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CA Dems Gov. Newsom Claims He Is a Target in DOJ Investigation; Top Trump Officials Reportedly Raise Concerns About Iran Agreement; Mangione Returns to Court For Pretrial Hearing. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 16, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking overnight. A source tells CNN the Justice Department is investigating the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom said he is being targeted because he has been an outspoken critic of the president and he is considering himself running for president.

[07:30:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): One by one, anyone who has challenged Donald Trump has ended up on his hit list. And today, I proudly join that list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, one source tells CNN, Newsom, himself, is not being investigated. The probes are looking into possible tax crimes by people connected to him.

Let's get more details on this from CNN's Katelyn Polantz.

So, what are you learning about who exactly is being investigated for what?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, John, we're still trying to figure out the contours of this investigation but it appears to be around Gavin Newsom's wife, Jennifer Newsom. Someone who has been very active in non-profits, is also a documentary filmmaker in California. And indeed, the amount of information we've gained about this so far is that Gavin Newsom himself is not being investigated and he himself has not received any subpoenas for information regarding an active grand jury investigation.

However, the governor's office yesterday did tell us that both FBI and IRS agents so that would be a tax probe indicating some sort of tax inquiry that they were approaching contacts around the Newsom family, asking them questions. And when they were asking those questions, it became apparent to the governor's office that those questions were about money that the federal investigators must have seen in Newsom's accounts or somehow obtained information about Newsom's accounts, potentially indicating that there were subpoenas to banks or subpoenas around bank accounts of him and his family.

Now, Gavin Newsom, he is saying publicly that he feels he is being targeted. He and his family are being targeted because he is considering running for president and he says he is adding himself at this time to the Trump retribution list, the people who have been targeted by the Justice Department because they are political enemies of Donald Trump.

We don't exactly know if this is that type of investigation like the ones we have seen into others, Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, James Comey, the former FBI Director. But this appears to be an investigation that started a bit before.

Here's what Newsom had to say yesterday specifically about the part that this is looking into questions around his wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWSOM: Put my name on every and any enemies list you have, but leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta. I'd like to say something to my wife. These times are not normal, they're not ordinary. I love you and I'm sorry he's doing this. You have not earned a single one of the indignities that he's trying to inflict on you and our children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, John, we now wait and we continue to report to see what else we can learn about this investigation as we know that it is very likely coming out of the Eastern District of California, the Sacramento U.S. Attorney's Office, and see what else might emerge out of California in the coming days.

Back to you.

BERMAN: Yeah, whatever the legality, there are certainly political ramifications. Katelyn Polantz for us with the latest on all of this. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to continue the conversation now with CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Andrew McCabe.

I mean, I guess to you, there is this overarching question as to whether this is another case of a fishing expedition from the Trump administration in order to go after a political enemy or the family member of a political enemy. Have you seen any indication of evidence that there is a legitimate case?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yeah, Sara, that's what makes this one a little bit tough, because we don't have anything official. We don't have any really solid evidence. It is simply the governor saying that friends and associates have been contacted by FBI agents and IRS agents, and they've been asked questions that are specific enough, presumably about specific transactions, that would indicate that they have had access to financial records.

Now, it's entirely possible that the governor or his wife are currently under investigation. If they were, agents could be using subpoenas to subpoena records from banks or phone companies or anybody else, and they wouldn't know about that at this early point in the investigation. Those sorts of subpoenas are usually used with nondisclosure orders from the grand jury, so your bank can't tell you if the government has subpoenaed your records. So, it could be happening, but we don't have any really solid proof at this point.

SIDNER: Look, the Justice Department insists that political leadership wasn't involved in opening this probe. What would be normal investigative activity? I mean, is this normal? You go around and you talk to some associates as you're trying to look into something. Does this just seem like a normal course of events, how they're doing it?

[07:35:01]

MCCABE: Yeah, well, you know, it could be. So, let's remember that on the FBI side, to open a full investigation on someone, there's a very low threshold. The FBI simply has to have information that indicates a federal crime may have been committed, and that's enough really to get you going working with an assistant U.S. attorney using grand jury subpoenas, things like that. And in the course of that investigation, you might talk to business associates or friends, people who are potential witnesses, or maybe even people who would cooperate with the government in that investigation. So, that could be happening.

