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Nothing in Epstein Files for Prosecution; No Charges Relate to Epstein; Judge Orders Release of Boy and Father; Partial Government Shutdown Expected; Trump Closing Kennedy Center. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 02, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

LUKE THOMPSON, PLAYS BENEDICT BRIDGERTON IN NETFLIX'S "BRIDGERTON": The human heart now, rather than feel like a museum piece.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The ability to kind of blend those two things is part of definitely the magic.

THOMPSON: Yes.

BOLDUAN: OK, real quick, I know you -- obviously we all will watch -- we all will watch and find out ourselves, but does Benedict end up happy?

THOMPSON: You know, I can't possibly tell you. You'll have to find out, you know. Do we ever? Do we ever? It's complicated.

BOLDUAN: Oh, and we're going to take it deeper.

THOMPSON: Yes, we'll see. Yes.

BOLDUAN: Are we ever really happy, Kate.

THOMPSON: It's complicated. I'm sure you will be, but, yes, exactly.

BOLDUAN: You ask a journalist right now. Yes, exactly.

It's wonderful to meet you.

THOMPSON: Really, you too.

BOLDUAN: Thank you for coming in and congratulations on this moment. I really appreciate it.

THOMPSON: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: Luke Thompson, the one and only. "Bridgerton" season four is streaming now on Netflix.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Three million new Epstein documents that paint a horrifying picture. Disturbing allegations against everyone from President Trump, to Bill Gates, to a famous doctor. What is the Justice Department going to do about it? Nothing. This hour we'll speak with one of the survivors of Epstein's abuse, furious over the handling of the Epstein files.

And after a scathing rebuke from a judge, five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father are back home in Minnesota after being snatched up by ICE in Minnesota and sent to Texas. But their future in the United States remains very unclear this morning.

And an insane journey. A successful solo sailing journey across the Atlantic Ocean. A woman does this on her own. And she is here with us this morning.

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

BOLDUAN: So new this morning, President Trump leveling a new threat over the Epstein files. Now he's threatening a lawsuit after a joke made during last night's Grammy Awards. Just after the award for Song of the Year was announced, host Trevor Noah said this

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVOR NOAH, HOST, GRAMMY AWARDS: That is a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland. Which makes sense. I mean, because Epstein's island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out with Bill Clinton. So -- oh, I told you it's my last year. What are you going to do about it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The president responded overnight, posting this, in part, "I can't speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close." And then he threatened to sue Noah for defamation for, quote/unquote, "plenty of dollars."

This comes after the Justice Department released more than three million additional pages from the FBIs investigative files into Epstein. After that, the deputy attorney general made pretty clear that none of it's likely to lead to any additional charges against anyone.

And also this morning, "The New York Times" is reporting that the DOJ published, as part of its release, nearly 40 unredacted nude photos contained in the Epstein files. "The Times" says the people in the photos appear to be young, but it is unclear whether they are minors. CNN has reached out to the Department of Justice about this reporting. DOJ responded to "The New York Times" saying that the department is, in its view, "working around the clock to address any victim concerns, additional redactions of personally identifiable information, as well as any files that require further redactions under the act to include images of a sexual nature."

CNN's Alayna Treene is live at the White House for us this morning.

And it seems there is much more that still continues to be revealed, Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And I'd remind you, Kate, that we did see the Justice Department, as you mentioned, release more than three million of these Epstein files, these materials on Friday. There are still more that need to be released. But this is because Congress had passed a law really requiring and forcing both the Justice Department and the Trump administrations hand here in order to do so.

Now, as for the messaging around this, look, the president's name came up in these files, in this latest document released, roughly a thousand times. But what we have heard time and time again from people in that building behind me, as well as in the Justice Department, is that many of the mentions of any names in these files are all unproven allegations, that a lot of them were tips that were never confirmed, and that was part of the reason why they were hesitant to have these released publicly.

We did hear the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, make this case yesterday, in addition to arguing that despite many of the disturbing images, as you mentioned what "The New York Times" said about some of these photos of victims, despite many of the disturbing allegations, images, other things in these materials, they do not believe that there is anything that they have seen in these files that have led them to believe that a criminal investigation into those around Epstein's is still warranted.

But listen to how he put it, Kate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: I can't talk about any investigations. But I will say the following, which is that in July the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the files, the, quote, "Epstein files" and that there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody.

[09:05:01]

Now, there's a lot of correspondence. There's a lot of emails. There's a lot of photographs. There's a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him, but that doesn't allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Look, that answer, Kate, is not going to go far in the way of quelling some of the distrust that has really grown with the Trump administration over this entire process. I'd remind you that it's many people on the right, including many of the president's fiercest supporters in his base, who were the ones calling for the release of these files. And now that we have them, a lot of people are also hoping that those who are in here, particularly those who have actually done wrongdoing, are held to account and that justice is sought.

