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Judge Says Trump's IRS Lawsuit Sought to Manipulate Judicial Process; U.S. Uses One-way Attack Sea Drones for First Time in Iran Strikes; Trump Reinstates Blockade of Iranian Ships in Strait of Hormuz; Raging Wildfire Scorches Forest Outside of Paris. Aired 1:30- 2p ET

Aired July 13, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": A federal judge ruling today that a controversial DOJ lawsuit against the IRS sought to manipulate the judicial process and that President Trump acted in bad faith in bringing it. This is the case that led to the creation of the now defunct $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund for the president's allies. It was also used to justify giving Trump and his businesses amnesty for any past tax issues.

Now the judge has ordered sanctions against the attorneys involved in the case. So let's discuss with CNN's Senior Legal Analyst, Elie Honig. Ellie, sanctions for the attorneys involved, that is not something that happens every day. That is big.

And in her conclusion, the judge quotes John Adams, writing facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. She then details the facts of the settlement. What is the conclusion that she's drawing here?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Brianna, this is a scathing rebuke by this judge of the Trump administration and Donald Trump and his lawyers. And just so people understand how this came about, this is Judge Kathleen Williams, federal judge down in Florida. This is the judge who was originally assigned the case when Donald Trump, in his private capacity, sued the IRS, which is, of course, under his control as president.

And at a certain point in that case, those parties came to Judge Williams and said, we have a settlement and therefore we want you to dismiss the case. The judge did that. That's ordinarily what a judge would do. Did not know the terms of the settlement. And of course, that settlement resulted in the $1.776 billion slush fund and the immunity for President Trump.

Today's ruling is essentially this judge saying, you misled me, you duped me, you did not give me the full story here. And I find that this case was essentially collusive, was not two parties against each other, as a case should be, but rather two parties working together. And so that leads to the sanctions that the judge imposed, which you're right, are quite rare and extraordinary. KEILAR: Yeah, it's really something here. She accuses the government in this case of abdicating its responsibility to zealously defend the interests of the United States. She argues that the administration's response to the case disregarded DOJ policies and potentially the law. What is this kind of warning shot going to mean for other cases, do you think?

HONIG: Well, ordinarily, when a person sues the federal government, and that happens all the time, DOJ and the government either settle the case in good faith for an amount that it's actually worth. In this case, I don't think there's any real argument that Trump was damaged to the tune of the $10 billion that he sought, or fights the case in court. That's a feature of our judicial system.

We don't do cases where the two parties are really just the same party, just on the two different sides of the case. There has to be a true adversariness requirement. So what the judge is saying here is, I find that the government essentially was in the bag for Donald Trump here. Donald Trump runs the executive branch.

The executive branch includes the IRS. And I find that the IRS and DOJ never put up a fight, that they only entered into this whole arrangement because they wanted some cover for what became that settlement that gave us the slush fund and the immunity agreement, and that you won't be able to get away with that moving forward.

KEILAR: The judge ordered her opinion be submitted to Attorney Disciplinary Boards in New York and Washington, D.C. She referred one of Trump's private attorneys to the Florida bar. She blocked another lawyer from entering court appearances in the Southern District of Florida for the next year. What does that mean for the careers of those lawyers?

HONIG: Well, it's obviously always a huge problem for lawyers to get referred to your bar licensing committee. There's a direct referral on the lawyers in Florida. That's where the judge practices. And also a sort of indirect referral on Todd Blanche and Stanley Woodward in New York and D.C. The judge just says, make sure that a copy of this is sent to those authorities. It's a big deal.

The other thing that the judge does in this ruling is essentially say that the immunity agreement for Donald Trump, saying he can never be investigated by the IRS for anything up to the date of the settlement, which I think was in May, a couple months ago in 2026. The judge says basically, effectively, this is null and void. The parties are not allowed to use this or refer to it or use it as a shield moving forward.

So that essentially means that that immunity agreement, according to the judge right now, is essentially null and void. But of course, the Trump administration and/or Trump himself are very likely to appeal this. So we've not heard the end of it just yet.

KEILAR: Yeah. We will await that. Elie, thank you so much. There's a new response from President Trump in the wake of escalating attacks between the U.S. and Iran. He says reimposing the blockade on Iranian ports. He says he will reimpose the blockade and will charge a fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay for it.

So what does this mean for negotiations? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:39:41]

KEILAR: We're back now with our Breaking News. Today, President Trump says the U.S. is reimposing its naval blockade of Iranian ports and will now charge a fee for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz as reimbursement for protection. The announcement is coming after the U.S. military says it struck dozens of targets in Iran overnight. The strikes are part of a U.S. wave of attacks over the last several days aimed at stopping Iran from attacking commercial ships in the Strait.

