Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Melania Trump Denies Relationship with Epstein in Public Statement; Melania Trump Urges Congress to Give Epstein Victims Public Hearing; Trump Says He Asked Netanyahu to be "A Little More Low-Key" in Lebanon; Artemis II Crew Preparing to Return to Earth Tomorrow; Husband Arrested After American Woman Goes Missing in Bahamas 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 09, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:35]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We begin with breaking news. A rare statement from First Lady Melania Trump about Jeffrey Epstein.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: She is distancing herself from the convicted sex offender while calling on Congress to hold public hearings for his many victims. CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig is with us now. Elie, the media was aware the First Lady was making a statement this afternoon. We didn't know what it was about. What did you make of this?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it was definitely surprising, Brianna. It's not entirely clear what precipitated it. But one thing I think is notable is the contrast between the First Lady's comments there and the actual actions and conduct of the United States Justice Department so far.

So, we just heard Melania Trump come out and call for a public forum for the victims and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein to go in front of Congress and have their stories be told. But let's contrast that with DOJ.

We know from when Pam Bondi testified last month that DOJ has not even given a face-to-face audience to many of those victims. There was this unforgettable moment where several victims in the audience stood up and were asked, have you -- how many of you have requested a meeting with Pam Bondi? They all raised their hands. How many of you have been given any meeting and none of them raised their hands?

On top of that, we learned yesterday that Pam Bondi herself, now the former Attorney General, believed that she doesn't have to testify. DOJ is taking the position she doesn't have to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee about Epstein because she's no longer the Attorney General of the United States. Now, that's a ridiculous position legally and logically. But I think there's a pretty stark contrast between how DOJ has approached this and to an extent how Congress has approached this, on the one hand, with the open transparency that we just heard the First Lady call for.

KEILAR: The First Lady said, quote, "several prominent male executives resigned from their powerful positions after this matter became widely politicized. Of course, this doesn't amount to guilt, but we still must work openly and transparently to uncover the truth."

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN's Dana Bash earlier this year, he didn't anticipate any more charges as a result of the files. It is pretty stunning to hear that difference between what she is saying and what DOJ is saying.

HONIG: Yes, they're definitely on two very different planes right now. And it's also important to remember when we step back and focus on what exactly has DOJ done here. First of all, they botched the release of the Epstein files. And to my mind, they still have not fixed it.

They were late in their production by over a month. There were millions of documents they did not produce. They inexcusably revealed the identities of certain victims and survivors, which victims and survivors were, in a sense, re-victimized by that. DOJ redacted out the names of several wrongdoers, even though the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law, says that they're not allowed to do that. And thus far, neither Pam Bondi nor Todd Blanche\, the current acting attorney general, has, in my view, given a reasonable accounting of why that all happened or whether they will fix it.

So, if Melania Trump is going to call on DOJ to do the right thing in a spirit of bipartisanship, then that's a good thing. And it's something that I think Todd Blanche, as the new head of DOJ for now, needs to -- needs to heed.

SANCHEZ: Aside from what you just noted, if Bondi or Blanche were to sit before the House Oversight Committee, what questions would you want answered, not only about their approach, but any conversations they may have had with the executive branch about the issue?

HONIG: Yes, well, somebody from this Justice Department is going to have to testify in front of Congress. And DOJ, we know, is now saying, well, not Pam Bondi. She's no longer the attorney general. Okay, fine. Then, Blanche should come forward to testify. What questions? And I think Melania Trump suggested or sort of at least alluded to some of these. First of all, is there an ongoing investigation of anybody at DOJ around the Epstein case or not? They don't have to get into details. They can't get into details. But a yes or no would be helpful. We've seen mixed signals at best from Bondi and Blanche over the last several months. Are you done producing the Epstein files or are we still going to see more? Who was responsible for revealing the victim's identities that I just referenced before? Somebody did that. Was anybody held accountable for that?

[15:05:01]

Why are the names of certain wrongdoers redacted, even though the law says they're not to be? And will you fix that at the Justice Department? And when, if ever, will you be actually done producing these files to us in the American public? I think those are all questions that need to be answered. And, you

know, the committee, if you think about who the Oversight Committee has gotten in to testify, it's been of varying utility. Some people had a bit to say. Some had next to nothing to say. But they've brought in everybody from Hillary Clinton, who knew absolutely nothing about this, to much more relevant people. They're scheduled to depose Howard Lutnick at some point in the next few weeks.

