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Fat Bear Week Is Underway, Pick The Chunkiest Bear; Trump: "There Will Be Others" Prosecuted Besides Comey; Former FBI Dir. Comey Charged With Lying To Congress, Obstruction; Trump: "Very Close To A Deal On Gaza"; Netanyahu Slams Push To Recognize Palestinian State: "Madness"; ICE: Agent Seen Pushing Woman "Relieved Of His Current Duties." Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 26, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Wes, it's awesome to talk to you. Thank you so much for informing us. We appreciate it.

WES LARSON, BEAR BIOLOGIST: I -- yes, anytime. And we're going to be talking about it on "Tooth & Claw," which is a podcast I host, where we'll talk about Fat Bear Week at length.

KEILAR: All right.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: There you go, for more information. Totally -- yes.

KEILAR: I'm going to check it out.

DEAN: Thanks. Thanks, Wes.

KEILAR: Thank you so much for telling us about that. All right, that bear bringing us into the next hour here as a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

A warning from President Trump after the historic indictment of former FBI chief James Comey. Trump saying there will be others.

And Benjamin Netanyahu speaks, and U.N. delegates defiantly do not listen. The Israeli prime minister's defense of the war in Gaza met by the sound of silence from the floor.

DEAN: And what is the secret to a long life? Many have asked. Scientists hoping to learn from a woman who lived to be 117. And for her, could it be all about the yogurt?

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: The criminal charges against James Comey are historic. But President Trump is suggesting the former FBI director may not be his only political adversary facing an indictment in the near future. Speaking today, the President implied that some of his other political foes could soon be targeted. Here's how he responded to a question about a possible list of other opponents who could be in the DOJ's crosshairs. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not a list, but I think there'll be others. I mean, they're corrupt. He's -- these were corrupt radical left Democrats. Because Comey essentially was a -- he's worse than a Democrat. I would say the Democrats are better than Comey, but no, there'll be others. Look, it was -- that's my opinion. He lied. That was a very important question that he was asked, and he wanted to be specific, but he didn't -- the only thing that happened to him, he didn't think he'd get caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Katelyn Polantz is here with us on this story.

All right, Katelyn, walk us through these indictments. It's not a very long indictment, and tell us where this goes.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Two pages, that's it. This is not what you would call a speaking indictment. Sometimes prosecutors write out everything, or a lot of what they have, and you can get a very good sense of the case.

What we have of this case so far -- it's the two charges. One obstruction of the congressional proceeding, that is based around this testimony that Jim Comey gave back in 2020, September of 2020. There's also a false statements charge, so that zeroes in, it goes hand in hand with the obstruction charge. It zeroes in on a specific answer he gave in that 2020 testimony.

He was asked by Senator Ted Cruz at the time if he had authorized someone to leak to the media. And Comey essentially said no. And he said he stood by previous testimony where he had also said no, he hadn't authorized someone to leak to the media.

There isn't much more here. There's person one, person two or person three named in these documents, but a lot of this is going to have to come out in court. The defense team will ask for more information. They will get evidence in the case, and then there will be a trial where much more about this alleged leak, and what the Justice Department knows happened here, will have to come out in the courtroom.

That's a primary thing I'm looking for, right? What details are we going to get about what happened? What has the Justice Department found to be able to present this case to the grand jury, get this indictment? I'm also going to be looking for how much politics will come into this courtroom. Right now, the first appearance for Jim Comey is on October 9th. It's going to be in the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia, a courthouse where Donald Trump's 2016 campaign chair, Paul Manafort, was tried and convicted several years ago.

So, this is a courthouse that is no stranger to a high-profile political case around Trump. But we also, in that first appearance, we probably will hear Comey say he's not guilty, enter the pleading, and we'll get a sense of a timeline, how fast it'll move. KEILAR: The alleged leak, it has to do with an investigation into

person one?

POLANTZ: An unspecified investigation into person one. And we're working right now to nail down exactly who that is. It could be based on the question that Ted Cruz asks in the Senate hearing, it could be either about the Clinton investigation in 2016 or the Trump investigation in 2016.

So, will this be a Russia gate redux, or will this be about Hillary Clinton and her emails again?

KEILAR: That would be ironic if he was standing up for Hillary Clinton and her emails.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for that. Jessica.

DEAN: All right, let's talk more about the ins and outs of this case with Ankush Khardori. He's a former federal prosecutor, senior writer now for POLITICO Magazine.

[15:05:03]

Thanks so much for being here with us.

Let's just start first with this idea that he was indicted by a federal grand jury. There were -- on two of the three counts that they were trying to get indictments on, they were not able to get an indictment on one of those. What does that tell you?