And I should also say that the existence of that sort of investigation in normal times, the simple fact that it may be targeting a political family, a political person, his wife, doesn't necessarily mean that investigation is politically motivated. It shouldn't mean that. But on the other hand, what we have seen so many times by this administration, unlike any other administration before it, is the very proactive, blatant use of the Justice Department to go after political enemies, to target political people, to try to drum up negative information about the people they don't like.

And so, now in these very strange times, whenever you see someone from a political background, particularly a Democrat, targeted, you have to consider that politics and bias and revenge might be the real motive here.

SIDNER: I was going to ask you about that. The trust in the sort of process here with the DOJ has in many households been lost because of the obvious going after enemies when it came to Mr. Comey and Letitia James.

Andy McCabe, it's always good to have you here to talk things out. I do appreciate it.

Kate? KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn back to Iran right now and the agreement that President Trump says that he has now locked in, a framework they say will be signed formally, if you will, on Friday, a framework to pave the way for real negotiations over the issue that President Trump says he launched the war to fix, Iran's nuclear program.

There's nothing but questions hanging over this moment as President Trump is attending the G7 summit, namely, what's in this? The text of this memorandum of understanding has not been made public. Sources say it includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iran's ports, and then kicking off 60 days of these nuclear negotiations.

So, essentially going back to where they were when the war began. But according to the president, he says the hard part is over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: We have our deal done with Iran and it should be successful. It goes to a second stage, which I think will be actually easier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I saw Marco Rubio sitting right next to him. "Axios" is reporting that the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, have all raised concerns about this framework and Iran's willingness to actually make the nuclear concessions they believe the president is confident he'll get.

Joining me right now, CNN Senior Political and Global Affairs Commentator Rahm Emanuel, the former Mayor of Chicago, former White House Chief of Staff to President Obama, former Ambassador to Japan. It's good to have you.

Do you see progress in what we know now?

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: No, I think, first of all, it's not a peace deal. It's a ceasefire with a large addendum about the Strait of Hormuz, which was not a problem before the war started. So, all this negotiated was to open something that was open before with a lot of, now Iran has gathered the capacity to hold the entire world economy hostage, which they'd never had before, never tested before, and never tried before.

They now know they can do it and that holds the world economy, gives them leverage in the future for any other potential conflict.

Number two, the nuclear material in the past was out of Iran. It's now in Iran and it's not out. And if you take the president's statement when he started, not one of those items has been accomplished. And I think this is, in many ways, it leaves Iran much stronger. They now know they can control the world economy, which is leverage. As I said, we were dealing with the nuclear. Now they figured out they have a nuclear option called the Strait of Hormuz.

Second, and also, they never once in the past ever confronted America militarily directly for fear. They just took Israel and the United States' best punch, and they're standing, and now they know they can do it.

BOLDUAN: But the president would counter that he has largely taken out their navy and they have done real damage to a lot of their military infrastructure.

EMANUEL: So, that's an old way of looking at things. And what I say by that, neither Iran has a navy, neither Ukraine has a navy, and both control the waters in front of them. That's how war has changed, and the president's using an old model and an old measurement that doesn't reflect how drones and new technology has changed the entire battlefield. And you're going to not have to be able to fight two wars, but fight two different wars simultaneously in the same theater.

BOLDUAN: The president offered a really harsh assessment of Israel and Netanyahu today, describing the actions against Hezbollah in Lebanon as essentially reckless and ineffective. The president says also that Israel's taking too long. Let me play this for you.

[07:40:13]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you. And I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah, because to be honest with you, I think they'd do a better job of doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you think of that?

EMANUEL: Well, this is definitely, and you can see in Israel, actually affected Netanyahu's political standing, national security standing. One of the criticisms that a lot of people on the right made of the agreement that President Obama made with Iran was that it left the proxies unanswered. Here, not only is it not answered in the agreement, worse, the president is undermining Israel's ability to actually fight either in any one of the proxies in Hezbollah.

