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Former FBI Director James Comey Indicted After Pressure from Trump; Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Addresses UN General Assembly; President Trump Signs Order to Advance TikTok Sale to U.S. Investors. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 26, 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]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Say this is a pure act of terror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH ROTHROCK, FBI DALLAS SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: The clearest indication of motivation are his own words. He wanted to cause terror. He wanted to harm ICE personnel.

NANCY E. LARSON, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS: The tragic irony for his evil plot here is that it was a detainee who was killed and two other detainees that were injured when he fired into the sallyport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: John, investigators continue to hammer home the point that they believe that it was ICE agents who were supposed to have been the target of this shooting. But in the end, it was one detainee that was killed and two others severely wounded -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Still more to learn there. Ed Lavandera in Dallas. Thanks so much, Ed.

Brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Here is a quote for you. I'm innocent, so let's have a trial. That is from the FBI director -- former FBI director James Comey, now promising to fight after being indicted on criminal charges. And just this morning, how the president is celebrating this move.

And we are standing by to hear from the Israeli prime minister his address to the United Nations General Assembly, just as President Trump makes clear that he is not going to let Israel annex the West Bank. A lot could be coming. Stay tuned in this show.

And may the Schwartz be with you. The next installment of one of the best comedies of all time. Do not disagree with me. Production of Spaceballs 2 has started nearly 40 years after the original masterpiece hit theaters.

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

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New comments this morning from President Trump as the American justice system enters uncharted territory. The president posting this about the federal indictment of former FBI director James Comey. He calls Comey corrupt and says, quote, he lied and then describes him as a dirty cop.

This all comes after Comey was indicted under intense pressure from the president on two criminal counts, making a false statement and obstructing a congressional proceeding. It stems from testimony he gave nearly five years ago before the Senate and potentially and specifically leaks to media outlets that Comey was asked about in 2017 and again in 2020. The former FBI chief responded to the indictment with the message of defiance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant. And she's right. But I'm not afraid. I'm innocent. So let's have a trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining me now, Greg Brower, the former assistant director and deputy general counsel of the FBI and CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig. Greg, when you read the indictment, what immediately stood out to you?

GREG BROWER, FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AND DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL, FBI: Good morning. I think that the most immediate impression made on me is how lacking in detail it is. We still don't really know, based upon this two page indictment, what particularly is being alleged with respect to a false statement.

We're not sure if this refers to the Andy McCabe, Jim Comey disconnect over the authorization of of a certain leak to The Wall Street Journal. We don't know if it refers to something else. It's simply not clear.

At some point, of course, DOJ is going to have to make it clear in order to make its case. But the right right now that that's not clear. And I think that's the thing that struck me the most.

The other thing that struck me is, you know, frankly, it's not surprising because let's face it. The president, as recently as this weekend, directed this outcome, specifically ordered DOJ to do this. But it's nevertheless a little bit surprising because increasingly we've seen examples of grand juries around the country saying no to proposed indictments from this DOJ.

While historically that is rare, we have seen some evidence of that recently. So I'm not sure exactly how the acting U.S. attorney in this case was able to convince the grand jury. We don't know exactly what happened in the grand jury room, but it's a little surprising that they were able to pull this off, frankly.

SIDNER: The indictment was two pages. So you're alluding to there's not a lot of specifics in this indictment as to exactly what is has happened here.

All right, Elie. So you've got this new post this morning by the president. Then just six days ago, President Trump posted on social media saying Comey and others are guilty as hell. He names Comey and that justice must be served.

And this is all a message to Attorney General Pam Bondi. And he goes on and on basically saying, you know, do something.

[08:05:00]

Is there any way to look at this and say this is nothing to do with politics? Is there is there any way?

HONIG: I can't imagine how one would draw that conclusion, right? This is all going to be fodder for Jim Comey and his defense team.

Pat Fitzgerald, by the way, Jim Comey's lawyer, is one of the best lawyers in the country. I mean, he's renowned. He was a former federal prosecutor, too.

What we have here is we basically have chapter one. Trump calls for the prosecution, makes changes of personnel. Chapter two, he gets the prosecution and chapter three, which happened just now, Trump celebrates the prosecution.

I mean, they are writing -- Donald Trump is writing Jim Comey's motion to dismiss for him. Watch for this. This is going to be the first major battle in this case. And I think Jim Comey's got a real good chance of getting this thing thrown out by a judge before it ever gets to a jury on precisely those grounds.

SIDNER: All right, that's really interesting. Like, as you lay it out, there's something before there's something sort of --

HONIG: During.

SIDNER: -- during and there's something after all from the president, all sort of going after the same man. And then DOJ does just that.

Greg, in your role at the FBI, you advise leadership and oversaw investigations. What do you think of Comey's response to this indictment?

