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New Information Indicates Egyptian Plane Crash Possibly Caused by Bomb; Sharm el-Sheikh Airport Security Increased; Ben Carson's Reaction to Media Scrutiny Analyzed; New Revelations Regarding Deceased Police Officer Question his Integrity; Donald Trump to Host "Saturday Night Live." Aired 2-3p ET

Aired November 07, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:01:06] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, hello again, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Egyptian aviation officials are now revealing what they heard on those flight data recorders from the deadly Russian plane crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYMAN AL-MAQADDAM, HEAD OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY: A noise was heard in the last second of the CVR recording. A spectral analysis will be carried out by specialized labs in order to identify the nature of this noise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN affiliate is reporting the noise heard on that cockpit recording is the sound of an explosion, and that explosion is not from an accident. The report also said the recordings revealed there was no sign of mechanical malfunction. This as ISIS is doubling down on its claims of responsibility in a new propaganda video. And Egypt's foreign minister is saying the international community did not heed Egypt's call to seriously deal with terrorism.

Meantime, the Department of Homeland Security says it will tighten security for U.S. bound flights in several international cities, including Cairo, Amman, and Kuwait.

Let's get to CNN correspondent Nima Elbagir. She is in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. So Nima, the head of the investigative team says all scenarios are on the table. Are they in any way lending some inference to, you know, being a bomb or anything in particular? They did talk about the noise, but are they explaining what that noise is?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Of course, the focal point is going to be that noise. And they're being very careful not to encourage any further speculation. But when you say all scenarios are on the table and then you speak about the black box recorder picking up a noise, then a lot of people are going to start joining up the dots in a lot of very different ways. But the Egyptian government, as you say, is pushing back quite

hard. They're saying they didn't get the international support they needed. The also maintain that they believe that their security setup at the airport was sufficient and was to international standard. But then the question remains, what exactly happened.

Well, it does feel like it's going to take a little while longer to discover because the head of the investigations team is saying they haven't been able to access that crash site. For the last three days, Fredericka, they say that the weather conditions are just too adverse. Their hope is to eventually get what remains of that plane back to Cairo and get a much better look at it.

WHITFIELD: And Nima, tell us more about this British jet and this near miss involving a missile. Tell us more about what that's all about.

ELBAGIR: Well, this really is playing into the broader concerns about having a major tourism resort in the south of Sinai when you have an ISIS presence and a whole array of other security concerns in the north of Sinai. So this was a Thompson flight, which is a British holiday charter company, and they admit that there was an incident in which it could have been a flare, but it was some kind of military object came into the sky, and there was concern about that. The Egyptians are saying that nothing of the kind happened. It was a ground to ground missile and it couldn't possibly have come anywhere near the plane. But it clearly -- clearly something happened that was enough to cause concern because the charter company reported it to the U.K. transport ministry.

All in all, the picture that's emerging is particularly troubling one. The Egyptians, because they're so reliant on tourism, Fredericka, when you have all of these different ways in which things are going wrong to varying degrees, it starts to become very uncomfortable here.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nima Elbagir, thank you so much in Sharm el- Sheikh, Egypt.

All right, I want to bring in our panel now. Michael Weiss is a CNN contributor and co-author of "ISIS, Inside the Army of Terror," Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona is a military analyst and a former U.S. military intelligence officer specializing in the Middle East, and David Soucie is a CNN safety analyst and a former inspector for the FAA. Good to see all of you.

[14:05:09] So while the Egyptians say the investigation is inconclusive so far, there was this noise. We've heard from British officials and U.S. officials who are saying there's some inference that, perhaps, and we said this before we heard about the noise today, that this looks like, you know, the work of an explosive device or a bomb to some degree.

So Michael, to you first. If ISIS, as it continues to insist it wants to claim responsibility, if, indeed, this ends up being connected to ISIS, what does it say to you about their potential reach, resources, growth, if, indeed, it was an inside job, if, indeed, it involves ISIS and a bomb may have been placed on board that jet?