And so, I think the big missing piece is somebody needs to be able to go in front of this committee and explain what this current Justice Department has done. It really doesn't matter so much whether it's Pam Bondi or Todd Blanche or someone else, but they remain largely unaccounted for.

KEILAR: Yes. Elie Honig, thank you so much.

Today, there is major movement to bolster the fragile two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran after Israeli strikes reportedly killed hundreds in Lebanon on Wednesday and put the truce in limbo. President Trump said in an interview with NBC that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be more low-key on Lebanon. But moments ago, here was Netanyahu.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through interpreter): I want to tell you there is no ceasefire in Lebanon. We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with force, and we will not stop until we restore your security.

Following repeated requests from the Lebanese government to open peace negotiations with us. Last night, I instructed the cabinet to begin direct negotiations with Lebanon in order to achieve two goals. One, the disarmament of Hezbollah. And the second, a historic, sustainable peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)'

SANCHEZ: CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward is live for us in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Clarissa, still major questions surrounding this ceasefire. How are allies there in the Gulf receiving all of this? What are you hearing?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think there's definitely more optimism this evening than there was the last time we spoke, Boris. We have just seen a -- a statement of sorts from Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who declared that Iran has been the outright victor in this last war. No surprises there. He went on to say that Iran will demand compensation for all those lives lost in that war. He also made mention of the fact that we will bring new -- bring management of the Strait of Hormuz to a new phase, again seeming to imply that Iran will retain control of that vital choke point. And he had a warning to what he called our southern neighbors -- that's a reference to Arab countries -- to stand on the right side and be distrustful of the false promises of the devils. But what he did not say, Boris, is that Iran will not attend these

direct talks in Islamabad on Saturday, or that Iran will no longer participate in the ceasefire as a result of Israel's strikes on Lebanon. And throughout the course of the day today, that has been the tone that Iranian officials were taking, that, effectively, these Israeli strikes ruled or rendered the ceasefire null and void and rendered the potential negotiations as meaningless, therefore kind of putting a huge question mark over the whole thing.

And now it appears, following this announcement that Netanyahu's government will hold direct talks with Lebanon, following this announcement from Mojtaba Khamenei, that, indeed, it looks like this fragile ceasefire is still just about holding. Although one more thing I have to note, we have just literally this moment seen reports from Kuwaiti -- Kuwait's military, that they have been intercepting drones over their airspace.

Again, this is the first time today that we have seen a report of any kind of Iranian missile or drone activity over this Gulf region, Boris.

KEILAR: Yes, very important. Clarissa Ward with the latest there from Riyadh, we appreciate it.

And still to come, it is one of the riskiest parts of this Moon mission. Tomorrow, the Artemis II crew will splash down back on Earth. We'll take a look at what that process entails.

Plus, a husband has been arrested after the disappearance of his wife in the Bahamas. We have the latest details about the investigation.

SANCHEZ: And later, what's on your phone could be causing damage to your brain.

[15:10:02]

The solution to the problem way simpler than you think. We'll discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:14:30]

KEILAR: It is the last full day in space for the Artemis II crew. They are set to splash down in the Pacific Ocean tomorrow. They are currently preparing for that re-entry, so important. Last night, the astronauts shared more details about the journey. They described how it has brought them closer together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA KOCH, ARTEMIS II MISSION SPECIALIST: I will miss this camaraderie. I will miss being this close with this many people and having a common purpose, a common mission, getting to work on it hard and hard every day across hundreds of thousands of miles with the team on the ground. [15:15:13]

This sense of teamwork is something that you don't usually get, like, as an adult. I mean, we are close like brothers and sisters ...

REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II: A hundred percent.

KOCH: ... and that is a privilege we will never have again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN National Correspondent Randi Kaye is at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

And Randi, you just saw a show and tell on how the parachutes will deploy, pretty important things that really have to work. What are we expecting here in the final stretch?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. I mean, there's a lot of talk about how the parachutes are going to work and how the heat shield, of course, is going to hold up. So, first to the heat shield. This is this special coating that is on the bottom of the spacecraft, and it's designed to protect the astronauts and protect the capsule from this extreme heat that they're going to experience very likely about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit outside that capsule. And so, it's supposed to erode very naturally.

