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Liz Stein is Interviewed about Epstein Files; Trump and Government Shutdowns; Gerran Howell is Interviewed about "The Pitt." Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired February 03, 2026 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:33:13]
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, lawyers for victims of Jeffrey Epstein are asking judges to immediately intervene and force the Justice Department to take down millions of Epstein related documents it posted online. They say the DOJ's failure to properly redact victims' information has created an unfolding emergency. They list a number of examples, including one minor victims' name allegedly being revealed 20 times in a single document. The deputy attorney general, last night, acknowledged there were mistakes.
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TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: You have really hard-working lawyers that worked for the past 60 days. Think about this, though, you're talking about pieces of paper that stack from the ground to two Eiffel Towers. And so, the minute that a victim or their lawyer reached out to us, since Friday, we immediately dealt with it and pulled it down. And we're continuing to do that. We knew that there would be mistakes.
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SIDNER: Joining me now is a survivor of Epstein's abuse, Liz Stein.
Thank you so much for being here.
You heard that acknowledgment of mistakes. If you were going to grade the DOJ for how it's handled the release of the Epstein files, what grade would you give them?
LIZ STEIN, EPSTEIN ABUSE SURVIVOR AND ANTI-TRAFFICKING ADVOCATE: It would definitely not be a passing grade. You know, I think that we could never have expected the way that this has rolled out. And while we certainly understand that the amount of material is voluminous, there have been so many instances where survivors' names and information has been unredacted. I can tell you personally that yesterday afternoon I found my own information unredacted several times, including in a sentence that says, "Stein is a victim of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein."
[09:35:08]
So, you know, I think that when we're looking at these documents and when I looked at that document in particular, my name is unredacted four times, but it's redacted 25 times in the same document. And there just doesn't seem to be any consistencies across the board. And if it was one survivor or two survivors, that would still be unacceptable. But, you know, it's not one or two survivors. It's so many of us who have had our personal information exposed. People have had pictures exposed. These are things that we never anticipated would be released to the public. And they've put us in a lot of danger.
SIDNER: I'm so sorry this is happening to you. It sounds like you're saying you're being revictimized by this information being released to the public.
I do want to ask you about this. Why do you think the DOJ, while saying, look, we messed up, we revealed victims' names. This is the reason why they said it was going to take them so long to put these files out and why they are late. The law telling them they had 30 days. They did not -- they did not meet what the law told them to do. But the DOJ says they will not release any files -- any more files, including the files that show why Jeffrey Epstein got that sweetheart deal in Florida. What do you think about that?
STEIN: It's particularly concerning. We have only seen half of the documents that they have. And there are reasons for withholding the additional I think its three million documents really are nonsensical in my mind. And so, what that leads me to believe, and rightfully so, is, what are they hiding? What are they covering up? And I think that that's a theme that we're seeing over and over and over again. You know, we are survivors of this crime. We know what's in these files. And when we see places where there are names of people who were involved that potentially were redacted, yet our personal information has not been, it's just -- it's completely unacceptable.
And so I think that, you know, we need to look at what the bigger picture is and why have they been so hesitant to release this information, and why are they still withholding information?
SIDNER: Yes, I mean, Congress was pretty clear in their law that those files should have been released. So, we'll have to see what happens going forward. But we are now hearing from President Trump, who says it's time for the DOJ to move on from the Epstein files. What do you say to him?
STEIN: I want to remind people that the Department of Justice is in charge of investigating and prosecuting crimes. And this, the Epstein saga, as everyone's calling it, is really a sex trafficking ring. And we're getting dissuaded from looking at it in that way. And so I think that, you know, to have the DOJ admit that this is a crime that had between 1,000 and 1,200 victims, and for them to now say, you know, there's nothing to see here, there's nothing to investigate, after they've released millions of pages of documents, and we know that they have so much more, it feels like we're being gaslit.