[13:40:00]

CENTCOM says it also used one-way attack aerial drones and one-way attack sea drones for the first time in strikes against Iran on Sunday. Let's talk about this now with retired Air Force Colonel, Cedric Leighton. He's a CNN military analyst and CNN's Pamela Brown who's just got back from the Arabian Sea where she spent several days with a U.S. carrier strike group there.

And Pam, you were on the USS Abraham Lincoln there in the Arabian Sea. What did you learn about the difficulties of a blockade?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT & ANCHOR: So I talked to some of the top officials involved in imposing the initial blockade and they said, look, there was no playbook for this. It hadn't been done in decades and to do it on this scale, it was really challenging.

Just the, how big the Arabian Sea is, first of all. You know, fighter jets were not necessarily designed for maritime control, so you also had that. And just figuring out how to use the resources that they had, plus defending 20,000 sailors at sea, how to do all of that every day, 24/7.

So I actually asked the captain of the USS Abraham Lincoln, Dan Keeler, about this and it's especially relevant today as I'm told, Brianna, that they're now reimposing the blockade. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: OK, so tell me about the blockade and the challenges with that.

CAPT. DAN KEELER, COMMANDING OFFICER, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The challenges with it is it's a lot of space and we -- to execute a blockade properly, you need a lot of ships. And we had quite a few destroyers. What the air wing can do to help is to find the ships. And so we did support all of the surface ships with reconnaissance flights and then, when necessary, could execute some procedures to try and get the ships to turn around.

BROWN: And if you -- or disable the ship if it doesn't.

KEELER: Yeah, in a few --

BROWN: You know that's happened.

KEELER: A few rare circumstances when vessels would not comply with the direction to turn around, yes, there were times when aircraft had to use ordnance to make a point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And I'm told in the last blockade, Brianna, close to 10 ships were targeted as part of this. They were trying to get to the Iranian ports and didn't listen to the repeated warnings from U.S. service members.

I just got off the phone with Captain Timothy Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, and he said coordination is taking place right now. We'll know more in the coming hours about how and when this blockade will play out. And in terms of like how the fees or how we'll be reimbursed, how that's going to happen, he said that's a White House question.

KEILAR: It's a huge question for the White House and the president is obviously putting it out there. So those challenges that Captain Keeler outlined there, along with the U.S. being this guardian, Cedric, of the Strait and then charging, that's quite a premium on passage. I mean, what does that mean and what does that set up for the long term for the U.S. military?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yeah, that's going to be a real problem, Brianna, because what we're looking at here is the imposition of tolls or service fees or something like this, and that really flies in the face of the whole idea of freedom of navigation, which is what the U.S. has stood for, for really centuries.

The whole principle of freedom of navigation is you don't charge tolls going through natural bodies of water like the Strait of Hormuz, the Arabian Sea, the Strait of Malacca, any of those bodies of water that are not canals. So this is going to potentially, if it's imposed the way it seems to be talked about right now at the White House, then it's going to change things like the law of the sea, the international norms that govern maritime traffic. So this could be a really big deal and it might not be very helpful from an economic standpoint.

KEILAR: It's wild, I mean, what he's talking about here, but let's talk about what it really takes to control the Strait, or sorry, to get Iran to no longer control the Strait, because we've talked with former government officials who say it's not as if the U.S. government hasn't looked at this before, they game these things out, and the assessment appears to have been that it takes ground troops. They have to go actually well into Iran, they have to then secure the land, and then it requires those ground troops to be there, I don't know if it's in perpetuity or indefinitely or whatever, because they have to hold that over time with the risk that Iran is going to try to control it again. Is that how you see it?

LEIGHTON: Yeah, I do see it that way, Brianna, and you know, one of the key problems is that, you know, what -- if you're not willing to put in ground troops, how exactly are you going to be controlling maritime traffic coming through the Strait of Hormuz? You know, the one -- you know, if you look at the map, you know, you look at the way in which everything is arrayed, and you'd have to basically land a force at a place like Bandar Abbas, and then move into the mountains.

And those mountains are pretty, pretty high, and the terrain is such that it, you know, would lend itself to insurgent activity, it would lend itself to troops being impacted by improvised explosive devices. In other words, it would be like seeing Iraq all over again, and that is something that would be very, very difficult because, you know, it's not impossible. Iran has been occupied before, you know, in World War II, forces occupied, including American forces occupied Iran, just as an example.