Now, what the deputy attorney general is saying is that essentially they do not believe they have enough evidence, of course, based on what they've seen to move forward with this. I will say, that does contradict, however, what we did hear from the attorney general, Pam Bondi, when the president had directed her to look into Democrats, people like the former president, Bill Clinton, saying that they would have an investigation into that. So, there's still a lot of unanswered questions, more of which, of course, are going to continue to be pressed this week as people learn more of the revelations in these files.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Alayna, thank you so much for starting us off this hour. I really appreciate it.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: With us now, CNN legal commentator Jim Schultz. He served as a White House lawyer during the first Trump term.

Counselor, great to see you in person.

JIM SCHULTZ, CNN LEGAL COMMENTATOR: Great to see you.

BERMAN: So, Todd Blanche saying, you know, based on what he's seen, they're not doing any further prosecutions or investigations. It does seem to contradict what Attorney General Pam Bondi said. But from a legal standpoint, how surprising is his statement?

SCHULTZ: So, not too surprising. And also not surprising that he's contradicting Pam Bondi. You know, Pam Bondi got out there ahead of -- over her skis, got out there early, started talking about these documents early, then doubled down on talking about who they're going to investigate and prosecute. Probably playing to a -- to an audience of one in that regard. I think Todd Blanche, former prosecutor here from the Southern District of New York, has, you know, a more measured way about how the going -- handling these matters.

BERMAN: "The New York Times" this morning is reporting that in these three million pages of files that were released, or three million files, it included several naked pictures of women, including -- well, they don't know the ages of the women. It's possible they're even underage women.

Now, it is notable that after "The New York Times" reported it, "The Times" said that the Department of Justice took down each photo that they pointed out. But what does it tell you that these photos got through whatever vet there was?

SCHULTZ: Look, I think that you're -- you're seeing what -- what you're seeing is a result of rushing through this process. There was incredible pressure for them to get the documents out, incredible pressure for them to review the documents, get them out. Although everyone thinks that the DOJ has, you know, this -- vast resources. They're doing a lot of other things as well.

So, yes, there was a group of lawyers who were reviewing them. You're going to have human error through that process. It's a shame when that happens, especially when it becomes public. And, you know, especially as it relates to minors, if it could relate to minors, or anyone for that matter when you're, you know, producing that kind of information.

BERMAN: Yes. But that slipped through. Yet the department's still claiming a certain privilege. Actually several different types of privilege over things they're not releasing, including a deliberative process privilege. So, careful about some things, not others. Is that fair?

SCHULTZ: So, I can assure you that there are people out there today who would have hoped that, especially folks, powerful people who were involved in this, this thing who have been disclosed, would really -- would have liked to have seen some of that redacted as well. And it's not. I mean, you know, the Justice Department, you have a bunch of career lawyers. You don't have a bunch of political appointees reviewing these documents. They're career lawyers. Mistakes are going to happen. I'm just -- I wouldn't give -- I wouldn't read too much into that.

BERMAN: Any legal repercussions for some people -- I won't go into specifics here -- for people who said things publicly about not being with Epstein or never talking to Epstein, or never being here. And the documents seem to point to something else. Anything more than just embarrassment?

SCHULTZ: I think that's really what it is. It's embarrassment, right? You have some high profile people that said, I haven't talked to him since x date. And then you find out that on y date they were communicating with him, and maybe going to see him at the island.

BERMAN: Yes.

SCHULTZ: That's a real problem for those folks in terms of their personal credibility. Unless there was some criminal activity associated with it, which it doesn't appear that there was, at least from the ones we've seen that have been publicly kind of out there, I don't see a lot coming out that from a legal perspective, just reputational.

BERMAN: All right, Jim Schultz, great to see you. Thanks so much for coming in.

SCHULTZ: No problem. Thanks.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, this morning, after a scathing rebuke against the Justice Department's detention of a five year old and his father in Minnesota, the Justice Department is fighting back. At the moment, five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father are back home after being taken by ICE from their driveway and put in a Texas detention center. But their future here in the United States is still up in the air. They spent more than a week in the detention center in Texas.

And joining us now, CNN's Whitney Wild, who's been covering this case from the beginning.

[09:10:02] What is the Justice Department now saying after that federal judge really slammed their actions in this case?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Justice Department is sidestepping responding to the judge directly. Over the weekend, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was asked about the judge's comments, and he said that he couldn't respond to the judge's comments specifically, but said that they do follow the law every single day. Blanche went on to say, though, that they believe that it's possible they may end up appealing this order that sent Liam and his father home.

