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King Charles Arrives on Capitol Hill for Historic Speech; DOJ Indicts Former FBI Director James Comey for a Second Time. Aired 1:30- 2p ET

Aired April 28, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:30:50]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right, you were looking at live pictures outside of the Capitol as King Charles is arriving here at the building to meet with congressional leaders ahead of his address to a joint meeting of Congress. He is making his way from the White House. He will be greeted by Speaker Mike Johnson and then he is going to be meeting with the top Democrats and Republicans, just the four of them from both chambers in the Speaker's ceremonial office.

We also just got some new pictures of the King's visit with President Trump in the Oval Office where they exchanged gifts. Charles presenting the president with a framed facsimile of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk, according to a release from Buckingham Palace. Despite the pleasantries, the long-standing relationship between the two nations has been strained here in Trump's second term over tariffs and also the war with Iran.

And this morning, the Financial Times released leaked audio of the British Ambassador to the U.S. and how he saw the alliance when he was speaking of it back in February before the Iran war began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIAN TURNER, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Special relationship is a phrase I try not to utter because it's quite nostalgic, it's quite backwards-looking, and it has a lot of sort of baggage about it. I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States, and that is probably Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: A foreign office spokesperson saying that these were private informal comments made to a group of U.K. sixth form students visiting the U.S. back in early February and they are certainly not any reflection of the U.K. government's position.

But as King Charles is arriving here on the hill right now, let's talk to someone who is attending his address to this joint meeting of Congress later today, Democratic Congresswoman Sara Jacobs of California. She's on the House Armed Services and also Foreign Affairs Committees. Thank you so much for being with us.

This is tough timing for that to be released. We had probably no coincidence here. The U.S.-U.K. relationship already strained and you hear the ambassador, in his own words, talking about it. What are the stakes right now?

REP. SARA JACOBS, (D-CA) HOUSE ARMED SERVICES AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEES: Look, I think the stakes of this are very high because as we're seeing with our relationship with the U.K., a lot of our allies and partners are Incredibly worried about what the United States is doing around the world and the role it -- and how it is impacting them whether it is tariffs or whether it is the war in Iran. And you know, I think the British can see that the war in Iran is not going very well, that the Strait is still closed, that we have no real strategy.

And so, of course, they're hesitant to sort of weigh in, hesitant to help us, and I think it makes sense because we don't have a strategy and I hope that Donald Trump sees that, sees what our allies see and ends the war as quickly as possible.

KEILAR: The ambassador says that idea of the special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. is quite nostalgic, that it's backward- looking, that the special relationship the U.S. has is probably actually with Israel, not the U.K. Do you think he's right?

JACOBS: I'll be honest. That's very similar to what I hear from lots of heads of state. I'm the Ranking Member on the Africa Subcommittee, so I spent a lot of time talking to leaders in the global south and you know, I do think a lot of people are noticing that we maybe hold ourselves and Israel to a different standard than we hold our other allies and partners, and that's why I think it's important actually that as we move forward with the relationship that we do treat it like we treat every other partner, that we treat it like we treat every other country, that we hold it to the same standard, that we enforce existing U.S. law and policy around human rights around how our weapons can be used, around food assistance.

And that we show that we are willing to hold our closest partners to the same standards that we are asking everyone else to uphold.

KEILAR: Those, the leaked audio also captures the ambassador talking about the Epstein scandal and how so many people have been caught up in it in the U.K. that it almost cost the prime minister his job while here in the U.S., that hasn't really been the case.

[13:35:00]

Your California Democratic colleague, Congressman Ro Khanna said that he spoke with the British ambassador who suggested the King may acknowledge -- that he will acknowledge the Epstein survivors in his address to Congress today. The palace has not indicated that publicly and the King is also the symbolic head of the judiciary in Britain, so we're very curious to see what's going to happen here.

What are you expecting? What do you think is appropriate? JACOBS: You know, I don't know exactly what the King is going to say in this speech, but what I will say is that I have been so heartened that in other countries, they have been able to get justice. And if in the U.K., the prince, the King's own brother, was able to be held accountable, then we should be able to do the same here in the United States with the president.

KEILAR: The King and Queen are not meeting with Epstein victims. There are obviously some considerations, as I mentioned, because of his role. They are -- Queen Camilla is expected to meet with representatives of groups campaigning against domestic violence. Are they doing enough?

JACOBS: I don't think any of us are doing enough to get real justice and accountability for the Epstein survivors. But I think what's key is that in the U.K., they at least have had some real accountability. We still are waiting for any here in the United States and that's why it is incredibly important that the Justice Department releases all of the files and that we actually hold people accountable regardless of what party they're from, regardless of what position they hold, if they did something wrong and if they abused these young girls.