ANKUSH KHARDORI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, it says that the, that particular account was quite weak, even -- too weak even for it to pass muster with this grand jury. The standard of the jury -- grand jurors have to apply is a probable cause standard. Meaning, has the government presented sufficient evidence for the grand jurors to conclude that there's probable cause that the defendant committed the crime that they are accused of. It's much lower than beyond a reasonable doubt.

The fact that one of the three counts was cut -- you know, highly unusual. But I have to say, I was a little surprised even that the grand jury returned this indictment at all, given the highly, highly irregular and highly public nature of Trump's interventions and his public pleading for Comey to be charged by his attorney general.

DEAN: Yes, and how people level set when it comes to getting -- and you kind of brushed up against this -- but getting an indictment returned. How hard is that? There's that saying, you could indict a ham sandwich, but how hard is that? And you note that the burden is lower than what you traditionally see in a courtroom when it is beyond a reasonable doubt.

KHARDORI: Yes. Look, the standard is much lower than beyond a reasonable doubt. One of the reasons why people say you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich is based on actually a little bit of a misunderstanding about how, at least, federal prosecutors work. One of the reasons why a major reason, in fact, why grand jurors tend

to sign off on proposed charges brought by federal prosecutors, the federal prosecutors tend to be very selective, and they don't bring frivolous charges. So, they've -- there's already been a screening mechanism by the time the grand jurors are even hearing the case. And I think that's sort of an underappreciated element of why indictments are so regularly returned.

This one, because -- you know, again, Trump was pleading with the attorney general to do it. He fired the U.S. attorney in the relevant jurisdiction and then installed someone with no criminal prosecutorial experience to do it for him to secure the indictment. All that, you know, provided me with some reason to believe that the grand jurors may not go along with it. They evidently did at least two of the three counts. But all the problems that we all are aware of, and all the regulators were all aware of, they're going to come up through the course of the litigation as well in the prosecution.

DEAN: And lastly, I also want to ask you about just the idea that the -- that there were attorneys inside the Eastern District who were concerned enough, they wrote a memo about their -- what they were worried about when it came to trying to push this case forward. How concerned would they need to be to write a memo? What kind of layer does that add for you?

KHARDORI: Yes, this is extremely unusual. So, I actually prosecuted -- spent some time prosecuting cases in the Eastern District of Virginia when I was a prosecutor in the Alexandria office. So, it is often the case that prosecutors write prosecution memos or declination memos explaining why a case cannot be proved at trial beyond a reasonable doubt, where they think they probably won't prevail at trial.

It is very unusual for prosecutors to write a memo, as has been reported, that instructs the higher-ups that they don't even think an indictment will be returned because there's not probable cause to believe that they're -- that a crime was committed. That's very unusual for a memo to have to be written that way, and for it to be deliberate and then disregarded by the political leadership. That is not something at all that happens every day.

DEAN: Yes. All right. Well, this is all really important context, Ankush. Thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.

Still to come this afternoon, scores of delegates walk out in protest as the Israeli prime minister takes to the podium at the U.N. General Assembly. We'll tell you what he said.

Plus, an ICE agent relieved of his duties after he was caught on video shoving a woman into a wall and pushing her to the ground at a New York immigration courthouse.

And later, she was the world's oldest person, and now scientists are studying her DNA to try to find some keys to longevity. That and much more coming up here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:13:34]

KEILAR: President Trump expressing optimism today that a deal to end the war in Gaza is very close. We're learning that his administration's new 21-point proposal calls for all hostages to be released within 48 hours of an agreement, in exchange for a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops. Trump's comments came just moments after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a fiery speech to the U.N. General Assembly, where scores of delegates walked out in protest as a defiant Netanyahu defended Israel's war in Gaza and slammed the Western leaders who recognized a Palestinian state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after October 7th is like giving al- Qaeda a state one mile from New York City after September 11th. This is sheer madness. It's insane. And we won't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Oren Liebermann is with us now from Jerusalem.

Oren, let's talk a little bit more about Netanyahu's speech, but also this proposal from Trump, which would be an immediate hostage turnover but a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops. Is there promise in a proposal like that?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the most interesting things here is what appears to be a disconnect between what we heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- a fiery 40- minute speech in which he promised the war would continue until the destruction of Hamas.

[15:15:03]

He said Israel would hunt down members of Hamas if they didn't release the hostages right now.

And then, what we heard from President Donald Trump right around the same time, where he talked about his 21-point proposal to end the war and expressed what, frankly, looks like wild optimism from where we sit right now about its chances of imminent success. We know, having spoken to regional sources, what are the basics of this plan.

As you pointed out: all the remaining 48 hostages released in the first 48 hours, an end of the war, gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, a post-governance plan for Gaza. And that at least had a large amount of buy-in from the Arab leaders who heard this plan, even if they had some of their own points that they wanted to see -- like a red line on annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank.