BROWER: But I think it's not only appropriate, but it's classic Jim Comey. He is someone who's not afraid to speak truth to power. He's not afraid to defend himself.

He's obviously very confident that he did nothing wrong here. I think the the evidence supports that. And so he's he's going to fight this clearly. And I think most Americans believe this is a political prosecution. They're going to be eager to see what the actual evidence really is. And I think most most people watching are going to be on Jim Comey's side, given the context in which this indictment was was sought and obtained.

SIDNER: You know, Greg alluded to this, that, you know, this is two pages and that it's not clear exactly what this is about. A lot of people are thinking it's about something that Comey testified to and that Ted Cruz went after him for involving differences in what his deputy director said and what Comey said. But I'm curious from you, Elie, what happens next --

HONIG: Well, so --

SIDNER: -- in this case?

HONIG: Right, so what we do know from the indictment is that it's based on Jim Comey's 20 -- September 2020 testimony. And it's based on Comey's denial that he authorized somebody at the FBI to leak. What we don't know is who is that somebody could be Andy McCabe could be somebody else.

What happens next is Jim Comey -- it's bizarre to say because he was such a powerful prosecutor but will be treated as any other defendant.

He will make a court appearance. His first formal appearance will be next week. He will be arraigned by a judge, will be advised of the charges. He will certainly plead not guilty. They'll make sure he has a lawyer. He does have the aforementioned Pat Fitzgerald. He'll be released without bail or with minimal bail. He's not going to be locked up on this.

And then they're going to set a motions schedule. And that's going to set -- and things move very quickly, by the way, in this particular federal district, the Eastern District of Virginia. So look very quickly. I mean, that motion to dismiss wouldn't shock me if it's filed within a couple of weeks.

And if we have a ruling on it within a couple of weeks of that. So this is going to move quick. This is not going to drag out for a year, 18 months, two years in order to get to trial.

If it's going to get to trial, we're going to see it pretty quick.

SIDNER: Greg, let me end with you. What do you see this doing to the DOJ? Some of the things that have happened in the lead up to this.

Is this changing the way Americans are going to see the fairness of the DOJ, the way those that are working within the department?

BROWER: Significantly so. Elie, I'm sure, would agree that when he and I in the past went into court on behalf of the United States of America, we enjoyed, for good reason, a high degree of credibility and from jurors, from judges, from witnesses. People generally have accepted that the DOJ plays it straight, that the system is fair, and that the reason why cases are brought is because justice demands it.

That is eroding in recent years, and I'm afraid it's having a very negative effect on the way that the average American sees DOJ and the federal government. And this, I think many people will point to as just the most recent, perhaps most egregious and outrageous example of that. But it is -- it's devastating to to the rule of law and to our democracy overall.

SIDNER: Elie, I see you sort of shaking your head.

HONIG: Yes, I mean, amen to that. It was it was called the reservoir speech we were always given, which is this entity. The Justice Department has built up a reservoir of trust over many years.

Don't be the fool who drains it with one crack.

[08:10:00]

And by the way, the person I first heard give that was Jim Comey when he was FBI director. Now, he's done some things that have drained the reservoir a bit.

But what's happened since has been much, much different, much more worse.

SIDNER: Elie Honig, Greg Brower, thank you both so much. Great discussion -- John.

BERMAN: So who is going to have control over your TikTok? New developments in the potential takeover.

A new report on the rebuilding effort after one of the most devastating storms in years.

And this morning, what can you do for a really fat bear? Vote. A delightful celebration of democracy and chubbiness.

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BOLDUAN: Less than an hour from now, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing the UN General Assembly in New York. A source saying a key theme of Netanyahu's speech will be the October 7th terror attack by Hamas and focus throughout heavily on the war in Gaza.

[08:15:00]

And according to two Israeli sources, the speech is going to be broadcast to Gaza residents today using loudspeakers inside and along the Gaza Strip. One source saying that the directive came from the Prime Minister's office and is intended to address Palestinians in Gaza directly, attempting to distinguish them from Hamas.

This, as President Trump has now made clear, that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank as part of any post-Gaza plan. Joining me right now once again is Barak Ravid. He's a CNN political

and global affairs analyst and global affairs correspondent for Axios. Barak, you're there at the UN. You're going to be there for his speech.

He's about to speak, and as he is, I'm thinking about what you told me yesterday, that in your decades of reporting, you've never seen a scenario of an Israeli Prime Minister so isolated, seen as such a pariah coming to the United States and to the UN General Assembly. What is this going to look like today?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think one of the things that we're going to see is a massive walkout. When Netanyahu starts talking, the Palestinian mission to the UN has been working on it for a few days now to get more and more countries to agree to join a walkout from the speech, to just leave in protest when Netanyahu starts talking.