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think the last point is the crucial one, that they are now capable of infiltrating essentially government services or security services. When they -- when the Sinai affiliate of ISIS put out their first communique or video and said, look, we're not going to tell you the mechanism by which you did this, but you go check it yourself and see if your black box analysis confirms what we're saying. You know, that could either have been they were bluffing or they don't want to give the game away, which is to say they do have somebody, or they had somebody at the airport who allowed them to bring on what by all accounts seems to be not a very sophisticated explosive device, something that would have been, you know, easily made without specialist or technical knowhow to evade these security measures.

So if Sinai does have this capability, it has essentially double agents or infiltrators in the Egyptian government. That is a very, very worrisome state of affairs.

WHITFIELD: So, David, what do you want to see happen in this investigation next? While Egyptian authorities, just as Michael said may not be revealing everything and there may be a reason why, the only one to give cryptic information. What are you hoping is taking place on the ground in terms of trying to figure out what exactly made this plane disintegrate in the air, and who might be responsible if anyone?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: The most critical piece of evidence right now, Fred, is to get that black box analyzed, to get the cockpit voice recorder analyzed. And I'm not talking about somebody sitting down and listening to it. What they do is a spectral analysis that's going to look at every frequency. And then we're going to -- they need to compare that against the archive of all the other previous explosions that have gone on within an airplane. They'll compare it to flight 800, for example, which was not a missile, it was no a bomb, but compare it to others that were. So there is a very distinct signature to an explosive device versus a crack or some kind of structural failure or an explosion off of a fuel source.

WHITFIELD: So is it enough for you that there is a noise? At what point are they able to, you know, discern what that noise is? How long does that take?

SOUCIE: It shouldn't take too long, honest. I think because of the political situation and what's going on there and the investigation into whether it was is, or not, that might take some time. If it is that, they're going to hold that information. It's a criminal investigation. They're under no obligation to release that until they come to a conclusion. So we may be waiting some time to hear that. If it, indeed, shows that it was a bomb, they're not going to say it was a bomb until they've figured out more along the lines of who did it and what they can do to mitigate it from happening again.

WHITFIELD: So Lieutenant Francona, what does the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence want to know, need to know? How does it go about getting something that Egypt, perhaps or even Russian authorities are not willing to share right now? How critical is it that the U.S. try to stay ahead of even from a distance this investigation so as to try to further protect U.S. interests?

LT. COL. FRANCONA (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Sure. It's a matter of flight safety. So we want to find out what went on. And rather than wait for the results of the investigation, as David said, they're under no obligation to release this information quickly. So it's incumbent upon the intelligence services of the United States, U.K., France, to determine what happened so they can better protect their own flights.

And this is just like a criminal investigation. I know I've been involved in these. What happens is after one of these events, everybody is told to go back and see what we had. Look at all the imagery, look at all the intercepts, look at all the intelligence reports that we have, and see if we missed something and if we could put together from hindsight.

WHITFIELD: When you say look at all the imagery, the satellite imagery?

FRANCONA: I'm sorry?

WHITFIELD: When you say look at all the imagery, you're talking about satellite imagery?

FRANCONA: Imagery, satellite imagery, also the heat signatures of that flash. That might have more information than they've released so far. It wasn't -- when we say flash, it wasn't a video signature, it was an infrared signature.

WHITFIELD: All right, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, Michael Weiss, David Soucie, thanks to all of you gentlemen, appreciate it.

FRANCONA: Sure.

[14:10:00] WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, CNN going inside Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh airport to see just how security there works.

But, next, a judge in Texas shot outside her own home. What investigators are saying about what may have happened, next.

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WHITFIELD: A Texas judge in the hospital with extremely serious injuries. Travis County district judge Julie Kocurek was gunned down last night right outside of her home in the Tarrytown neighborhood of Austin. Her attacker is still on the loose, and the clues are few and far between. CNN's Ed Lavandera joins me now over the phone. So Ed, what kind of information have investigators grabbed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It doesn't sound like the investigators in Austin have much of a lead at this point. This happened just after 10:00 central time last night, when the judge was arriving back at her home in that Tarrytown neighborhood. It's a very exclusive neighborhood just on the western edge of downtown Austin. And she was shot and immediately rushed to the hospital. Hospital officials say she's now in stable condition. She has been part of the evening in critical condition. But at this point it doesn't appear like the injuries will be life threatening and it sounds like she's expected to make a recovery.