And I will tell you that, for as upsetting and disheartening as this rollout has been, we feel really strongly as survivors that, you know, the truth needs to come out. And we have done things already that people never thought that we would be able to do. And this is not the end of our fight by any means. It's really maybe only gave us encouragement to go forward.
SIDNER: Liz Stein, I'm sorry about what you have gone through back then and now. We will see what the judges say about taking these -- this information down from the website. But I know you're saying you're going to continue to fight, and we will continue to speak with you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Kate.
BOLDUAN: So, the verdict is in. The Virginia man accused of plotting with his au pair to kill his wife, now found guilty of murder. What he could now face in sentencing.
And season two of HBO Max's breakout hit drama "The Pitt," it's now out. One of the stars of the show joins us.
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[09:44:20]
BERMAN: A House vote could come as soon as today that will end this partial government shutdown. All signs are that it will be over. But not to be overly negative, all signs are that in about ten days there will be another partial shutdown, at least in the Department of Homeland Security.
With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.
So, one shutdown ends, another one may be about to begin. There shouldn't be a lot of shutdowns under Donald Trump's presidency.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: There are a lot of shutdowns. I mean it feels like every couple of months we come back to it. And I think this sort of tells you everything that you want to sort of know about this. Gov shutdowns during Trump term two. We're literally talking 12 percent of his term. I mean we're talking a -- more than a month's worth of shutdowns, my goodness gracious, in terms of the amount of time that there's been at least a partial government shutdown.
[09:45:10]
It seems more times than not we are in a shutdown or there might be one on the horizon.
BERMAN: So, who's the president with the most shutdowns ever?
ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, why don't we just take a look at this. You know, we talk about Donald Trump breaking records and sometimes not necessarily the records you want to sort of be breaking here. And just take a look here. OK, presidencies, the most government shutdown days. The top all time is Trump term number two, the second Trump presidency at 46. That actually beats Donald Trump's old record, which was 36 in term number one. So, we're talking about Donald Trump combined, what is this, 36, 46. We're talking well north of 70 shutdown days. I think north of 80 shut down --
BERMAN: That may be -- that may be 82.
ENTEN: That might be 82, 82. John doing the quick math for us right here. Eighty-two days in shutdown. Donald Trump and his presidencies breaking records in the way you don't want to be breaking them, in shutdowns, 82 days during -- over the course of his two terms. And, of course, we still have three years left in term number two.
BERMAN: But let's look at this still another way, Harry.
ENTEN: Yes. Another way. I'm trying to bang it into your head, right, there have been a lot of days with government shutdowns. OK. So, going all the way back into the record books, the days the government has ever been shut down, 61 percent of all the days in which the government has been shut down has been under Donald Trump presidencies. I mean this is just sort of nuts, right? We've spoken about government shutdowns before, but now it's happening so often that the clear majority of times that the government has been shut down has been under Donald John Trump.
BERMAN: This is an interesting number right there to be sure.
All right, that said, the shutdown that we are still currently in, what are the prediction markets saying about whether it will soon end?
ENTEN: Ah, yes, perhaps the good news, which is the chance the government shutdown goes past 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. Just a 14 percent chance. For those of you at home, the inverse of this is an 86 percent chance the Kalshi prediction market says that, in fact, the government shutdown, this current one, will end by tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Of course, another one may be on the horizon.
BERMAN: Yes, we'll talk about this at the end of next week.
Harry Enten, great to see you.
ENTEN: Great to see you. You'll never shut us down.
BERMAN: Got a lot of news. We'll be right back.
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[09:51:51]
BOLDUAN: So, Brendan Banfield now faces the potential of spending the rest of his life in prison. A jury just found the Virginia man guilty of crafting an elaborate plot with his au pair to kill his wife and another man. Banfield appeared emotionless in court as the verdict was read Monday. The au pair struck a deal with prosecutors beforehand, which led to her testifying against him, against her former lover, during his trial. She faces up to ten years behind bars. Brendan Banfield is scheduled for sentencing in May. And if you have been sensing and feeling the vibes of snack prices are
creeping up, PepsiCo says they hear you. The company is now announcing its cutting prices by 15 percent, saying that lower prices -- they're going to be lowering prices for the likes of Doritos, Lays, Cheetos and more, and say that they should start showing up this week right before the Super Bowl. PepsiCo notes, however, that local grocery stores, they do set the final price, but still everything helps. PepsiCo clearly is hoping the move boosts sales, which have been sluggish as prices have been inching, inching, inching up.