KEILAR: And we are watching live pictures here as Speaker Mike Johnson is with King Charles, welcoming him. And I would be remiss if I didn't ask you a question about the shutdown of DHS, because this visit is happening in the midst of the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security coming on the heels of an assassination attempt over the weekend.

You are on the House Armed Services Committee and I'm curious because Democrats refusing to vote on ICE and CBP, those agencies, they already have funding. So that ends up being kind of largely a symbolic objection. But you as someone who is in San Diego, I know you're not right there against the coast, but I'm sure you have a lot of Coast Guard families who are in your district and they are talking -- even though they're getting paid, they are now reporting and I think a lot of people don't realize this.

They're reporting that they are out tens of thousands of dollars in moving costs, prolonged expenses, tuition assistance. They're taking out credit cards, they're taking out loans, they're hurting. That's just one piece of it, right? They're just one piece of the puzzle under DHS. There's also a lot of other public servants. What do you say to them as they feel that that opposition is coming at their expense and not realistically achieving much?

JACOBS: Well, Brianna, what I will explain to you which is what I explained to them is where we actually are in the negotiations, which is there is a compromise deal that would fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP that has passed the Senate and Speaker Johnson is who refuses to bring it to the floor. So this is not about Democrats objection, this is about Speaker Johnson literally being unwilling to bring to the floor a bill that has already passed the Senate that Democrats would support, that would make sure that the Coast Guard, that TSA, that every other part of DHS gets the support that they need. And the only reason Mike Johnson won't bring it to the floor is because he cares more about making sure that ICE and Border Patrol have funding to terrorize our communities than making sure that the Coast Guard and TSA get paid.

KEILAR: And I do want to talk to you a little bit more about this visit from the King because we have a little extra time as they are meeting right now. The Speaker is there, I think this is going to be a really interesting meeting. You've got the Speaker and Hakeem Jeffries, you've got Chuck Schumer, you've got John Thune, they're all in the room together. That doesn't happen all that often. What are you hoping comes out of this as they're talking to King Charles?

JACOBS: You know, typically, politics is supposed to end at the water's edge and we have been able to come together and give a picture of what America looks like to foreign leaders. And I'm hopeful that they'll be able to do this again and show that while we all might disagree, this disagreement is part of democracy, it is part of what makes our democracy so wonderful and this is part of what we fought the British to be able to do, right? To have a democracy, to have a republic where we can disagree, but still come together as Americans.

KEILAR: Yeah. 250 years later, it's pretty amazing. All right, we are watching a momentous occasion here. And Congresswoman Jacobs, thank you so much for being with us -- as we do it. Boris, back to you as we have just watched the King arriving here on the Hill, ahead of his address to a joint meeting of Congress.

[13:40:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We will get back to you in just moments, Brianna, but we do have some Breaking News into CNN. The Department of Justice has indicted former FBI Director, James Comey for a second time. Kristen Holmes is live at the White House with more.

Kristen, we should let our viewers know for context, he was previously indicted in September of last year on federal charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice related to his testimony. Those charges were later dropped in part because the judge ruled that the interim U.S. attorney who brought them lacked authority to do so. But now, we're learning that the administration has now sought charges against Comey again.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and that he was indicted a second time by the Justice Department. We do not know what these charges are. Just when it comes to what you were referring to, one of the things that we had heard from inside the White House, inside the Trump Justice Department, had been this idea that even though the judge said that he was throwing out the charges, that they could bring additional charges later, because of the fact that it was all about that interim attorney, Lindsey Halligan, there was a belief inside of the Trump administration and inside the White House that they would be bringing charges again.

And I can tell you from talking to people who are close to President Trump, this was somewhat of a priority for him. He wanted charges brought against James Comey. Obviously, the two of them have had an acrimonious relationship. He was the FBI director under President Trump. He has had nothing but animosity towards Comey. He obviously fired Comey.

And this goes really to the heart of everything that we have been talking about, the fact that President Trump wants retribution. He wants his Justice Department to be used for retribution. So again, we do not know what the charges are right now, but we have two sources who have told us that the former FBI director has been indicted again.

So again, we're looking -- we're reaching out to all of our sources, trying to figure out what information is out there, if Comey has been alerted, what this process is going to look like. But right now, that is the information that we have.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes at the White House, please stand by as we get more information. Let's go to Katelyn Polantz now, who's been following this story for us. Katelyn, what are you hearing?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, it's a big question right now on what would these charges be? What had happened previously with Comey in the Eastern District of Virginia, it wasn't just that he was charged for making a false statement and obstructing a congressional proceeding. That was about testimony he gave back in 2020, and he was indicted right under the wire at the five-year mark when the window of time was about to expire for him to be indicted there.

