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Articles of Impeachment Now to the Senate Floor; From Too Much Heat to Heavy Rain; Vladimir Putin Prepares for His Future in Politics; President Trump Signs Trade Deal with China; Lev Parnas in his All-out Admission. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired January 16, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN Newsroom.

On to the Senate. Just hours from now the U.S. Senate will formally receive the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. We will tell you what will happen next.

Vladimir Putin's power play. The reforms that might keep him in control of Russia even if he's not president.

Plus, bush fires and rain, why it could lead to new problems for Australia.

In the U.S. House speaker's world lawmakers crossed a very important threshold in American history Wednesday. Nancy Pelosi signed the articles of impeachment and named the managers who will prosecute the trial in the Senate.

Then in a ceremonial display the House managers walked the articles across the Capitol to the Senate. Pelosi held onto the articles for four weeks to pressure the Republican-led Senate to outline its trial guidelines.

President Donald Trump is charged with abuse of power for allegedly pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, and obstruction of Congress for blocking testimony and documents.

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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), UNITED STATES SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I make it very clear that this president will be held accountable, that no one is above the law, and that no future president should ever entertain the idea that article one -- excuse me -- article two says that he can do whatever he wants.

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CHURCH: Now Democrats say the delay in handing over the articles was worth it because more evidence has come to light. The House Intelligence Committee released documents from Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Alex Marquardt has the details.

ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The trove of explosive new evidence reveals a deeper darker role that Rudy Giuliani and his team played in Ukraine for President Trump.

Handwritten notes, text messages and letters handed over by Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas who was now under federal indictment allegedly show a more sinister effort to get dirt on Joe Biden and exert power in Ukraine.

House Democrats are hoping the documents will be used in the impeachment trial and they say it may just be a glimpse of what is out there.

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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We have only obtained a very small sample of the universe of documents that the president is withholding.

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MARQUARDT: On the hotel notepad Parnas scribbled get President Zelensky to announce that the Biden case will be investigated. Giuliani who was accused of leading in irregular channel with Ukraine was also reaching out to the new Ukrainian president himself.

This nearly released letter from Giuliani requesting a meeting, quote, "in my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent."

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SCHIFF: There is no fobbing this off on others. The president was the architect of this scheme.

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MARQUARDT: Part of that scheme, Democrats says, was Giuliani's drive to get U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch removed.

Disturbing, angry and vitriolic text messages now show Parnas in touch with Robert Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut who suggest there is surveillance of the ambassador. They are moving her tomorrow; Hyde says on March 25th.

She is next to the embassy, he says later. Hyde also appears to offer Parnas something nefarious referencing unknown people willing to help, adding, guess you can do anything in Ukraine with money.

Both Parnas and Hyde are denying the allegations that they were following Yovanovitch with lawyers for Lev Parnas saying that this is evidence of Mr. Hyde's dubious mental state. For his part. Rob Hyde is calling these allegations laughable. He said that these text messages were sent to Parnas by he and his friends when they were drinking. He calls Parnas a dweeb and says that he was never in Kiev.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

CHURCH: Well, Lev Parnas for his part claims he was on the man on the ground in Ukraine during the dirty work for both Giuliani and President Trump and that the president knew exactly what was going on. Parnas told CNN's Anderson Cooper more about the supposed quid pro quo at the heart of this investigation.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You go in, your message is, announce the Biden investigation.

LEV PARNAS, RUDY GIULIANI'S ASSOCIATE: Announce the Biden investigation, get rid of certain individuals that are enemies of the president in his administration.

COOPER: At that point was there any mention of withholding of aid?

PARNAS: Yes. Well, if they didn't make the announcement basically there would be no relationship not just -- it was no specific military. There is no way there was going to be assisted. There was never going to be no inauguration. Pence wouldn't be at the inauguration and there would be no visit to the White House. There would be basically they will have no communications.

COOPER: So how -- you told the top official in the Zelensky inner circle that if they did not announce an investigation of the Bidens immediately and to get rid of some folks around Zelensky who they believe were opposed to President Trump that there wouldn't be any aid and Vice President Pence would not even come to the inauguration.

PARNAS: Correct.

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CHURCH: And you can see more of Anderson's interview with lev Parnas on AC360 Thursday night at 8 Eastern. That's 9 a.m. Friday in Hong Kong.

Political analyst Michael Genovese joins me now from Los Angeles. Good to have you with us.

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you.

CHURCH: So, the impeachment articles and now with the Senate and the trial is expected to start early next week. The big question now is whether we will hear from new witnesses and whether the newly released evidence from indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas will be heard. This is what Parnas told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC Wednesday.