BERMAN: Season two of "The Pitt" is here. It just won a Golden Globe. It has legions of fans and was just signed up for a third season. Not bad, right? Here's a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're perfect, Mr. Samba. All good here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Feeling dizzy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll put you down in a second. Holy shit. ST elevation v7, v8, v9. It's a posterior stemi (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the worst kind of heart attack.
Mr. Samba. Mr. Samba. Hey, I could use a second set of hands here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: I shouldn't be laughing, but that was awesome. The worst kind of heart attack. Actor Gerran Howell, aka Dr. Dennis Whitaker is here. Really, according to many, a breakout star from "The Pitt."
It's so great to see you.
GERRAN HOWELL, PLAYS DR. DENNIS WHITAKER IN "THE PITT": Thank you. Yes, lovely to be here.
BERMAN: What's it like to be part of something doing so well? I asked that with huge amounts of envy.
HOWELL: No. Yes, I mean it's amazing. Any time a show you're a part of gets any kind of recognition is great. But, yes, we've had a lot of -- a lot of support from the medical community and lots of love pouring in from lots of different places. It's been really nice.
BERMAN: One of the things I read in one of the reviews that people think is so attractive about it, they call it competency porn.
HOWELL: Yes. Yes.
BERMAN: Which means it's just -- people just want to see people doing things well.
HOWELL: Yes.
BERMAN: Explain that to me.
HOWELL: I think -- I don't know. I think there's something very therapeutic about that. Sometimes you don't need to know what's going on necessarily, but I think there's some -- you get some satisfaction out of seeing people do something very, very well.
BERMAN: First of all, you're terrific in this, and it's really fun to watch you. And even just that little clip it was fun to see it.
There's a lot of medical terminology here, right? I mean lines are hard enough to learn as it is. But how do you learn all this stuff which just, to me, is completely foreign?
HOWELL: Oh, you just hope it sticks and stays in your brain long enough for it to come out of your mouth.
[09:55:02]
But we have medical advisers around us all the time. So, they're reminding us, you know, and they're making sure we know what we're saying. That kind of makes a difference. They just kind of drill it into us (INAUDIBLE).
BERMAN: And the other thing that I picked up from all the reviews, there's kind of an obsession with the fluids. Like the wide range.
HOWELL: Oh, yes.
BERMAN: Fun to act with? I mean do you have a fluid coordinator on set? How does that work?
HOWELL: Maybe. Maybe fun isn't the right word. We have a great special effects team. And we have, you know, I'm often faced with tubes full of liquids that may be coming my way. They are pressurized.
But, yes, it's kind of a bingo card situation of what, you know, fluid is coming next.
BERMAN: And you just wrapped up shooting for this season. It looks exhausting. I mean you guys look exhausted on purpose, I think.
HOWELL: Yes. Yes, we do. I mean we -- obviously our last episode is episode 15, which is our 15th hour of the shift. And I think some of us are very grateful that we get to look tired and act tired. It's kind of -- kind of works for a lot of us.
BERMAN: Gerran Howell, it's really a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much. Congratulations on your success.
HOWELL: Thank you.
BERMAN: Excited to see next year, season three, then season four and beyond. And you can watch the new episodes of "The Pitt" every Thursday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern on HBO Max.
SIDNER: It's such a good show, but I get so stressed. I got to --
BERMAN: That's what people say about ours.
BOLDUAN: Exactly. Wait. Just stop. That was too good.
SIDNER: Fair enough. That was good.
BOLDUAN: There's no stopping it.
Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.
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