN: And very, very unusual. Katelyn Polantz for us in Washington, thank you very much for all that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, for much more on this. Okay, so as we were just standing here and John was talking to Katelyn, the president of the United States has put out another, he's commenting on all of this on Truth Social. Let's put it up for everybody, guys, and we will go through a little -- a couple pieces of this.

One piece the president is speaking directly about James Comey and saying, and talking about what he's charged with, saying it's not a complex lie. It's a very simple but important one. There is no way he can explain his way out of it. Lower down, he says. He left himself zero margin of error on a big and important answer to a question.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Okay. So, first of all, it's not entirely clear what the president is referring to because it's not entirely clear what the indictment actually charges Jim Comey.

BOLDUAN: This is where we're going to start our conversation before this happened, right?

HONIG: Yes. So, the purpose of an indictment, by the way, is to notify the defendant. Here's what you're charged with, here's who, what, when, where, why, all that. What this indictment says is Jim Comey, it alleged that he lied because he denied that he ever authorized the leak, but, in fact, he did authorize the leak of this person three, but we don't know for sure who person three is.

Now, does Donald Trump perhaps know more at this point? Has he been briefed by DOJ or is he just making this up because he seems to have some sense with some specificity of who person three is and of what exactly Comey is charged with doing. He knows -- the president knows more right now than the actual defendant in this case.

BOLDUAN: For people that are not, you know, accustomed to reading federal indictments is that you think that this is unusually vague.

HONIG: Yes. There's next to nothing in this indictment. Now, you don't have to lay out your whole case in an indictment as a prosecutor, but you do have to put the defendant on enough notice so that he can defend himself.

Now, the prosecutors will have to do that at some point, probably sooner than later. I mean, I think one of the first things the defense is going to say is we're entitled to know exactly what he's charged with here, right? Who are they saying Jim Comey authorized to lie and then lied about it? It could be Andy --

BOLDUAN: He had been lying.

HONIG: Yes, exactly. It could be that person is Andy McCabe if it's based on that testimony that we've seen from Ted Cruz, but it could be somebody else also. And that's something that Jim Comey and his team is going to have to know if they're going to defend him.

BOLDUAN: Let's put the Truth Social back up because another, there's another aspect of this that we should talk about and is clearly something that is going to continue being a thing is another thing that the president is talking about this morning, says he was just assigned a crooked Joe Biden appointed judge, so he's off to a very good start.

HONIG: Well, he does have a judge -- a federal district court judge who was appointed by Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate. It doesn't mean the guy's crooked, it doesn't mean the guy's in the bag, right?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely not. And also we have seen Trump appointed judges course ruling in a way that Donald Trump wouldn't like. It does not suggest an outcome.

HONIG: Of course. And these posts, if we're going to get running --

BOLDUAN: And I think this is what this gets to.

HONIG: Yes.

BOLDUAN: What does this -- if this does become President Trump commentating on this throughout, or even just this in and of itself, what is the impact of this?

HONIG: Donald Trump has already given Jim Comey's -- plenty of -- Jim Comey's team plenty of ammo to move to dismiss this indictment based on selective or vindictive prosecution. However, if the president continues to publicly comment on this to his tens of millions of followers, that's going to only harm the prosecution's case. One, it could taint the jury pool. It's going to create all sorts of problems if this case ever gets to a trial. And, two, it's more ammunition, it's more evidence that Jim Comey's legal team is going to point to, to say, look at this, what could be more political? You have the president first openly urging his prosecutors to go after Jim Comey, then celebrating it, then commentating on it on an hourly on basis on the indictment itself, exactly.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

HONIG: It's creating problems for the prosecutors.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Elie, for running through this with us. It's really just coming out moments ago. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you to you both.

This is a, quote. It's being referred to as the general squid game. Nerves on edge as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suddenly orders hundreds of senior military officers to Quantico for a highly unusual meeting.

[07:10:10]

and breaking overnight, Tropical Storm Humberto strengthening to a hurricane as it plows through the Atlantic on a collision course with another storm, the possible impact on the Southeastern United States.

And Katie Couric, like you've never seen her before. Why she's going full Sydney Sweeney. You're going to want to see what this is all about.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Speaking of jeans --

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[07:15:00]

SIDNER: This morning, CNN is learning new details about a rare and urgent meeting being called by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He has ordered hundreds of U.S. generals, admirals and senior military officers stationed around the world to meet in Virginia next Tuesday.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins us now. I mean, what are some of the theories as to why this highly unusual meeting is happening?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. Officials that we spoke to are pretty concerned about this. To put it in perspective, generals, flag officers, they typically prepare intensively for really any kind of meeting. And so to have this kind of surprise invitation, summons, really land on their desks has come at a moment of deep anxiety for a lot of them because they simply have no idea what to expect.