But at this point everyone is trying to figure out what was going on in the situation. And obviously her position as a judge, a very high- profile judge there in Travis County, Austin, obviously, you know, creates a much more intense situation around this particular shooting as people trying to figure out was she targeted specifically because of her work, or was this a random act? And that's what investigators are trying to figure out right now.

WHITFIELD: And so obviously they'd be looking into whether this shooting has anything to do with a current case that she may be overseeing because she is known to be involved in high-profile political cases and even anti-violence campaigns?

[14:15:02] LAVANDERA: Right. You know, and that's the difficult part of this case. You know, we covered extensively a couple of years ago outside of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, a D.A. and another prosecutor that were shot and killed by someone who had been a disgruntled person who had been involved in past cases and past work, as well. So obviously we know from those situations that one of the things that investigators had to do was pour over extensively all over the criminal cases or any kind of cases that this particular judge might have been involved in to figure out if anyone might have had a motive to carry out an attack like this, and also figure out whether or not it happened to be a random attack.

But, obviously, at this point, it doesn't sound like investigators are ruling out any of those possibilities.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ed Lavandera, keep us posted. Thank you so much.

LAVANDERA: You bet.

WHITFIELD: As investigators try to figure out what caused the deadly crash of that Russian airliner in Egypt, the airport where the plane took off is on high alert, keeping a watchful eye on some of their own workers. CNN takes you behind the scenes of their security operation next.

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WHITFIELD: The country of Belarus is suspending air travel to Egypt after the deadly crash of that Russian airliner over at the Sinai Peninsula.

[14:20:02] Government officials are advising people to cancel their trips for the near future. The move follows Russia's decision to suspend all of its flights to Egypt. The caution comes after a Russian airliner carrying 224 people crashed

in Egypt last weekend. Authorities are not investigating the possibility that a bomb was onboard. French media is reporting European analysis of the plane's data recorders supports a theory that an explosive device inside the plane did take it down. Now the airport where the plane took off is stepping up security. CNN's Erin McLaughlin takes us behind the scenes at Sharm el-Sheikh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: CNN was given a tour of the inner bowels of the Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport. It's here that we see part of the luggage screening process. One by one, the bags come down, ready to be scanned.

All bags are first x-rayed. If they see something they think is suspicious, that's when they send it to this machine for more tests.

In a nearby room, a team of Egyptian police analyze the results. It's part of a process that British authorities say may have been manipulated, leading to the possible bombing of Metrojet flight 9268. The BBC reports British intelligence believes a bomb was placed in the lower half of the plane's fuselage, the place where luggage is stored during the flight.

Now suspicion is falling on workers at the airport. Passengers boarding flights to the U.K. are no longer allowed to check luggage in. Their bags are being flown on separate planes. British authorities say it's a decision taken after they surveyed the airport. They say there are more measures to come.

YASSER JAHINE, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, SHARM AIRPORT: We are human beings. We have to do our best to save lives.

MCLAUGHLIN: We meet the deputy director of the airport Yasser Jahine. He was appointed days a of the plane crash. He says he won't speak to the specifics of the investigation but insists the airport is safe. He's worried about the impact on Egypt's tourism industry. He believes British officials are at the airport more to assuage people's fears than to change security procedures.

JAHINE: They feel that they are responsible for the family, the people. They didn't feel comfortable because the media or public opinion.

MCLAUGHLIN: So you think that they're here responding to media pressure?

JAHINE: This is my point of view.

MCLAUGHLIN: But British authorities say there will be new measures. They refuse to give out details for security reasons. After all, what good is additional security if everyone knows about it?

Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Next, Ben Carson says the media is out to get him and he's calling it a witch hunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They have been talking to everybody I've ever known or seen. There's got to be a scandal. There's got to be some nurse he's having an affair with, there's got to be something. They are getting desperate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says the media's questions about his past are a witch hunt. During a Q&A with reporters last night, Carson slammed the press for asking questions about childhood stories that he tells in his autobiography. He has referred to the stories on book tours, including an incident in which he tried to stab a friend and another where he tried to attack his own mother with a hammer. Carson claims the media is out to get him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSON: I think what it shows, and these kinds of things show, is that there is a desperation on behalf of some to try to find a way to tarnish me because they have been looking through everything. They have been talking to everybody I've ever known or seen. There's got to be a scandal. Got to be some nurse he's having an affair with. There's got to be something. They are getting desperate. So next week it'll be my kindergarten teacher who said I peed in my pants. I mean, it's ridiculous. But it's OK because I totally expected it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Today Carson is campaigning in Puerto Rico, and that's where we find CNN national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty. So Sunlen, he's in Puerto Rico this weekend. Is this a book tour or is this strictly campaigning?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, Ben Carson will have a speech tomorrow here in Puerto Rico. And he certainly will be looking to reshape the narrative of the past week over all of these questions and the scrutiny, the intense scrutiny that he's received about the questions and inconsistencies in his past. And you certainly sensed that last night in that press conference. He was very combative with press in the room, aggressive and pushing back on all of these reports. He at times, Fred, really seemed almost exasperated that he had to be continuing to answer these questions, although, there are still a lot of legitimate questions that remain unanswered. Here's more of what he said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSON: I don't think it's causing a complication. And here's my prediction. My prediction is that all of you guys trying to pile on is actually going to help me because when I go out to these book signings, I see these thousands of people, they say don't let the media get you down. Don't let them disturb you. Please continue to fight for us. See, they understand that this is a witch hunt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: So certainly a prediction there by Ben Carson that he thinks all this scrutiny he's undergoing will only galvanize his base. I have to tell you, Fred, just moments ago Ben Carson's Twitter account tweeted out he has raised $3.5 million this week alone. He said that amounts to 10,000 donations each day. And he noted "Thanks, biased media." Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much.

Let's talk more about Ben Carson and what's happening right now on the campaign trail for him. Let's bring in crisis management expert Mike Paul who worked for Rudy Giuliani when he was the mayor of New York City. Good to see you, Mike.

MIKE PAUL, CRISIS MANAGEMENT EXPERT: Great to see you, Fred. How are you?

WHITFIELD: OK. So growing questions about Ben Carson's account of events in the past, stuff that he has written about and he has talked about publicly, whether it be on interviews or even on the campaign trail. So you are, you know, damage control, crisis control. Is he handling it well? Because last night, we saw a little difference in the tenner of his voice when he addressed the concerns and called the media out to get him. How do you suppose he's managing it? Well, in your view?

PAUL: I would give him a D. I don't think he's doing a good job at all.

You know, one of the things we need to realize, and maybe it's obvious, but I think it needs to be said, that this is the first African-American Republican frontrunner in the history of politics. So him himself having more of a quantitative background, more of a science and math background, he was an amazing surgeon, understanding science and medicine.

[14:30:03] But we're taking him out of his lane. He's not supposed to be an expert in this area. I also think that his advisers, and he's been trying to defend them, as well, really don't understand how important it is to understand this man from the perspective I was just talking about. I think E.Q., for example, and psychology are very important tools in understanding the thin skin that he has and his reactions to what he's been doing thus far. A gifted and seasoned politician certainly wouldn't be reacting the same way, in my opinion.

WHITFIELD: So is it your view that he or even his camp may have thought that because he's the nonpolitical type, you know, he's the outsider that, perhaps, he wouldn't be scrutinized the same way, he wouldn't be put to task the same way to try to address questions, and that his composure wouldn't be tested like others would? PAUL: If they thought that, that's a horrible analysis of what's

going to happen in this race not only from the media's perspective, but from his fellow candidates. You know you're going to get attacked. You need to understand all of the stakeholders you've been facing.

Look, if he were my client or my candidate and I was working on his team, at least four hours a day we would be going through some of the worst crisis perspectives, worst case scenario questioning to make sure he is best prepared. And he obviously isn't getting that type of training.