And I think that is going to pay very negative for the capacity of Israel to deal with what they refer to as Iran's octopus, which is Hezbollah, Syria, Yemen, et cetera. So, it's a much worse situation. But for all the people that always said that there should be no daylight between the United States and Israel, that's more than daylight, what the president just did to the prime minister.

BOLDUAN: You've been hearing that a little bit more and more.

EMANUEL: He has said, I mean, first of all, in the agreement, he compliments both Xi and Putin and attacks Netanyahu not once, not twice, not three times, multiple times. I think this is a wake-up call.

BOLDUAN: We've talked a lot about, you know, interest in 2028. We were talking about Gavin Newsom and this investigation just before we came here. What do you think of this?

EMANUEL: I think it's really, really a reckless act by the president, more so reckless than his justice. And I say him because there's no way if Gavin Newsom was lieutenant governor or mayor of San Francisco, they would ever do this. This is because he's thinking of running for president.

He is a political target. And worse than that, and I think the governor knows it, we talk often and frequently, the fact is you're taking a justice department that is supposed to be a political free zone and making it an instrument of politics. That undermines everybody's understanding and appreciation that everybody will be held to the same standard of a rule of law.

And I think this is an incredibly dangerous step. I mean, you just earlier on had a comment, the former deputy head of the FBI, who himself was a target, and his own wife was a target. There is a pattern here, and I think it's a wake-up call to all of us, regardless of what you want to think about Gavin Newsom's record.

Family and being a political opponent doesn't make you a target of using the resources of the Justice Department and the FBI to destroy you.

BOLDUAN: Real quick, World Cup's underway. There's been a lot of excitement and talk about also security and also ticket prices. When you were mayor of Chicago, you turned down a chance to be a host city, which a lot of people would say every mayor would be champing at the bit to get the nod for that. Do you regret that now? What's your assessment of it as you look at this?

EMANUEL: FIFA wanted to, look, first of all, I wanted great games, exciting games. I watched them. I played soccer when I was a kid.

BOLDUAN: Right.

EMANUEL: This was -- FIFA came to us and said, the taxpayers will take all the risk, we'll get all the reward. Nobody does that. I never went to business school, but I can tell on the front end.

I mean, just in Kansas City, right before the games, FIFA canceled 80 percent of the rooms. Every city and every state is left holding the bag. I'm responsible for the taxpayers, and I said the taxpayers are not going to be the dumb money. They will not be the dumb money footing your bill. And when I was mayor, no sport team got public resources. My job as mayor is to protect the taxpayers. We did it. Wrigley got improved. No taxpayer support. Bulls and Blackhawks moved their training facilities in. No taxpayer support.

I think here at FIFA, I want the games to be great success, but cities and state taxpayers should not be subsidizing where FIFA's going to walk out with $15 billion, is their estimate. It's quite -- we're not -- they're not an ATM machine for FIFA.

BOLDUAN: It's quite interesting -- it's quite interesting how this is all unfolding.

EMANUEL: Great games.

BOLDUAN: We love great games.

EMANUEL: Great games.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: We all love great games. We also like not being an ATM.

EMANUEL: Taxpayers are actually footing a bill for a ticket that they can't afford.

BOLDUAN: That's definitely one way of seeing it. It's good to see you.

EMANUEL: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for coming in.

John.

BERMAN: Yeah. I watched about seven hours of World Cup soccer yesterday. I plan to watch about that much today. It has been awesome. The highlight yesterday, the almost impossible tie from the tiny island of Cape Verde, which we are now all of a sudden calling Cape Verde. They tied World Cup favorite Spain. Let's get right to see it as Coy Wire. And we have like this new hero all because of it.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Ah, you are always my hero. Why do you make me laugh like this? I'm trying to get my thoughts together, John. Good to see you.

Look, when FIFA expanded this tournament from 32 to 48 teams, some wondered if we get too many mismatches. Well, this answers that debate. Spain came in one of the favorites to win it all. Cape Verde came in making its World Cup debut. Somehow they left with the same number of goals.