[13:45:00]

But one of the key problems is, is that there, the population was basically more docile, it was not a really a hostile regime to those forces. This, what we're talking about now, involves a regime that is hostile to U.S. forces, and we also have to worry about what would happen next, not only to our forces, but to the countries in the Gulf and our other allies as well.

KEILAR: Pamela, you did such great reporting on the Abraham Lincoln.

BROWN: Thank you.

KEILAR: It was really interesting to watch, and seeing you around the service members, I know you got a sense of what they were thinking and feeling. They were so busy, they were working their tails off.

BROWN: Yes, they are.

KEILAR: What -- did you get a sense of the length of the deployment and the commitment for them, what that is weighing on them like?

BROWN: Yeah. Look, it's been a long deployment for most of them since last November, and I'm told it's the most consecutive days at sea by an aircraft carrier, just given the limited port visits that they've had. Normally, you have more port visits, longer port visits. When I was there, they had to leave port early because of all the escalating tensions.

And so, on one hand, when you talk to them, even during times like this where it's busier, they'll say some of the days can feel like Groundhog Day, right? You know, I mean, that's just the reality of living on a ship. On the other hand, they understand what they signed up for, and they really take a lot of pride in the jobs they have.

Everyone on that ship has an important job to make that aircraft carrier run 24/7, whether it's taking care of the engines to the fighter jet, to making sure the fighter jets have all the fuel they need. Everyone has an important role, and even though they're tired and they've been at sea for a long time and are missing their families, they haven't met their children. I met so many service members who had never met their children.

KEILAR: They're new children.

BROWN: New children, yes.

KEILAR: They've been born while they've been underway.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: That were brown when they were away. Yeah, one of them, Joe Capstaff, his daughter, first child, born in February. He's never met her. And there were so many stories like that, but then they always come back to, you know what, we're here to serve a purpose, no matter what you think about the policy of the war and all that. We're here to serve a purpose, and when we sign up for this, you basically know you're kind of giving up your life and your schedule to serve the country, and I saw that firsthand.

KEILAR: Yeah, but that's extraordinary, right, what they're dealing with. I mean, hats off to those military families who are shouldering that burden at home.

BROWN: And their families, you know?

KEILAR: It's a lot that they're shouldering.

Cedric, I do think that the narrative shifted from, you know, initially there being this engagement, and then things are winding down, there's negotiations. We're in a different place now. The blockade's reinstated, the ceasefire has crumbled, and I just wonder how you're seeing this moment that we are in, in terms of a military engagement and being at war.

LEIGHTON: Yeah, it's a potential turning point, Brianna, and what you're looking at is not a peacetime deployment or an enforcement deployment where, you know, let's say it's just "a blockade." This has the potential to move into a totally different realm, and there's a high risk of miscalculation here and, you know, we have the forces in place, the forces that you saw in action, Pam. Those are great centers of power for the United States and, of course, the professionalism of the service members is extraordinary.

The problem that you have is, number one, have we decided to sustain an operation like this? And number two, is this really where we want to go? Is this what we want to do with Iran? Do we want to change the shape of the Middle East and eliminate this regime? And then what happens next? You know, so the aim of regime change was something that was really scuttled in the first few minutes of this war. But now, we have a situation where a sustained long-term operation is definitely possible, and are we ready to do that? We haven't had that discussion at a national level yet, and that's something that we probably need to have.

KEILAR: Yeah, certainly. Colonel, Pamela, thank you so much to both of you.

And still ahead, new video showing a man just being launched into the air. There is no other way to describe it. It is -- you really aren't prepared to see it -- by a bison in Yellowstone National Park. We'll break down what happened here, and we'll talk about how that man is doing next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:54:06]

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. Two teenagers in East St. Louis, Illinois, are accused of shooting seven members of their own family. Five of the victims killed ranging in age from 21 to 74. Both survivors are in serious condition. Police say these appear to be targeted attacks that unfolded at three different locations over the weekend. Authorities have not revealed a possible motive.

Also, emergency crews in France are swooping up water from the Seine River to fight a wildfire that is raging in a forest near Paris. The fire has already burned through three square miles of the forest, and authorities say they're investigating whether this was started deliberately. An increase in wildfires in France and the rest of Europe this summer has been driven by an extreme heat wave. In France alone, 2,000 deaths are being blamed on the heat just in the last week of June.

Scientists have said the intense heat wave would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.

[13:55:00]

Doctors are warning parents about a dangerous social media trend involving a popular squishy toy. Apparently, some children have been microwaving these. They're called NeeDohs, trying to make them softer. But the gel inside can, no surprise, overheat. It can explode and cause serious burns.