WHITFIELD: Well, do you suppose, because he even said at the podium. He said, you know, my supporters, you know, are going to see. You know, they're going to agree with me that people were out to get me and they will be supporting him even more so now. And is that what, I guess, comes with the territory when you are the outsider? Does that in large part explain why his supporters like him, because he is different than the other political types, and, that, perhaps, everyone is out to get him?

PAUL: In my opinion, that's a FOX-ification, I guess I'm creating a word by saying that, that is being added to the campaign. Now, we have to talk about that for a second. FOX News has for years beat like a drum that liberal media is bad. Don't listen to them. And I think that there are several candidates in the race on the Republican side who believe that does not have diminishing returns in saying so.

I disagree with them. I think over time we want to hear who Ben Carson is. We want to hear about policy. We want to hear how he handles tough decisions. We want to hear what his character is. We want to hear if he has integrity.

So we should be vetting everyone. Any seasoned political consultant would be telling him this is normal. There's going to be more. It's going to get more difficult. You're a frontrunner. There's never been an African-American Republican who was a frontrunner before. We have got to do more. We've got to be like Rocky in the ring every day. We need to prep you. You need to understand political policy. You need to understand worst-case scenario thinking. There's so much that he's not doing that he needs to do because he's not trained to do it.

WHITFIELD: So then, Mike, campaign ads also say a lot about who you are as a candidate and where you're going and how you're campaigning and says a lot about your character. So this is a campaign ad that he and his camp put out. And now Ben Carson has even said himself maybe it wasn't such a good idea. But it uses rap music to endorse the candidate, and for many who haven't seen it, here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSON: Because freedom is not free. We must strive for it every day. Every one of us must fight for it because we're fighting for our children and the next generation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we want to get America back on track we've got to vote Ben Carson as a matter of fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So what is the interpretation of this ad? What does it say about him, his candidacy, his character, all of that? What would you say as his crisis management manager, what would you say to this?

PAUL: Horrible decision to make the ad in the first place. When we first heard about it, I think everyone thought it was a joke. To think that someone who is black or loves just rap music is going to vote for Ben Carson because they heard that ad, I have to question the intelligence and the strategy of not only himself but of those that surround him. It was a horrible, horrible idea. And I think it's only alienated him within the base of the black community more so than ever.

WHITFIELD: So if that's the case, how do you recover from that if you're Ben Carson? If you --

PAUL: I think --

WHITFIELD: -- because of that in your view?

PAUL: The currency that he needs to be looking for as he's talking about how much money he's raised is a very different type of currency. It's called trust, the most important currency that you should have if you're looking to have people trust you to vote for you.

[14:35:05] He needs to make sure that he is authentic. He needs to make sure he's comfortable in answering any question at all. He needs to have the patience, the similar type of patience he would have in surgery, to make sure that we understand who he really is. And we should be looking through his books and looking for every detail, whether it was 50 years ago or it was today, as to who the man is.

WHITFIELD: All right, we're going to leave it there. Mike Paul, good to see you, thanks for being with us today.

PAUL: Thanks, Fredericka. Appreciate it.

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, new information on the deadly crash of that Russian airliner in Egypt. Let's go right to CNN correspondent Barbara Starr who just spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. So Barbara, what did you hear?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredericka. Let me first explain, we are at the Reagan presidential library here in Simi Valley, California, at an all-day seminar with top U.S. national security intelligence and military officials. That's where we found Jeh Johnson, the secretary of homeland security. I asked him why the homeland security department decided to take this move to increase some screening, some security measures at overseas airports where flights depart from and come directly to the United States. What are his concerns given the situation with the Russian airliner and the uncertainty about what happened to it? Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:07] JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We do so continuously. This process does not stop. It does not go to sleep. It does not take a break on weekends. It's something we do continuously. And given the ongoing investigation, we are particularly focused on what happened, understanding what happened and what more we could do in that region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: And that he added could, could potentially lead to additional aviation security measures. It's not clear yet. They need to learn more about all of this. But clearly, a lot of genuine concerns to make sure that, you know, they're touching all the bases and they've put the measures into place that they feel they need right now.