In that case, after that case was dismissed, because as you noted, the U.S. attorney down there didn't have the authority to bring it, that's what the judges found, the evidence got locked down. And the belief of many who had watched this case very closely was that the Justice Department was out of time to charge Comey again for that level of perjury related to that proceeding, and also that they wouldn't have the evidence to have anything in court for a case.

So what is this, is the big question right now. Where is it? Is it back in the Eastern District of Virginia or is there something else? The other thing we know that the Justice Department had looked at related to Comey, it was a photo he had posted on social media in 2025. The FBI was investigating that photo because it had the numbers 86-47, so 47 the FBI believed could have been about the president of the United States. They perceived it potentially as a threat.

Comey at the time said he thought it might be a political statement of these seashells in the sand spelling out a message, but he said he had no intention of conveying any threat. He was interviewed by investigators at that time in 2025 voluntarily. He talked to them about this photo he posted on social media and nothing ever came of it. Is it that? Is it something different?

We also know that there has been investigation ongoing down in Florida around a broad swathe of the Russia investigation. Many years ago, starting back in 2016, an investigation Comey had worked on until Donald Trump fired him as his FBI director. Could it be something related to that? A lot of questions here, but this is going to be a really interesting case moving forward because Comey had been indicted again and had been trying to make arguments in court the last time he faced charges in the fall that he was being singled out for prosecution, that it was very unfair.

You're very likely to see something like that again from his legal team, and I did try and reach out to them for more information. I have nothing back at this point on that front. We're still waiting. Boris?

[13:45:00]

SANCHEZ: Katelyn, please let us know what you hear from sources. Thank you for that update. Let's bring in National Security Attorney, Bradley Moss. Bradley, thanks for being with us.

What is your reaction to this news? James Comey indicted for a second time.

BRADLEY MOSS, NATIONAL SECURITY ATTORNEY: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again, Donald. Eventually you'll get them. You know, look, we're waiting to hear, as Katelyn just noted, where this was even brought and what the charges are. Two of the likely angles that she mentioned there, if they were to try that again, whether it's the perjury issue that was tried in the Eastern District of Virginia, or if it's that photo with the 86-47, if they try to bring up some kind of threat against the president, you know, prosecution along those lines, those would be a joke.

The pretrial motions write themselves. A third-year law student can get those tossed, let alone the top team he'll have defending him. What we don't know, and what'll be interesting to see is, is this the first shot coming out of South Florida where we know there is this ongoing attempt by Trump allies in the Justice Department to try to bring some sort of grand conspiracy charge dating all the way back to 2016, and Crossfire Hurricane, and the intelligence community assessment of 2017. Are they finally trying to bring that case? It'll be fascinating to see if they are. It's riddled with legal problems.

Waiting to see what the indictment shows, but I am not by any means impressed by this maneuver.

SANCHEZ: I also wonder about recent changes at the DOJ, and specifically I'm talking about former Attorney General, Pam Bondi's exit. President Trump, on social media, posted about his frustrations over her not pursuing prosecutions against some of his political rivals, Comey among them, as well as Letitia James, James Brennan, et cetera. Does it say something about how the new Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, President Trump's former personal attorney, might approach these cases?

MOSS: Yeah, it's certainly something we're going to learn about in the pretrial motion, there's no doubt, in some form of discovery is, were there declination memos? Did this already try to get brought up and Pam Bondi of all people, who was by no means weak-willed when it came to trying to bring prosecutions in support of Donald Trump's vendetta, did she turn these down, and yet Todd Blanche, and now Joe diGenova as well, who was brought in as a counselor to DOJ out in Florida, are they now trying to bring this over the objections of career prosecutors who previously rejected this?

It's going to look terrible for the Justice Department and its reputation, no doubt, when this all gets fleshed out in some form of criminal discovery and if this ever gets to trial, which I don't expect it will. But Donald Trump doesn't care about that. What he wants is what he's getting right this moment, which is the headline, James Comey indicted. He wants the spectacle. He doesn't care about what comes out in the end.

If he gets prosecuted and convicted, that's just a bonus for Donald Trump. He wants these chyrons right now.

SANCHEZ: And no doubt, whether there's a case, whether he winds up getting prosecuted, however the case gets adjudicated, it is expensive to mount a defense and there's no doubt that Comey wasn't looking forward to headlines like this. So it is interesting that you raised that point.

Bradley Moss, thanks so much for the perspective. Again, our Breaking News, Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted. We have more details on that ahead, including potentially the specific charges that he is facing.