As you mentioned, the order from the judge was absolutely scathing. Here's just a clip of it. "The case has its genesis in the ill- conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children." It was about a three page order, absolutely scathing, and really served not only as rebuke of what, you know, the Trump administration is doing, but also touched on just the broader civics lesson here and said that this, you know, basically making a point that this seems to fly in the face of everything that, you know, the Constitution stands for. And again, it was a really scathing rebuke, Sara.

SIDNER: Quite a scathing rebuke. And we know that the pictures that we are seeing are from Representative Joaquin Castro of little, little Ramos and his -- and his dad.

Whitney, there are some also new details about the two federal agents that were involved in the shooting death of Alex Pretti. What are you learning about them this morning?

WILD: Well, according to ProPublica, they've identified the two agents involved. And the first agent is a Border Patrol agent who joined the agency in 2018. Another agent is a Customs and Border Protection officer who joined that agency in 2014 and is a member of their special response team, which is basically a federal version of local SWAT teams, that basically they operate in these high-risk situations. They're similar to a local SWAT team, but this is like the federal version of that.

Both men are from south Texas. DHS would not confirm the identities and said that these attempts to unveil, you know, reveal the names of these officers not only puts these agents at serious risk but also puts their families at risk, saying that agents and officers have undergone an enormous amount of threats, that those threats continue to spike, Sara, and they blame rhetoric from what they say are sanctuary city leaders for a lot of that.

Sara.

SIDNER: And, of course, you and I speaking to the people on the ground who say that this is because of their actions. We will have to wait and see what happens here. Whitney Wild, thank you so much. I know you'll be back in the area not too long from now. John.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, and connected to all of this, a partial government shutdown expected to last until at least tomorrow as lawmakers race to get these votes through. Tomorrow, the House is expected to hold these votes on a group of bills to fund the government. At the center of this is this debate, as we just said.

CNN's Annie Grayer on Capitol Hill with the latest.

I mean it's not at all clear that this is going to get through the House today, tomorrow or the next day.

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: That's right, John, there are a lot of dynamics at play and some key hurdles to overcome. So, let's start with the Democrats.

Over the weekend, the top Democrat in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, told Speaker Johnson that he couldn't rely on Democrats to pass this, which meant that Johnson now has to navigate a number of key procedural hurdles with his very narrow Republican majority. So that starts with the Rules Committee, as you mentioned, at 4:00 p.m. And there are two conservatives on that panel who have sometimes blocked legislation from their own party. So, we're going to see if Republicans can stay united on that committee.

But assuming it passes there, John, it will head to the floor on Tuesday where Johnson is going to have to pass a procedural step for this bill with all Republican votes. Now, right now Johnson has a two- seat margin, but that could go down to a one vote margin if Johnson swears in the new Democrat from Texas who won his special election over the weekend. So, there is a very narrow road that Johnson has to walk. But he's hoping that because President Trump has come out in support of this deal, that that will be enough to carry this over the finish line.

Now, once these procedural steps are passed with likely just Republican votes, we are expecting some Democrats to vote for the final package here. I reported on a call that House Democrats had yesterday where some of the top Democrats in the House, Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn, said that ultimately they do support this deal. It's just a matter of how they get there.

But, remember, this is just to get the part of the government that's closed down, reopened. Then we have a two-week sprint to try and come up with a longer term solution for how to fund the Department of Homeland Security. And there are a lot of different demands from Democrats and Republicans on how to do that over restrictions on ICE.

Take a listen to Jeffries, some of the demands that he has on this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): This is an extreme administration unleashing brutality on the American people using taxpayer dollars. [09:15:02]

So, we absolutely, as a condition of moving forward, in my view, I think this is a broadly held perspective shared by Democrats in the House and the Senate need judicial warrants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRAYER: So, as you can see, John, a lot of dynamics at play before the government can reopen. But the earliest we are expecting it could happen is on Tuesday.

BERMAN: Yes, so three kind of hurdles over the next 24, 48 hours. But the real difficult vote might be in two weeks, even if you get over all those hurdles three hurdles.

Annie Grayer, it's going to be busy up there on The Hill. Thanks so much for sharing your reporting with us.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, a place that won't be busy, the Kennedy Center closing its doors for two years according to President Trump. What members of the Kennedy family are saying this morning about the president's renovation plans for the historic performing arts center.

And Bad Bunny wins big at the Grammy's. And he uses his moment in the spotlight to speak out against the White House's immigration crackdown.