So where does the investigation stand in terms of how the U.S. government views it? Look, I mean, still, you will find people formally telling you they're looking at all the options. They have not settled on the fact that it may have been a bomb. But what we now know is there's a lot of chatter that they've begun to monitor about ISIS. They had chatter before the incident from ISIS in Sinai, nothing that was specific, but clear that ISIS was making the move, establishing the chatter pattern that it wanted to do something.

And since the attack, additional chatter that the U.S. intelligence community has monitored has shown ISIS in Sinai communicating with ISIS leadership back in Raqqa, Syria. So a lot of data points out there. A formal conclusion, no, but a lot of data points adding up to potentially, potentially one conclusion about what might have happened to this plane, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then Barbara, would Secretary Johnson say anything about how much the U.S. would be willing to invest in the investigative vein wing of what happened to this Russian jet? Would there be an investment of sending in U.S. personnel to Egypt to assist intelligence either? Is he willing to reveal anything about how the U.S. would be part of an investigative, you know, force there?

STARR: Right. Well, he -- he didn't address that directly. But I can tell you I've talked to a number of additional officials here attending this seminar all day long, government officials who are indicating that, you know, there would be a lot of mutual self- interests in some exchange of intelligence information with the Russians, the Egyptians, the British, who are very far out in front, obviously, with their concerns. Everybody's got a little bit of information. The desire, if you're going to find out what really happened to this airliner, all these governments may have to sit down and talk about it.

WHITFIELD: All right, Barbara Starr, thank you so much, from Simi Valley, California. All right, next, the police officer who staged his own suicide had a

troubled side. Personnel record shows suspensions, claims of sexual harassment, and threats. The disturbing details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:47:53] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. The revelations are nothing short of shocking. A man known to many as a model cop turns out to have a sinister side, one that led to faking his own suicide. This text from Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz says it all. "Work life has been a living hell the last two months." An audit was ready to reveal that he had been embezzling funds. And recovered texts alleged that he tried to hire a hit man to kill the woman auditing department accounts. Now his widow and son are said to be targets of investigators who want to find out how much they knew about these startling revelations. All of this painting a shameful picture of Gliniewicz. CNN's Rosa Flores joins us now live from FOX lake, Illinois. So, he's a man who led two lives, didn't he?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He lived two lives, Fred, and he got away with it. Just think about this. In this particular lake front where I'm standing at right now, hundreds of people gathered to celebrate his life after he died. But in that personnel file, there were clues, clues about the secret life he was living. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Sex, lies and drugs -- new revelations downgrading a man hailed a hero to a new low. Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz's personnel filing revealing character flaws that documents show led to at least five suspensions for things like being involved in the incorrect release of information, for not reporting to duty, and for negligence that resulted in damage to village property.

The file also explains in detail how a deputy found Lieutenant Gliniewicz completely passed out inside his truck on the side of the road, the engine still running, his foot on the gas full throttle. It would take two deputies to rake him up. Lieutenant Gliniewicz would later tell his superiors he had been awake all day long, had played volleyball, consumed six beers, and several shots.

[14:50:03] But perhaps the most shocking revelation, this lawsuit filed by a subordinate police officer in 2003 alleging Gliniewicz asked her to meet him in a hotel to give her her son's police explorer uniform. But once inside, the mood changed. According to the filing he gave her a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day, rubbed her shoulders, and pressured her to perform oral sex.

It didn't stop there. According to court documents, the subordinate claims she performed oral sex on Gliniewicz five times in total between February, 2000 and October of the same year with Gliniewicz indicating to her that the sexual favors were strongly encouraged and/or required to protect her job.

The suit was eventually dismissed but not erased from his personnel file, where it's noted along with a slew of other complaints about him. Drugs were not referenced. Authorities say they found those in an unmarked evidence bag in his desk.

Like everything else surrounding his death, it's raising more questions about his life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now, about those drugs, investigators say they found cocaine inside his desk. And so they started looking into the cases that he was looking at, that he was investigating to see if they involved any controlled substances. They didn't find any, but here's what they did find. They found deleted text messages that alluded to planting evidence on the village administrator. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right, Rosa Flores, thank you so much there in Fox Lake, Illinois.

