Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Justice Department Releases New Batch of Epstein Documents; Hazardous Holiday Storms to Hit Southern California; Rivers Shine, But Purdy Steals Spotlight in 49ers Win. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 23, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, the second release, the Justice Department posting more than 10,000 pages of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Flight records show Donald Trump flew, quote, at least eight times on Epstein planes, that and much more as we're digging through the files.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, high risk for flooding spurs evacuations in Southern California, more than 40,000 people in a path of powerful storms through Christmas Eve. Officials warning the worst is still ahead

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a big, muddy eruption at Yellowstone National Park. Look at that.

I am John Berman with Sara Sidner on -- and Kate Baldwin. This is the morning of Christmas Eve and this is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: All right. Let's get to the breaking news. The Justice Department has now released a big new batch of documents in Jeffrey Epstein investigation, and these include new details about Epstein's one-time friendship with President Trump. Look, there is a lot to go through. We said it's like more than 10,000 pages, so we are digging through this, but this is what is seen so far. In a 2020 email, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York wrote that Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet, quote, more times than previously has been reported. At least eight times between 1993 and '96. And on a flight in 1993, according to the email, there was just three passengers, Trump. Epstein and what's described as a 20-year-old woman.

Being mentioned in a trove of investigatory documents does not demonstrate criminal wrongdoing, a reminder, and Trump has not been accused of being involved in Epstein's crimes. On Monday, the president did seem dismayed that the release of any and all of these files though could harm the reputations of individuals he said, quote, innocently met Epstein.

Now, remember, he is the man who also signed into law last month the measure requiring the Justice Department to do just this, release the files.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein, but they're in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: As we speak, CNN has a team working through the documents just released. We are going to bring you the findings as they come in.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is live in Washington this morning. A lot to work through, and we're just getting started, Katelyn. What do you have so far?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We're just getting started, but the headline here is quite clear. Donald Trump is all over these documents. In that first trove that the Justice Department released on Friday, there were just a few very scant mentions of Trump, including in a picture collected with a bunch of other pictures.

In this one, there is already one very illuminating email that was sent during the first presidency of Donald Trump while prosecutors in the Southern District of New York were working on the case against Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. This is after Epstein's death. And one of those prosecutors writes, I'm going to read from this letter because it is what was new to the prosecutors at the time and what is new to us now receiving these documents now in the public sphere from the Justice Department.

The prosecutor, unnamed, an assistant U.S. attorney of the Southern District of New York, wrote on January 8th, 2020, the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet many more times than previously has been reported, or that we were aware, that's the Justice Department in 2020, including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case. On one flight in 1993, Donald Trump and Epstein are the only two passengers listed. On another, the only three passengers are Trump and a then 20-year- old. On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case.

And then the assistant U.S. attorney concludes this email by telling his or her supervisors or superiors in the Justice Department didn't want any of this to be a surprise down the road.

[07:05L05]

That's a direct quote.

Now, Donald Trump, he has not commented yet on this particular revelation in the Epstein files coming out overnight and this morning that we are now surfacing for you here. But Donald Trump has downplayed his relationship with Epstein in the past. And, of course, this is something that is documenting his connection to Epstein traveling on that private plane in the 90s, so many years ago, Kate. But Trump, even yesterday, was saying that everyone was friendly with Epstein. He was all over Palm Beach. And Ghislaine Maxwell this past year has said in an interview with the Justice Department talking about Trump, that she never saw him do anything that wasn't gentlemanly, that was any sort of impropriety at all.

That said, this is a document that shows the possibility of Donald Trump having an intersection with Ghislaine Maxwell and the criminal case against her in which she was convicted for sex trafficking of minors. Clearly, this did not come out in the trial, but it is a pretty revelatory document.

And, Kate, it's just one page right now. This is the one page that I've walked you through. There are many, many more documents that we are piecing through this morning to see what else may be news here. But Donald Trump is in the latest batch of the Epstein files.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Much more to come, as Katelyn's laying out very clearly. Katelyn, thank you so much for jumping on, I really appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Joining me now is Sarah Krissoff, a former U.S. prosecutor for the Southern District of New York. Thank you for being here.

Look, the DOJ has said they're releasing these documents more slowly because they are concerned about exposing victims. But in some of the emails that were released Monday afternoon, by Monday evening, some of those documents were taken down. We now know a victim's name who wished to remain anonymous was not redacted. We also know President Trump's name, as you heard there from Katelyn, appears in several places in the latest dump.

This is the second time they've released documents only to remove them. Again, from what you have seen so far, is this just sloppy work from the DOJ or do you see this as being more calculated?