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PARNAS: President Trump know exactly what was going on. He was aware of all of my movements. He -- I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president. Why would President Zelensky's inner circle, or Minister Avakov, or all of these people where President Poroshenko meet with me? Who am I? They were told to meet with me and that's the secret that they're trying to keep. I was on the ground doing their work.

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CHURCH: Michael Genovese, it is an extraordinary revelation. What impact will this likely have on the impeachment trial and how relevant is the credibility of Parnas and the context of this considering he is likely looking for a plea deal of some sort?

GENOVESE: Well, Lev Parnas is not the ideal witness to have if you're a Democrat and he is questionable enough so that the Republicans might be able to say look, this is just some wild guy making up stories, trying to get a better deal.

And so, I think while his revelations about Parnas are worrisome and they're frightening in many respects. You're talking about a U.S. ambassador being hounded, maybe hassled by a representative of the American government who was following her, stalking her knows when she's on the phone when she's not.

This is really very worrisome. But it's kind of like in this case the sopranos meet the Keystone Cup. You've a bunch of people who are really third rate of what they're doing were getting caught, were getting found out. It would be comic if it weren't so tragic. Will this matter to the Republicans who now control the process? Probably not. If they have their way, they will not let this enter into the process.

CHURCH: Right. Now you mentioned that disturbing surveillance. Parnas actually provided House impeachment investigators with this text message exchange between himself and Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde in reference to former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

And Hyde writes on March 23, 2019 that he has knowledge of Yovanovitch's whereabouts and her level of security saying this. "She's under heavy protection outside Kiev." Parnas replied. "I know. Crazy. Shit."

What do you make of this clear effort to actively stalk an American diplomat and what impact would you expect these disturbing text messages and related material to have on the Senate impeachment trial, particularly given Parnas has said that he didn't do anything without the consent of President Trump or Rudy Giuliani?

GENOVESE: Well, if Lev Parnas weren't strange enough you've got Hyde into the picture. And so, you've got all these unbelievable characters at a casting as if it were made into comedy. It's not a comedy because what they were talking about can be very serious.

It may have been that they were talking about doing some kind of violence. The ambassador from the United States. That was the implication of what they said. And the question is then how can Republicans ignore this? Will they enter it into the process? The answer is they don't want to and I think more than anything else since Mitch McConnell runs the process, he is going to try to stir things away from that.

And the threat being that, well, number one, you had your chance. You investigated and you may have done a prematurely and ended quickly. We don't need to do an investigation.

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Second thing they might say is, look, if you want to bring in witnesses and you want to bring this stuff up, we'll bring some things into the process like the Bidens. And we'll bring them as witnesses.

And so, it's kind of an escalating game that the Republicans are playing. This is something that should matter to all Americans. The fact that from most Republicans they're saying we don't want to deal with it is quite alarming because it's so serious it should be taken seriously. But there is kind of these stepford Republicans who were saying no matter what the president does, no matter what the president has ordered we're on his side.

CHURCH: Michael Genovese, many thanks to you for joining us. I appreciate it.

GENOVESE: Thank you.

CHURCH: And here is how the impeachment events will play out on Thursday. At noon Eastern Time House impeachment managers will present the articles of impeachment to the Senate. The chief justice of the U.S. John Roberts will be sworn in to preside over the trial.

Senators will also be sworn in as jurors and President Trump will be officially summoned and given time to respond to the charges. The actual trial in the Senate is expected to begin next Tuesday, January 21st.

Well, hours before the House speaker signed the articles of impeachment President Trump held a different signing ceremony at the White House. He and the team of Chinese officials inked the first phase of a trade deal effectively pausing their ongoing trade war.

China has agreed to buy more products from American farmers while the U.S. pledged to reduce some tariff rates but other tariffs imposed on each other will stay in place.

So, for more, we turn to CNN's David Culver. He joins us now live from Beijing. Good to see you again, David. So, how's this newly signed trade deal playing out in China, and how are they explaining the fact that some of these tariffs are staying in place?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Rosemary. Good to see you as well.

Well, it's been publicized at least. This is the 80-plus page document. The deal itself. Phase one as we know it and it's been translated also into Chinese and it's been published to the public here in the people's republic.

As far as how it's being framed it's not been seen here as a U.S. win certainly. They don't want to cave and say that the concessions were more so on China's side to benefit the U.S., but rather it's being framed as a win all around. A win, win, win, if you will. A win for the U.S., a win for China, a win for the world.