But what happened with Artemis I is it -- it didn't erode naturally. It eroded in chunks. Big chunks broke off from the heat shield. That's not what they want to happen this time around. And it is not only coming in hot, but it's coming in fast. Brianna. This is going to -- this Orion capsule is going to be coming in about the maximum velocity is 35,000 feet per second, and the parachutes will deploy at about 24,000 feet. Hoping to slow this thing down.

We talked to an aerospace engineer here, and he showed me how the parachutes are going to work, watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED DAUM, NASA PARACHUTE SYSTEM MANAGER: Under three mains, which is the nominal configuration. It'll be about 17 miles per hour. We have built in redundancy so we can lose one parachute of each of the four types so we could see as few as seven parachutes tomorrow. And in that worst case, we would land under two mains, which would bring that descent rate, I think, at about 25 miles per hour. Still, the crew will be -- they'll survive, but it might be a little bit of a -- a rough landing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So, they're supposed to splash down at about 8 o'clock or so Eastern Time tomorrow night off the coast of San Diego, and that only makes things more complicated because it's going to be in the dark. So, they will have Navy divers there with headlamps on waiting to get to the capsule and get the astronauts out of it. They also have what they said was a full ER basically worth of medical supplies with them, just in case. Brianna.

KEILAR: Good, they have to be ready. It almost looks like the parachutes have parachutes. Am I -- am I right about that?

KAYE: Yes, there's -- there's a lot of them. There's actually a holding -- I guess, like a -- a holding bin for the parachutes. That's the first thing to go, and it takes off all the covers of all the parachutes, and then they shoot out. It almost looks like a firework. It just shoots right out of the -- out of the capsule, and then they -- they slowly bring them down.

KEILAR: Yes, more parachutes, I say. All the parachutes that you can put in that thing. All right, Randi, thank you so much.

CNN spoke with the daughter of that woman who went missing in the Bahamas, and we have her reaction to her mother's disappearance.

Plus, we're hearing from the attorney of the woman's husband, who has now been arrested.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:23:03]

SANCHEZ: We're tracking developments about a Michigan mom who went missing in the Bahamas. We've learned the husband of 55-year-old Lynette Hooker was arrested in connection to her disappearance. Brian Hooker told police that Lynette fell overboard Saturday night during a boating trip. He was reportedly taken to custody to answer questions according to Reuters. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is following these latest developments.

Dianne, you just spoke with Lynette's daughter. What did she share with you about this news?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, I spoke with Karli Aylesworth this afternoon and look, she says that she found out that her stepfather was arrested through social media and the media. That she was not contacted personally and look, as you can imagine, this is extremely difficult for her. She says she's hoping that this turns out to have just been a freak accident, but more than anything she just wants the truth about what happened to her mom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARLI AYLESWORTH, LYNETTE HOOKER'S DAUGHTER: I was very sad because he was important in my life and I don't want to believe that he did something like this. Why wouldn't he drop anchor and look for her? Why did he paddle the other way? If my -- if my significant other fell into the water, I'd be freaking out and going after him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: So, it's important to note that no charges have been filed at this time and we don't know exactly what led the Bahamian authorities to take Brian Hooker into custody. He was taken in on Wednesday night and they say that he is being questioned. An attorney for Brian Hooker released a statement that says in part Brian, quote, "categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing. He has been cooperating with the relevant authorities as part of an ongoing investigation."

Now, the announcement of the arrest came just hours after the U.S. Coast Guard said that it had opened a criminal investigation into the disappearance of 55-year-old Lynette Hooker.

[15:25:02]

The Hookers has been married for about 25 years. They often documented their adventures on the ocean on their social media accounts sharing as they were out on the seas. Brian told police in the Bahamas that they had left around 7:30 P.M. on Saturday. There were rough waters. They were in an eight-foot hard bottom dinghy and Lynette quote bounced out. She was not wearing a life jacket and that she was carried away.

He then drifted across to Marsh Harbour where he reported her missing at four o'clock in the morning. He said on Sunday the next day. Again, Lynette is still missing, Boris, but authorities say that it is now a recovery operation.

SANCHEZ: Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much for an update on that story.

So, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed his cabinet to begin direct negotiations with Lebanon in hopes of ending hostilities between the two countries. Stay with CNN. We'll discuss in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)