SARAH KRISSOFF, FORMER U.S. PROSECUTOR, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: So, it is a hard job to redact these documents appropriately. The law set forth sort of categories of material. It could be redacted. The DOJ has to go through these very carefully, make calls about, you know, really page by page about what needs to be redacted or not.

But, you know, they have all of the resources in the world to do that. I mean, they have thousands of lawyers, top lawyers who could be working on these documents following a protocol and making decisions. So, I mean, they certainly should be moving quicker than they are, and we shouldn't really be seeing mistakes, particularly mistakes regarding victims' names. But, you know, it is a -- this is a human process and a very laborious, time-intensive process.

SIDNER: And as we go through these, of course, other organizations going through these, The Washington Post saying that the latest tranche of Epstein documents, there was a subpoena sent to Mar-a-Lago in 2021 for records related to the government's case against Ghislaine Maxwell. What do you glean from that? KRISSOFF: Yes. Some of the juiciest stuff really is going to be in internal DOJ emails, right? That's where the prosecutors are talking about the case. That's where they're sort of hashing out the evidence that they're seeing. So, we're going to see some good stuff in there, as we already talked about this morning. The other place I think you're going to see really interesting material is in FBI reports, 302 reports, to the extent those are released in unredacted form or partially redacted form, because that's really going to set out the nature of the investigation and the things that were -- the steps that were taken in connection with the investigation.

SIDNER: You just mentioned this. There were a large number of documents showing in this latest tranche the objections filed by Epstein's victims in 2008 after the U.S. attorney in Miami agreed his office would not prosecute Epstein on federal charges in exchange for Epstein to plead guilty to less serious state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor. What will these documents expose? What will people see in these documents as they're looking at, you know, what happened there in Miami that a lot of victims are very, very upset with?

KRISSOFF: Yes. I mean, the course of events here in terms of the Florida prosecution or lack of prosecution and then the subsequent prosecution and the SDNY was sort of very complicated and we're going to see more details uncovering that, more details about why decisions were made, why charges were brought or not brought.

[07:10:03]

And that I think is going to be very illuminating about whether there was sort of political pressure or external forces on decisions that were made internally in these very -- in these prosecutorial bodies.

SIDNER: There is a lot to go through, and as you said, this is an unprecedented amount of information having to come out of the DOJ. But the law says it was supposed to be out all together and now it's coming out in more of a trickle.

Sarah Krissoff, thank you so much. I'm sure we will be back when we see more of these documents. I appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: All right. At least five people killed including a toddler and a plane crash off of Texas. The flight was carrying burn victims. This morning, a search for the one person still missing.

And then millions in the path of strong storms expected to hit Christmas Eve, which, you know what, is really soon.

And in Illinois, you can design your own license plate with your own letters and numbers. The state will let you do it so long as it's not inflammatory, profane or offensive. So, what did make the cut?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: IBPOOPN. Okay, that one's pretty funny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: All right. This morning, dangerous weather poised to get even worse, intense storms in Southern California. In the Los Angeles area, a rare high risk of flash flooding is prompting new evacuation orders. The LAPD went door to door overnight to warn people in danger zones.

Let's get right to CNN's Derek Van Dam for the latest on this. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John. Unfortunately, the timing could not be worse. The decision from the Weather Prediction Center to upgrade to its highest level of flood threat, what took into consideration the number of people that could potentially be exposed to this on the busy holiday travel season that we find ourselves in. The main impacts from the storm will come in on Christmas Eve. But let us not forget about today. We still have a slight risk of excessive rain that could lead to flash flooding.

So, what in the world's happening? Well, we've been talking about these atmospheric rivers. This particular atmospheric river is pointed right at the state of California. It's still in its kind of development phases, just off the coastline, but it is going to funnel in a fire hose of heavy rainfall into Southern California. And because of the topography in this part of the world, it is going to produce extremely heavy rain.

So, taking you in a kind of a minute by minute situation, the heavy rain starts tonight over Western, Southern California, Ventura County, for instance, and then over spreads Los Angeles County by tomorrow morning, Christmas Eve morning, and then continues through the course of the day. Rainfall rates could get all the way up to an inch and a half per hour. That is significant.

So, we have a flood threat through the entire state. Can't forget about some of this moisture that will over spread southern Nevada and inclusive of Las Vegas in a slight risk. But focusing in on the areas that have the greatest risk of flooding this area here where you see the high risk, the purple that is the transverse mountain ranges, they kind of traverse this region in a west to east fashion. And because of the trajectory of the rain that will come from the south, we could bring out all the available moisture. There are burn scars here. Remember, the Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires.