Now, we're told that Secretary Hegseth has ordered generals and admirals to appear on Tuesday at Quantico military base in Virginia. This was very short notice. He did not provide any explanation for what the meeting would be about. The most detail I think that we've gotten about this gathering came yesterday from President Trump when he spoke a little bit about it in the Oval Office. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have the greatest equipment in the world. We're selling the equipment to others -- other countries. And a lot of generals want to be here and they want to look at it. They're also going to be touring equipment sites. They're going to be talking about the newest weapons, et cetera, et cetera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: Now, Secretary Hegseth has previously expressed a lot of disdain for many of the military senior officers saying that about a third of them at least are complicit in the politicization of the military. So, a lot of these officers are coming into this meeting aware that they don't necessarily have a friend in Secretary Hegseth, who has also fired a large number of generals and admirals since he became secretary of defense earlier this year.

One official that we spoke to said that it's being joked that this is going to be a Squid Games-type meeting, of course, alluding there to fears that this could be some kind of mass firing or mass purge of officials. But others that we spoke to are expecting somewhat of a more kind of mundane routine gathering, perhaps a speech that Hegseth will give about developments at the Department of Defense, perhaps as Trump alluded to some kind of tour of new military equipment.

But regardless, this is pretty unprecedented and it's going to be such a huge gathering that there are also serious questions about the logistics and the safety of having all of these senior officers in one place at a time. Sara?

SIDNER: There is a lot of tension, a lot of questions and anxiety over what exactly this is going to turn out to be. And as you've been reporting, this is expected to happen on Tuesday. So, we will be watching and reporting on it.

Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. Breaking news, a new hurricane in the Atlantic, and that may not even be the biggest storm threat that's brewing.

Amazon about to deliver something new, not a package, a payout, billions of dollars heading back to customers they allegedly tricked

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight, Humberto is now a Category 1 hurricane as it's churning its way through the Atlantic, but there's another potentially bigger threat out there, a system that may become tropical storm Imelda, and it could be directly in line to hit the Southeastern U.S. early next week. There's a lot to watch and a lot of variables right now.

CNN's Allison Chinchar is tracking all of this. Where do things stand today, Allison? What are you watching?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So right now behind me, you can kind of see the satellite. And, again, one of these clearly looks way better organized, and that is Umberto, but it's actually the other one, the one that's less organized. This is the one that's really going to be the bigger concern as we go through really much of the next week.

Now, here's the thing. Both of these storms have a very narrow path in which they can go, and that's all because of this high pressure here and this very deep trough that is set up across the United States. What's essentially going to happen is both of these storms are going to get blocked from going anywhere other than through this very narrow funnel. That's going to put them very close to each other, extremely close in terms of tropical nature. This can lead to something called a Fujiwara effect, where because of their close proximity, they end up interacting with each other.

Now, you can have a couple different scenarios. They get close enough, but they're both equally strong and equally the same size, so they just kind of dance around each other and then go their separate ways. But if you have one that is a larger or a stronger storm, it can actually begin to influence the smaller, weaker storm, sometimes pulling it into a different path, sometimes redirecting it, so there's a lot of factors that go through here.

And when we look at the models, the models vary very much so, especially the most recent models. Take, for example, the American model. The American model just is not feeling the Fujiwara. It kind of just has them going their own separate ways. Future Imelda makes landfall somewhere near the Carolina coast and Humberto kind of slides just to the west of Bermuda.

But the European model is a little bit different. This one's leaning more into the Fujiwara. And what it does is essentially lets Future Imelda get close to the coastline, not technically making landfall. Humberto tries to pull it back a little bit. And then once Humberto takes off, then Imelda finally begins to make landfall.

This is not a good scenario because this means future Imelda essentially just sits on the coastline for days, providing a tremendous, absolutely insane amount of rain.

[07:25:07]

You're talking a worst case scenario for some of these coastline cities where you are talking 15, 20, if not even as much as two feet of rain over the course of several days.

BOLDUAN: I mean, no one needs that right now. I mean, just from the weather science aspect of this, this Fujiwara thing that I've -- this is really the first time I'm hearing about it, it's fascinating and also now deeply troubling. We'll clearly be sticking close to this one.

Thank you so much, Allison. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Kate.

Ahead, new overnight, we just got President Trump calling James Comey's indictment, quote, justice for America. More on how he is responding this morning. And police on horseback take an unusual tactic that sends suspects running. We'll tell you all about this story and what happened here, coming up.

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