That's how President Xi Jinping is describing it. And he put his words into a letter that was read yesterday at that signing at the White House by Vice Premier Liu He who was representing the Chinese obligation.

It's also worth noting that several op-eds have come out in Chinese media that have reinforced this idea that there was a balance, that the U.S. did not overtake China in this deal but rather they were concessions on both sides. It was out of mutual respect and equality. That's the phrase they often like to use. And that going forward it will be better for the global community.

They also state and they stress this time and time again that they could have gone on for several more months without a resolution and China's economy could have withheld that without a problem. That's the portrayal from Beijing.

But it was also worth noting that this was something that was publicized as it was happening. It was live broadcast in the middle of the night 2 a.m. as that signing happening in Beijing time. And they broke in with a special report on the CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster. And so, they promoted this is a very positive thing.

The question going forward is how will phase two shake out. And is that something that will be even feasible within the few next months or even before at the 2020 election.

All sides seem to agree that this is going to be problematic going forward, and it seems that China has resolved to it least breathing easy a bit that phase one is done. Now all eyes turned to phase two and they seem to understand that those tariffs are going to be in place until that phase two deal comes to fruition. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Certainly. We'll keep an eye on that. David Culver, many thanks to you, bringing us that live report from Beijing.

Well, Vladimir Putin still has four years left in office but the Russian leader appears to be maneuvering to hold on to power far beyond the end of his term. Soon after Mr. Putin proposed major changes to the Constitution on Wednesday, his prime minister and cabinet resigned.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now from Moscow to talk more about this. Good to see you again, Fred. So, what is going on here and why is this happening now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rosemary.

Well, Vladimir Putin is obviously always been known to be quite an accomplished strategist so maybe it's not much of a surprise that he is already making move looking forward toward the future. Unclear however what exactly he is trying to achieve and what exactly is those moves are meant to do.

The one thing that we do know is that in 2024, Vladimir Putin would have reached his fourth term, the end of his fourth term in office and at that point in time he would've have, or would have to, or will have to step down as president of the Russian federation.

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Now the big question has always been here in Russia what happens next? Will he leave public life? Will he completely retire after that? Will he try to carve out some sort of new role for himself after that.

And certainly, with these new amendments to the Constitution and now with the government stepping down there are some people in Russia who believe that he might indeed be carving out a new role for himself in the future.

Essentially, what's going to happen with these constitutional amendments if they go through which everybody here believes that they will, is that there would be more power with the Russian Parliament and with the Russian prime minister. The parliament will then elect the prime minister rather than the president electing the prime minister.

So, some are asking whether or not Putin might be trying to position himself to go back to being the prime minister of this country. You recall he had two terms in office then he served the term as prime minister, then he came back to being president. Is he planning something like that?

Again, totally unclear at this point in time. Also, could he be trying to carve out maybe some sort of different role for himself or maybe he is not involved in day to day politics but still has a large role here in this country.

So, there are a lot of questions that folks are asking here. A lot of strategizing that's being -- that's going on, lots of speculation that's going on.

The one thing that we do know, Rosemary, is that the next president of the Russian Federation whoever that's going to be is going to have a lot less power than the current president of the Russian Federation which is of course Vladimir Putin and that the prime minister is going to have a lot more power than he had before, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes. So, we probably have a fair idea what he's at then. Fred Pleitgen, many thanks to you. PLEITGEN: Yes.

CHURCH: Explaining that to us live from Moscow.

Well, a blessing and possibly a curse as rain begins to fall on Australia's southeast where bush fires have been burning out of control and it could be trading one disaster for another. We'll take a look.

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CHURCH: In Australia, thunderstorms are finally sweeping across the bush fire ravaged east coast. While it's bringing hope that some of the fires will be put out or at least slowed, officials warned that lightning could start new fires.

The wet weather has improved the air quality in Melbourne where qualifying matches for the Australian Open are underway.

So, let's turn again to CNN's Will Ripley joining us live from Melbourne. Good to see you, Will. So, we're all very thankful for the rain in Melbourne for improving air quality of course. But elsewhere, there's fears of flash flooding, mudslides, possibly what more are you learning on this?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And firefighters are cautioning everybody, Rosemary, that yes, the rain is welcome but it's just simply wasn't enough to contain this wildfire crisis. When you have more than 100 fires burning many of them out of control, many of them significant.

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Yes, it's good news that right now the skies are relatively clear. They're not impacting play at the Melbourne tennis center behind me. However, we don't know what the coming days will bring. The forecast is good. But you know what they say about Melbourne. You can experience all four seasons in a single day.