[07:45:12]

Now, this wasn't just a draw. This was a tiny island nation of about half a million people standing toe to toe with a soccer giant, refusing to play. Cape Verde shocked Spain and the entire football world, holding the European chance scoreless in their first ever World Cup match. The hero is that 40-year-old goalkeeper, Virginia. Like a bouncer at the world's most exclusive club, he spent 90 minutes looking Spain in the eye saying, and not today. Seven saves. Countless heart palpitations for Spanish fans. After earning FIFA's Man of the Match award, Virginia revealed he wished his mom could have been there to see it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOZINHA, CAPE VERDE GOALKEEPER: My mom, she didn't manage to be here because of the visa -- the -- how to say it? The -- I forget now. Because of the money we have to pay for the visa, we didn't manage on time, and I would like she to be here, but I'm very happy also, and I'm very happy for all the Cape Verdean people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: John, check out the scenes back in Cape Verde. Pure football fairy tale. People dancing, singing, celebrating a single point like it was a championship trophy. For a nation making its World Cup debut, this wasn't just a point. It was proof they belong.

Today's What a Shot brought to you by HBO Max. Before this match, Virginia had about 50,000 Instagram followers. After holding Spain scoreless, more than 6 million. That's more followers than Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Aaron Judge, Josh Allen, and Jalen Brunson for perspective.

All right, just when we thought Wimbledon couldn't possibly get more stars studded, just in Serena and Venus Williams are teaming up for doubles. Somewhere ticket resale websites just did a happy dance. Serena is 44. Venus turns 46 tomorrow. Two of the most influential athletes in sports history reuniting a decade after they last won together at Wimbledon. It's less than two weeks away. Serena did pick up that doubles win at Queens Club in London last week. John, scheduled to play again at the Berlin Opener when they won their first doubles match together in 1999.

Smartphones barely existed, John. Social media didn't exist. And some of the players who are going to be competing against weren't even born yet. That is awesome.

BERMAN: Still, I would not bet against them. Coy Wire, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

WIRE: You too.

BERMAN: Sara?

SIDNER: It's so cool. Can't wait to see it. All right, in just hours, a critical hearing about jury selection in the case of accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione. What we can expect in court today. We're live outside court. And dramatic rescue 92 miles off the coast of Georgia. Here's what we're learning. More on this. Whoa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:35]

BOLDUAN: This morning, the former vice president, Kamala Harris, is criticizing President Trump and the war with Iran and speaking on a range of issues. She appeared with the former California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, at the Austrian World Summit in Vienna. CNN's Elex Michaelson moderated the event.

Joining us now from Vienna, what happened?

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, good morning to you. Good afternoon here in Vienna. This is the Austrian World Summit. It's the 10th year in a row that Arnold Schwarzenegger has hosted the biggest climate conference in all of Europe. And so, I had an opportunity, as you mentioned, to talk to both of them on stage. And when we talk about energy, gas prices have been through the roof this year because of what's happened in the war with Iran. So, I asked the former vice president how she would have handled that situation if she was in the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: But to be clear, if you were president, you'd never start this war.

KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Let's be clear about this. Whatever is being negotiated, this president is going to declare victory and we'll end up where we were after the JCPOA and call that a victory. This is a war the American people did not want. This is a war of choice. This is a president who has proven himself to be entirely self-indulgent. And we will see what happens in the coming hours and days. In terms of the negotiation, and really it's a concept of an agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So, she does not sound very optimistic in terms of what's happening going forward. She also talked about how the gas prices have really hurt everyday Americans who can't afford it. But a very different vision here, Kate, than what you're hearing from the White House.

BOLDUAN: I'd say so. Excited to hear more about the conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger as well. It's great to see you, Elex. Thank you so much.

John?

BERMAN: All right, we're learning this morning that a producer from "Love Island," USA died while filming the show in Fiji. James Barker reportedly passed from unexpected medical emergency. No further details were released.

Barker had been with the show since 2020 and was an executive producer for the last three years. "Love Island" says he will be honored in the show's next episode.

[07:55:07]

In Hawaii, a volcanic tornado, or volnado, you can see it there, spinning the ash and the heat right near the lava on Mount Kilauea, which is erupting. It has been erupting on and off for more than a year. It remains one of the most active volcanoes on Earth and gifts us things like volnadoes.