Also, we're following events on Capitol Hill as King Charles is set to address Congress in just about an hour from now. Also, he's meeting with congressional leaders before that speech, trying to repair the special relationship, as it is called, between the United States and the U.K. We're following all these developments. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

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[13:53:38]

KEILAR: We do have Breaking News, the King is on the Hill. Right now, King Charles is meeting with congressional leaders ahead of what will be a history-making speech next hour. He'll become the first ever British King to address a joint meeting of Congress and just a short time ago, he met privately with President Trump in the Oval Office at the White House. And many are wondering if the King will say anything about the president's recent tensions with the U.K. over the Iran war.

Also Democratic Congressman, Ro Khanna, who just met with Epstein survivors, says he's expecting the king to address those women during his speech, although it is unclear so far if that is actually going to happen. So let's go right to CNN's Manu Raju.

Manu, what are you learning here?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we're -- highly anticipated moment here in which members of Congress are preparing to hear from the King in just about an hour. He is just now meeting with the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who made some brief remarks, really just saying that he was happy to see the King there. So telling him it is a great honor to have him in the Speaker's office and in the Capitol.

In a matter of moments, the King will go and meet with leaders on both sides of the aisle, not just Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, but also the Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, and the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune.

[13:55:00]

They'll have their own private meeting before the King goes and addresses the full House Chamber, which will include members of the House and in the Senate. That's the first time we've heard from a British monarch in a joint meeting of Congress since the King's mother addressed Congress back in 1991. Now this speech, we're expecting for him to reflect on the tense moment that the United States is in with the United Kingdom, but also discuss the long and shared history of the two countries and stress the importance of the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.

The big question that a lot of people have is, how will he address the scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein that has roiled not just American politics, but British politics and the royal family as well, of course impacting the King's brother. Will he reference the Epstein victims who have demanded a meeting with the royal family, who were here actually on Capitol Hill hoping for some facetime. That does not seem to be happening, the meeting at least, but will the King address that issue, that controversy, and talk about the victims.

Ro Khanna, the Democratic Congressman from California who's been a staunch advocate for releasing the Epstein files, said to reporters earlier today that he had been told by the British ambassador that, yes indeed, the King was expected to address the Epstein victims, but it was unclear if that was actually what's going to happen here. We have not gotten confirmation that in fact that's what the King will say.

So a lot of questions about that, but a lot of questions too about how he'll address some of these other issues that have been big flashpoints in the American relationship with the U.K. over the past year, whether it is about Iran, whether it is about tariffs, whether it is about NATO and the rest. So a lot of anticipation, a lot of expectation, and a lot of excitement here as the King is now on Capitol Hill.

KEILAR: Yeah, Manu, obviously there's a lot of frustration from the White House about how the U.K. has not provided more support for the Iran war. But at the same time, there's also a broad understanding that the U.S. didn't seek a coalition going into this, which is customary, right? That is normally the way that you would expect an administration to proceed going into a war. And I do wonder as we're looking here at live pictures, you see Senate Democratic Leader, Chuck Schumer, who is part of this meeting of congressional leaders with the King.

I do wonder, as there is this frustration and this special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. is feeling not so special, the King is really the emissary who might actually kind of take some of those rough edges and kind of soften them. How are you hearing from members of Congress as they're looking at this visit as maybe an opportunity for that to happen?

RAJU: Yeah, I mean there's a big hope that this will offer something of a reset of this relationship. The King, of course, we expect him to be pretty careful in diving too deeply on some of these political matters that are really left to the political arms of the British government to deal with, whether it is about Iran or whether it is about tariffs or whether it is about Greenland or about NATO, but maybe speaking in broad generalities about some of these differences of opinion between the two countries and trying to suggest that the United States and the U.K. have had some rough times in the past, but have -- things have certainly shifted back to more positive times in the aftermath of those rough episodes.

Perhaps he will be speaking those more general terms here, but there is a hope among a lot of members here that especially the ones on both sides of the aisle, who are so supportive of NATO in particular and have raised concerns about Trump's handling of NATO, that perhaps the King here will reaffirm his support for that alliance and his support of the United States working with European countries, working with the United Kingdom as part of what is needed to maintain the global order. They want to hear a lot more of that.

So how far the King goes into those complex thorny geopolitical issues though, that's another question we'll see in about an hour here, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah, broad generalities may be that safe sweet spot as we are watching now, John Thune exit this area where the Speaker's ceremonial office is for this meeting with the King ahead of this address to the joint meeting of Congress. Manu, thank you so much for that. We're going to continue to monitor the King's visit here on Capitol Hill. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Returning now to our Breaking News just into CNN, the Department of Justice indicting former FBI Director, James Comey, for a second time. Let's go back to Kristen Holmes who is at the White House with more. Kristen, what are you learning?

HOLMES: So Boris, we still don't know the charges but we do know what this is related to. Again, remember the first round, the first indictment was about him lying to Congress and these leaks to the press. That has nothing to do with this indictment. We are told that this has to do with the --