So, this is a very vulnerable area of California, lots of people here that a high risk zone encompasses about 6 million people, landslides, mudslides, rockslide, rapid rises in rivers. They're all on the table here. Rare high risk days, they mean business. They're only accounted for 4 percent of days, but they account for a third of all flood related fatalities. So, we need to take this flood threat seriously. John?

BERMAN: Yes. I mean, looking at that map, just does not look good. Derek Van Dam, I know you'll be watching this closely over the next 24 hours. Thanks so much. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes, we'll be talking to California authorities in the next hour.

Still ahead, boats swallowed up after a canal collapses. Witnesses say it looked like a scene from the Titanic.

And the NFL suspends Steelers' D.K. Metcalf after he swings on the Lions fan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: What a show on Monday Night Football, Brock Purdy with his first NFL five-touchdown game. San Francisco spoiled returning Quarterback Philip Rivers' home debut since returning to the Colts. Now, a big score gap and a big age gap in this game.

CNN's Andy Scholes is here with all the highlights.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. Sarah, only a 19-year age gap between the quarterbacks last night of both Brock Purdy and Philip Rivers giving us all in early Christmas present, right? They put on a show on Monday Night Football. And Rivers he had the whole family there last night in a suite for the game, wife, ten kids, his grandchild, parents, brother, all there watching the family spending Christmas in Indianapolis, as Rivers continues his unexpected return.

And the 44-year-old, he was slinging it in this one. He threw two touchdowns in the first half against the Niners. I mean, Rivers looked good. Only problem was Purdy was even better. He threw for a career- high five touchdowns. The Niners, they have not punted in two weeks. In the fourth quarter, Colts were down two scores. Rivers gets picked off by Dee Winters. He takes it 74 yards the other way to seal it. Niners win their fifth in a row, 48-27.

Here was Purdy afterwards on going up against Rivers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROCK PURDY, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS QUARTERBACK: I think it's awesome, man. He's a legend in the NFL. To be able to come back and rip it like he has and score a bunch of points. I just told him it was an honor to be out on the same field as him, man. I watched him as a kid growing up.

PHILIP RIVERS, INDIANA COLTS QUARTERBACK: I'm torn of how to express it because it's been a blast. It's been a blast to prepare and to go sneak and get ready and go out there and warm up and do all that with these guys again. But, again, the name of the game is not, you know, go have a good time. It's help find a way to lead your team to win, and we've come up short here in these first two.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: Yes. So, the Colts now have to win out and hope the Texans lose out to make the playoffs. They're going to play Houston in week 18.

The NFL meanwhile suspending Steelers Wide Receiver D.K. Metcalf for the final two games of the regular season without pay for initiating a physical confrontation with a fan during Sunday's game at Ford Field in Detroit. The suspension will cost Metcalf more than a half million dollars and couldn't void guarantees in his contract. A source tells CNN that Metcalf plans to appeal the suspension.

The fan claims he was calling Metcalf by his full name, which prompted the altercation. Metcalf has not spoken to the media since the incident.

All right, and finally the answer to the trivia question of what state do the Chiefs play in is changing the team announcing that they have made a deal to leave Arrowhead Stadium in Missouri for a new dome stadium that's going to be built in Kansas.

[07:25:05]

The announcement comes shortly after Kansas lawmakers voted unanimously to allow sales tax and bonds to cover 70 percent of the new stadium. The new stadium will be surrounded by a mixed use development. The new site, it's about 25 minutes away from Arrowhead. The Chiefs are now the second team to leave Missouri in the past decade joining the Rams.

Sara, the move's going to happen in 2031. And, you know, I'm sure the new dome stadium is going to be fancy, going to be pretty cool. I'm sad though. Arrowhead Stadium, it's like an iconic stadium. It was such a home field advantage. Those fans there are just so loud. You know, it's sad if we lose Arrowhead -- it looks like we are going to lose Arrowhead Stadium. And Soldier Field and Chicago might be going away. It's just -- it's like a changing of the times,

SIDNER: The end of an era. But I do want to just say that the Rams were in L.A. and then they went to St. Louis and then they came back to L.A., just to be clear, Andy. Just to be clear here.

SCHOLES: Yes. It still seems leaving Missouri. It's the facts of the facts, right? Yes.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Andy. All right, John?

BERMAN: All right. Donald Trump quote, traveled on Epstein's private jet many more times than previously has been reported or that we were aware. That is from a just release note written by a federal attorney from the time when Donald Trump was president. That's when it was written.

FDA approval of a weight loss pill that could reshape an entire class of drugs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:30:00]