Now, how that fits in with Netanyahu's vision of how this all proceeds is what's unclear. And whether this has even been presented to Hamas at this point, to see if they're on board with this, is also unclear. And then, frankly, you need a diplomatic track to make this happen, to hammer out the final details of the deal. And it's not clear to us where that would take place, after Israel struck Doha several weeks ago trying to target senior Hamas leaders.

So, what is important to note is that Gaza and a ceasefire plan are back on not only the international agenda, but Trump's agenda as well. As they push this forward, the real critical part of Netanyahu's visit to the U.S. is not the speech we just saw. It's his meeting with Trump at the White House, and that happens on Monday. That will be where we see if there is real movement on what Trump is talking about -- an imminent end of the war, potentially.

KEILAR: And Oren, what can you tell us about a key medical charity just announcing that it's suspending its work in Gaza City because Israel's expanding its military offensive there?

LIEBERMANN: So, this is a statement we just got a short while ago from Doctors Without Borders. They're one of the most critical organizations working to provide desperately needed medical aid in Gaza, and particularly in Gaza City. That's where Israel is escalating its assault there, as it plans to take over and occupy what it says is one of Hamas's last remaining strongholds. But the assault has gotten to the point where Doctors Without Borders no longer can continue to work. They say they have to suspend their activity there.

Jacob Granger, the Doctors Without Borders' emergency coordinator in Gaza said as part of his statement: "We have been left with no choice but to stop our activities, as our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces." He says that the needs in Gaza City are enormous, with the most vulnerable people -- infants in neonatal care, those with severe and life-threatening illnesses. They will be unable to move because of simply the escalating assault there.

But even with that taking place, Doctors Without Borders are no longer able to operate there. And Brianna, that gives you a sense of how difficult it is there. Israel says hundreds of thousands have evacuated, but Doctors Without Borders say hundreds of thousands more are unable to evacuate and may well be in the middle of this assault on Gaza's largest city.

KEILAR: All right. Oren Liebermann live for us in Jerusalem. Thank you.

And coming up, the disturbing courthouse confrontation caught on camera. A federal agent shoving a woman to the floor. We'll have details on that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:58]

DEAN: Immigration authorities say an ICE officer has been relieved of his current duties after he was caught on video shoving a woman into a wall, then pushing her to the ground. It happened inside an immigration courthouse in New York yesterday. And before we play this, we do want to warn you, it's disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Adios. Adios.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Callate.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Adios. Move.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Callate.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get her out of the building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN's Gloria Pazmino is joining us now with more on this.

That video is indeed quite hard to watch, Gloria. There's also children standing very close to her and behind her. What more can you tell us about what's happened since this happened?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They're the children of this family, the children of this woman who, in this video, can be seen essentially pleading with this immigration officer. When you listen and you watch that very disturbing video, you can hear that she is asking the officer to take her instead, and she's trying to explain to him that if her husband, who's just been taken into custody by immigration officers, is deported back to Ecuador, their home country, he risks being killed.

That's exactly what unfolded in immigration court here in New York City yesterday. And I think it's important to just mention that we are seeing incidents like this one almost on the daily basis here in New York City, people who are showing up to court to go to their legally mandated court appearances and often being taken into custody by immigration officers in the hallways of that courtroom.

Now, this incident has gotten a lot of criticism and a lot of attention from local elected officials here in New York City, including the Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, who just had a press conference here a short while ago, standing with members of the State Assembly and the City Comptroller Brad Lander, who was there yesterday when this incident unfolded.

[15:25:12]

And it's become essentially a flash point in the city's race for mayor. He was critical of Mayor Eric Adams, pointing out the fact that he has been willing to cooperate with the Trump administration when it comes to immigration enforcement, and of course calling out his main opponent, Governor -- former Governor Andrew Cuomo, for not saying much about this incident.

I also want to mention that we got some new information in the last few hours from the Department of Homeland Security. We've learned that this officer has actually been placed on some sort of modified duty. He was relieved of his duties according to a spokesperson for the department, saying, quote, "The officer's conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE. Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards, and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation."

It's also sort of interesting to point out that we have been seeing so many of these types of videos, not just here in New York City, but across the country as the Trump administration ratchets up its immigration enforcement. And it's not very often that we see such a strong reaction from the Department of Homeland Security, now saying that they are going to investigate this incident.

Here in New York, we've also just learned from the office of Congressman Dan Goldman, who has been witnessing a lot of these interactions down at the federal court in Lower Manhattan, that they are referring this incident for federal prosecution to the U.S. Attorney's Office. So, they also are calling for an investigation and potential federal charges against this officer.

DEAN: Yes. It really is something to have that video from start to finish and see how it all unfolded. It is crystal clear there.

Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.

A stark warning from hundreds of VA doctors, nurses and caregivers. Why they say cuts and the policy changes at the Department of Veterans Affairs will negatively affect the lives of all veterans. Stay with us.

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