All right, next, it's a big night for Donald Trump. He's appearing on "Saturday Night Live." But will his appearance translate into more support?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:55:46] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. Checking your top stories, two Louisiana police officers have been charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting a six-year-old boy. On Tuesday Jeremy Mardis was buckled in the front seat of his father's car when officers Norris Greenhouse Jr. and Derrick Stafford allegedly opened fire while in pursuit of the vehicle. The boy was shot five times. It's not clear what led to the chase, but police are investigating.

And security forces in Argentina are on, quote, "maximum alert" for notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The state run news agency says authorities have intelligence indicating the fugitive could be near the Chilean border. El Chapo made headlines when he broke out of a Mexican maximum security prison through a tunnel in July. Authorities are also searching for his wife, who they believe could be with him. They say they only want to question, not arrest her.

Well, tonight may bring record ratings for "Saturday Night Live" with Donald Trump as the host. Despite protests from Hispanic-Americans to dump Trump as the host for tonight's show, all signs indicate he will be there as planned. We do have some inkling of what to expect. As CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter explains, this is not Trump's first time hosting.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred, we know that Donald Trump has been busy the past few days preparing for "SNL," preparing for his big night on the stage. He hasn't been on the campaign trail. He hasn't been in New Hampshire in several days. That's because he's been here in New York over at the Rockefeller studios of NBC working with the writers, working with the producers on the best sketches, the best characters, the best punch lines for tonight. In some ways, Trump is the latest in a long line of politicians to use late night to their advantage. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's great to be here at "Saturday Night Live." But I'll be completely honest, it's better for "Saturday Night Live" that I'm here.

(LAUGHTER)

STELTER: He is back, Donald Trump on SNL this weekend. But this time, instead of promoting his reality TV show, he is promoting his presidential campaign.

TRUMP: So let me just say this -- Ben Carson is a complete and total loser.

STELTER: These days for White House hopeful, late TV stops are as natural as stump speeches in Iowa. Weekend trips to New York for "SNL" cameos are almost a requirement. For Hillary Clinton's campaign, being on the first episode this season was a big victory.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All anyone wants to talk about is Donald Trump.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump? Isn't he the one that's like, uh, you're all losers?

(LAUGHTER)

SARAH PALIN, (R) FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Live from New York, it's Saturday night!

STELTER: And everybody remembers Sarah Palin's appearance in 2008 right before the election with her impersonator Tina Fey.

TINA FEY, COMEDIAN: And I can see Russia from my house.

STELTER: One year before Palin's performance, then Senator Barack Obama appeared in a Halloween sketch.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And may I say, you make a lovely bride.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's a witch.

(LAUGHTER)

STELTER: Back in 1994, former president George H. W. Bush had a chance to respond to the show's jokes about him.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I have my revenge when the time is right. Not now. It wouldn't be prudent at this juncture.

(LAUGHTER)

STELTER: These politicians know they'll reach millions of viewers by showing a softer side. But sometimes it can be quite serious. Recall Rudy Giuliani on "SNL's" first episode after 9/11. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can we be funny?

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Why start now?

(LAUGHTER)

STELTER: Another famous New Yorker, Al Sharpton, actually hosted the show in 2003 while running for president.

AL SHARPTON: I'd like to go clubbing and I do love the ladies.

STELTER: But Trump is the first realfront runner to ever host the whole show.

TRUMP: I love what you do. It's great.

STELTER: Another mile post in the merging of politics with pop culture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STELTER: So will he impress the viewers? Or will he be a bomb? Will it be a snooze? I know I'm going to stay up tonight. I'm going to watch, and maybe we'll all be reviewing it tomorrow. Fred, back to you.

WHITFIELD: Oh, you're going to be reviewing it tomorrow, indeed. All right, thanks so much, Brian. We look forward to it.

[15:00:00] All right, thanks so much. That's going to do it for me. Thanks for being with me all afternoon. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Much more of the Newsroom straight ahead.