I think this will be maybe one of the most interesting things, because when it comes to Netanyahu's messages, I don't think we will hear anything groundbreaking. I don't expect that there will be any real news. The only thing we need to look for is whether Netanyahu says anything about Trump's 21-point peace plan and whether he accepts it. If he does, then this will be major news.

Everything else will be mostly advocacy for what Netanyahu has been doing in Gaza for the last two years.

BOLDUAN: And real quick, what do you make of this loudspeaker move, Netanyahu directing the IDF to put up loudspeakers to broadcast it over Gaza?

RAVID: You know, Gaza is a war zone, OK. There is fighting going on in Gaza every day. And you know how this story came out. It came out because reservists, IDF reservists in Gaza and families of soldiers who serve now in Gaza went to the press and said, this request by Netanyahu that is only meant for PR purposes is endangering our children who are fighting in Gaza, because this is not a military task. This is not a military operation. This is PR for Netanyahu.

And I think that inside the IDF, there's a lot of questions that's being raised about this directive that came from the prime minister's office about this, let's say, strange PR operation inside the Gaza Strip to broadcast his speech to Gazans that I'm pretty sure are not very interested in what Netanyahu has to say.

BOLDUAN: Yes, well, we're going to be listening to that in less than an hour now.

Barak, last week, I went to Washington and interviewed a bipartisan group of senators pushing a bill that would declare Russia a state sponsor of terror if Russia did not return all of the 19,000 Ukrainian children that Russia has kidnapped in the course of the war.

As part of your new sit down exclusive with President Zelenskyy, you asked Zelenskyy what he would tell those children today if they could hear him.

Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: First of all, I want them to be happy. And I want, of course, them to bring back to Ukraine. And I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that we didn't have enough power not to give the possibility for Russians to stolen them. But we will bring them back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: He was getting quite emotional with that, Barak.

RAVID: Yes, and I have to tell you that I got emotional during the interview and I got emotional now watching this again. And especially that, you know, it's not disconnected from our previous conversation. Because, again, not in the same scale, it's not the same war.

But Israeli children were also kidnapped on October 7th. And their leader, Netanyahu, never sat down in front of a camera and said, I'm sorry. And Zelenskyy did.

And I think it was, for me at least, both as somebody who's covering the war in Ukraine and both as somebody who covered the war in Gaza, for me it was a very meaningful moment.

BOLDUAN: It's a really important interview and conversation that you had with him.

[08:20:00]

And him choosing to speak in English, which he often does not because he makes -- he is self-deprecating about his, he says, his bad English. So that is a statement in and of itself as well. Barak, thank you so much again -- John.

BERMAN: Right, a critical new update in the search for a father accused of killing his three young daughters.

And what will we see from 60 Minutes? The legendary show returns after a huge shake-up under new ownership and under huge scrutiny from the Trump administration.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, new developments in the possible takeover of TikTok. The president signed an executive order which more or less paves the way for a deal. CNN's Clare Duffy here to explain it all. Good morning.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Good morning. So this is largely a procedural step, although an important one towards finishing this deal. President Trump in this executive order confirms that the TikTok deal constitutes a qualified divestiture, which was required under this ban or sale law that passed last year.

He also interestingly confirms that it will also apply to other ByteDance-owned platforms, Lemon8 and CapCut, which are also quite popular here. And so this now moves to the next phase of trying to close this deal. ByteDance is expected to sign on to this deal framework.

[08:25:00]

And then we expect that this will still need regulatory approval from both the U.S. and Chinese side and some sort of formal approval from Beijing, although President Trump did say that President Xi Jinping of China gave him the green light for this deal.

We also don't know the final list of investors that will be a part of this deal, taking control of TikTok when this transfer happens. President Trump listed out some of the names that we've already heard, Oracle, potentially the Murdoch's Fox Corp, Michael Dell.

But that's going to be really important because we've started to hear some of these concerns from U.S. users bubble up about this group of largely Trump allies potentially controlling the algorithm and what they see on the platform. Both President Trump and Vice President Vance commented on this during the executive order signing yesterday.

Take a listen to what Trump said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I could make it 100 percent MAGA, I would. But it's not going to work out that way, unfortunately. No, everyone's going to be treated fairly.

Every group, every philosophy, every policy will be treated very fairly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: So while Trump says he would like for the algorithm to be 100 percent MAGA, everyone will apparently be treated fairly. We'll see if that gives U.S. users enough confidence to keep using the app after this deal happens.

BERMAN: And again, I still feel like we need some more details about how the algorithm could be completely separate from China going forward, too. Still more to learn here, but the process moves on. Clare Duffy, thank you very much for all that -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John.

We've had new developments in the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, why President Trump is now saying the case is off to a very good start for Comey.

And a look at market futures this morning as we stand by for a brand- new inflation report that comes out any moment now. We will have all the details for you ahead.

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