And so, while the wind is in our favor at the moment, what happens when the winds shifts and those huge smoke plumes that we have seen that we have experienced in recent days come blowing right back into the city and that's the real concern.

There were actually, you know, players complaining about the fact that they had to be outside in conditions. At the same time as the city of Melbourne earlier this week was warning people, you know, to bring their pets inside.

Now I will say that we've spoken with, you know, organizers who say that they are taking every possible precaution to monitor not only the air quality but also when temperatures inevitably climb back up because we are in the middle of summer here.

You know, when you combine that extreme heat with what is expected to be, you know, a deterioration in the air quality possibly back to that hazardous level that we saw earlier this week, you know, imagine doing that and then being, you know, outside for hours on end with highly physical activity, you know, hours of tennis play.

It could be a really difficult situation for the players who are going to be coming here and this will go on for two weeks. So we know that the weather conditions will certainly fluctuate during that time. We might have some days like this, and we unfortunately might have days like just a few days ago when Melbourne actually had the worst air quality in the entire world.

CHURCH: Yes. It is so unpredictable at this stage. Many thanks to you, Will Ripley for bringing us up to date on the situation.

Well, as one scientist puts it, we are experiencing the impacts of global warming literally unfolding in real-time. According to NASA and NOAA, 2019 was the second hottest year on earth in recorded history.

Alaska had temperatures in the 90s shattering records there, and Europe injured brutal heat waves. The hottest year on record was 2016 and the five warmest years have all occurred since 2015.

Scientists warn that climate change could increase the number of deadly wildfires, floods and even food shortages.

We'll take a short break here. Still to come, the Sussex royal brand has profitable potential but now the duke and duchess of Sussex will have to make important decisions about where and how their name is used. We'll have more on that on the other side of the break. Stay with us.

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CHURCH: Well, members of the British royal family is stepping out in public for the first time since Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced they want to step down as senior royals.

Harry's brother William, the duke of Cambridge, and his wife Kate, visited Bradford, England on Wednesday. Their first official engagement in 2020. They didn't comment on Harry and Meghan's move.

Meanwhile, the duchess of Sussex was photographed on Tuesday visiting a woman center in Vancouver, Canada. She's been in Canada with the couple's baby Archie, while Prince Harry remained in the U.K. dealing with the fallout of their bombshell decision.

Well, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say they want to earn their own money as they stepped away from being senior members of the British royal family.

But as CNN's Anna Stewart tells us it won't be easy to juggle that desire with the potential profits of their world-famous name.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: There is some things money can't buy. Love, happiness and a royal title. Although a royal title has the potential to rake in millions of dollars. Helpful for the duke and duchess of Sussex who say they want to work towards being financially independent.

Speaking engagements and book deals could be lucrative. So could their Instagram page with over 10 million followers it could be easily monetized with brand partnerships.

But P.R. specialist Mark Borkowski expects the Sussexes to trade carefully. First striking some form of rights deal with the tech giants like Netflix or Apple.

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MARK BORKOWSKI, P.R. CONSULTANT: You possibly could compare them to the Kardashians. If the Kardashians through their ability to use the media and use their brand officially with television packages and content being paid for, that's worth a billion.

But to see them doing commercials with the marketing boards or McDonald's or Pepsi I think we are in dangerous territory because of that. So, I don't think we'll be seeing those sorts of deals unless they're really desperate.

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STEWART: Fans can buy royal merchandise online. The proceeds of which support the royal collection. The nation's art collection held in trust by the queen. It doesn't go into her personal coffers.

There are also official shops near the palace. All fans can head to one of the many artificial shops down the road where there's a whole range of products. We had a Prince Harry bobblehead here. Many varieties of royal tine tea. And here we actually have a tea towel that celebrates the wedding of the duke and duchess of Sussex.

Now there is speculation that the official range of Sussex royal products could come onto the market since the couple applied for global trademark days before their shock announcement.

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SALLY BRITTON, PARTNER, MISCHCON DE REYA: I think they stay more aligned to the modern celebrity. You can see their Instagram, you can see their web site is a very kind of slick campaign in a way. So, they distinguish themselves from other royals. And the fact that they've filed these applications, filed internationally and they certainly set to have much more of a commercial organization.

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STEWART: The groundwork for commercial enterprise has been laid, but marrying that with the couple's royal status will be a delicate balancing act. The desire for financial independence on the one hand, the royal family's approval and public sentiment on the other.

Anna Stewart, CNN, London. CHURCH: And thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church.

The Global Energy Challenge is next. This is CNN, the world's news leader.

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