This morning, seeing green. The president's quest to make the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial Blue has had a setback. It's green after being overrun by algae. The administration spent more than $14 million on the renovation. The initial estimate was just under $2 million. The contractor on the project was also given a no-bid contract, which is unusual. The Park Service says they think this issue can be fixed, sending teams into the water to sweep the algae into a machine that will kill it, at least for now, Sara. For now, it's green, not blue.

SIDNER: Yep, not the color he was looking for. It costs a lot of money. Anyway.

This morning, we are standing by for Luigi Mangione to appear in court for a pretrial hearing focused on jury selection and scheduling ahead of his state trial. Mangione is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024. In addition to state charges, he also faces federal stalking charges, all of which he has pleaded not guilty to.

Joining me now, CNN Legal Analyst and Criminal Defense Attorney, Joey Jackson.

Give us some sense. We've got this, obviously, jury selection is huge in any case, scheduling, and this potentially sealed court decision. What do you know about all this?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: OK, so it's sealed. Good morning to you, Sara. So, very little, OK, is the true answer.

SIDNER: Yes.

JACKSON: All right, because it's sealed, but we can speculate, and let's talk about that in terms of speculation. Whenever the court goes dark and they're having these discussions kind of outside of the purview, you know that they're discussing things that are very sensitive and very significant.

One of the things the defense has not done is they have not put the prosecution on notice as to whether they're going to use some kind of psychiatric defense. In the event you're going to use some psychiatric defense, whether it be insanity or whether it be extreme emotional disturbance, you have an obligation under New York State law to put the other side on notice. We don't do trials by ambush. You can't just show up to the trial in September and say, oh, by the way.

SIDNER: Right, it's not a TV show.

JACKSON: Exactly right. So, it triggers a number of things. Like what? Like the evaluation of his psychiatric condition. The prosecution has a right to vet that as well so that by the time of trial, all parties know what they're facing and they could proceed accordingly.

So, I think, right, that potentially that could be a big deal. Will we learn that today? We may, but there's a number of other things they have to cover as well.

SIDNER: When it comes to these pre-trial motions, how important are they in setting the sort of stage for what is going to happen? Because this is kind of everything, right, that they know. The judge kind of understands where all this is going, correct?

JACKSON: Sure, so true, Sara. Because, look, you want to know what the rules of engagement are, right? And we've seen a number of pre-trial proceedings here relating to this case, relating to what's in, what's out, what evidence is going to be admitted that is seen by a jury. We know they're going to see the gun. We know they'll see the silencer, right? We know they'll see the, it's been termed the manifesto. We know they'll see certain handwritten notes that he made concerning his thoughts.

But there are things that we won't see, right? The fake ID, the cell phone data, other things that the judge has said that, no, no, can't use it because it was a warrantless search. Everything that was gotten as a result of what's called an inventory search, you're back at the precinct, you search the backpack, that's in.

And so, that's also important today. Everybody has to understand what the rules of engagement are going to be. You understand, prosecutors, you can't do this. You understand defense, you're not allowed to do that. And then, of course, they'll get to logistical issues in terms of scheduling. Are we ready to proceed? Has any, has all the discovery been turned over or sometimes you create additional discovery? Both sides are going to get that.

And then, of course, this is a unique case, so you got to focus on the jury selection issues. Generally, Sara, there's a questionnaire that's generic to many cases. This, I think, will be more specific and the judge will want to know what, if anything, the parties have to contribute with regard to selecting a jury that's fair and can hear the case.

SIDNER: What exactly they think about this particular case because it was so well publicized. And as you always say, I remember this, it's not that you know about the case, it's that can you form an opinion based just on the facts of the trial and put all that other stuff that you've heard out of your mind?

JACKSON: Exactly right.

SIDNER: Right?

JACKSON: Absolutely right, Sara.

SIDNER: OK.

JACKSON: That's what they do.

SIDNER: I just got my law degree. Thank you so much, sir. Joey Jackson.

JACKSON: You got a lot more than that. SIDNER: It's such a pleasure. So, good to see you.

JACKSON: You're amazing. Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

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