Also, the weather update we've been all waiting for. Punxsutawney Phil declares how many more weeks of winter are we getting or are not. Did he see his shadow?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:16]

BOLDUAN: President Trump just announced, seemingly out of the blue, that he plans to shut down the iconic Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., for about two years starting July 4th. The president saying that the move is all about renovations to the iconic performing arts center. What the president isn't saying, though, is that this does come after the Kennedy Center has faced a flood of cancellations by performers ever since he took over the board of trustees, and as you see here, added his name to the physical building. The closure still has to be approved by said board, which Donald Trump is the chairman of.

With me now, CNN media analyst and "Axios" media correspondent Sara Fischer for much more on this.

It's great to see you, Sara.

As John Berman aptly put it earlier this morning, is this about building upkeep or is this about sour grapes? SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: I think it's probably a little bit of

both. I mean the Kennedy Center is dated and it could use a little bit of modest renovations, but it's not the type of thing that would require shutting it down for two years and something so full scale.

I do think it's in response to some of those artists pulling out. Notably, we've had two massive cancellations lately, Philip Glass pulling out, famous composer, and the Washington National Opera saying that they would no longer go with the Kennedy Center.

But, Kate, one thing I just want to remind folks of is that Donald Trump just debuted his wife's documentary, "Melania," at the Kennedy Center. So, I think that the -- part of this is that there's a recency bias. He was just there, probably looking around and saying, hey, this is something I could put more of my personal touch towards, build my legacy.

BOLDUAN: What about the financing and kind of -- I'm also thinking is like, you've got the financing of this. You've got the focus on the East Wing. You add it all up, what is this when it comes to the impact or immature that Donald Trump wants to leave on like the physical aspects of Washington, D.C., that we really didn't seem -- see after the first term?

FISCHER: Such a good question. So, when it comes to the financing of the East Wing, that's privately funded. And critics have looked at that and said, this gives private corporations an opportunity to sort of pay for play with Donald Trump.

Now, the president has said financing is secured for this renovation of the Kennedy Center. But he hasn't said what -- how that is secured. You know, is he planning on trying to push Congress to tack something onto an appropriations bill, like he did with the previous Kennedy Center renovation? Is he planning on having this be all privately funded? That would be my assumption here, Kate.

But broadly speaking, when you take a look at what President Trump likes to do in terms of cementing his esthetic and legacy in Washington, he likes to go big. He likes to go very grandiose and gold. I think about all the gold placements all over the White House. I think about him trying to build an arc in Washington, D.C. Him putting his lettering up on the Kennedy Center in those big, gold letters right next to JFK's. I would expect this to feel just as sort of bombastic and grandiose.

BOLDUAN: Finally, while I have you, Sara, I wanted to get your take. Our former colleague and former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who's now an independent journalist, who was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles last week on charges related to an ICE protest at a -- that disrupted a church service in Minnesota. Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, was on with Dana Bash yesterday, and she pressed him about this.

Let me play just part of his defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Only a grand jury can bring forth an indictment. And so that's what we did. We went to a grand jury, which, as you know, are 25 citizens from Minneapolis and around that decide whether there's probable cause. And that's who returned an indictment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Sara, give me your take on what you see here. How are the violations laid out that they allege against Don Lemon different from reporters doing their jobs and caught in the middle of things all the time?

FISCHER: I don't think that they're very different. And that's why Dana Bash interview was so compelling. She pointed out a few examples of the many charges against Lemon and other -- the other journalists from Minneapolis, and she said, how is this different from them doing their jobs? And Blanche's response was sort of like, well, you're cherry-picking a few examples. There are much stronger examples. These are your charges, DOJ. You should be able to defend all of them.

And then the last thing I'd note on the indictment, he and the DOJ went to a judge to try to get warrants to arrest Lemon and others twice. And they were denied that. Because they were denied that, they're now looking to see an indictment before a jury. And I think that's very telling, you know, the fact that they couldn't get warrants for this arrest tells you what a judge thinks is sort of their likelihood of winning something like this in a court case.

BOLDUAN: All right. And Don Lemon, obviously, will be fighting this. Sara Fischer, it's great to see you. Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, an urgent search.

[09:25:00]

The mother of "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie reported missing. Our hearts obviously go out to Savannah and her family this morning.

And a teenager runs his way straight into the history books. You know, you will not believe how fast he ran. Sara and I were backstage in utter disbelief.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: This morning, there are some disgusting new allegations and details in the three million Jeffrey Epstein files just released. President Trump is mentioned in them more than 1,000 times, including in FBI notes about a woman who accused Trump in a lawsuit of raping her when she was just 13 years old. The DOJ says the allegations against Trump in the document are false, and he has long denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein or any allegation of sexual misconduct.

[09:30:08]