Health officials say some children have suffered burns to their arms and hands. There are warnings on the packaging about not heating the toy, and the company that makes it says it's disappointed that there's an online trend demonstrating misuse of its product.

A tourist is recovering from surgery after a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park. And here's how it unfolded. This person who recorded this video says the bison had been charging around a campsite. 65-year-old Carl McDaniel and his grandson were walking, and they stopped to take pictures of the animal when it suddenly rose to its feet.

And I have to warn you, this video is graphic. The bison charges, it chases the grandfather around trees before it eventually catches up to him and tosses him there, several feet into the air. He suffered a broken femur in that. We're joined now by Ron Magill, Conservation Liaison for the Zoo Miami Foundation.

I've got to be honest, Ron, I wasn't prepared. I mean, I was shocked when I saw this video. What did you see here?

RON MAGILL, CONSERVATION LIAISON, ZOO MIAMI FOUNDATION: I saw a bull probably raging with hormones. Right now is the peak of the breeding season for bison in Yellowstone and all throughout the West. So these males are just raging with hormones right now.

They really are, you know, for lack of a better term, almost out of their minds. This bull by himself tells me that he's probably been fighting left and right trying to look for females, has not been successful, is very frustrated.

I saw a vehicle drive through in the video prior to that bull getting up, and my understanding is he might have been beeping the horn, which got the bull's attention. When you see a bull running, you know, rubbing around in the dirt like that, it's all a machismo thing. It's trying to build up character.

They're just laden with hormones to fight to get females at this time. And so when I saw that bull go up and go after that gentleman, I knew it was going to be bad news.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's like he starts to kind of get his hackles up a little bit with that car going by and he's just raging there. Talk to us about buffalo in Yellowstone. I mean, anyone who's been there, I've been there. It's amazing. It's amazing to see them. But these are truly amazing but dangerous animals. Talk to us about them.

MAGILL: No question about it. You know, first of all, you know, not to be perfectly correct, but you know, they're not really buffalo. They're bison. They're not a true buffalo at all. So the bison basically are very powerful animals. They can run, you know, well over 25 miles per hour.

Incredibly powerful animals. And the males, they just get very full of themselves, especially this time of year. Try to imagine, you know, this male has probably been trying to get females. He's been fighting other males. He's been losing all the fights. He's by himself. He's frustrated. Now he's got a horn that's beeped and he's got very easily ticked off. He's at the end of his rope.

So he went after this gentleman. And you can see by the way that gentleman, this is an adult man and not a small man, tossed up in the air probably 10, 15 feet like he was made out of styrofoam. And basically, it tells you the immense power of these animals. So that's something you have to keep in mind. But having said that, don't paint with a broad brush. Don't avoid going to Yellowstone to look at the beauty and the miracle of that place because I've been there many, many times. And listen, that gentleman did nothing wrong. Yellowstone tells you national parks, you should stay 25 yards away from the bison minimum.

He was way more than that. This bison just got his number probably because the horn in the truck set him off. He saw that gentleman move and that was the first thing he went after. I don't mean to say this in a degrading way, but when the hormones are rushing like that, they're not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

KEILAR: Yeah.

MAGILL: So they just go after everything and they're not thinking very clearly.

KEILAR: OK, there's a reason. We're paying attention to this because it's so rare and it's so extraordinary. And yet as you say right now --

MAGILL: Exactly.

KEILAR: This is kind of the state of what these bison, I'm going to get that right by the way, bison, not buffalo.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: This is the state that these bison are in. And I just credit this man for ultimately protecting his grandson. But knowing this, knowing at this moment --

MAGILL: Exactly.

KEILAR: -- that you do have people coming within a somewhat short distance of people like this, would you tell them right now to take certain precautions that ordinarily they might not take, more than 25 yards? Because he was, I think, at least 100 yards, according to the person who shot the video.

MAGILL: Yeah, he was far away. I'll tell you what, anytime you're walking in country that has buffalo and bear, I would always carry bear spray. It helps, trust me. It can save a life. You have bear spray.

What you don't do with a buffalo like this or a bison like this, I should correctly say, is that, you know, you don't yell, you don't try to make noise. If that gentleman indeed beeped the horn in the truck, that could have very easily been able to set him off.

I mean, it's pure speculation, but those types of things. You know, if you see like a black bear, yes, you raise your arms up, you say, hey bear, hey bear, don't run away. And usually the bear will go away.

With a bison that's going after, you know, females that's in the top of his rut, you don't do that --