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Trump Recounts Details before Soleimani's Death; Parnas Documents Suggest U.S. Ambassador Was Spied On; Trump Adds Attorneys with TV Experience to Defense Team; Senate Prepares for Showdown over Witnesses, New Evidence; Judge Upholds Temporary Gun Ban outside Virginia's Capital; Kiev Launches Criminal Probes as Trump Impeachment Trial Begins; Delta Fuel Dump Angers L.A. Community; Three U.S. Airports to Check Passengers for Deadly Chinese Coronavirus; Evelyn Yang Reveals Sexual Assault by Her OB-GYN; Britain Decides if Brexit Is Worth a Bong. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired January 18, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): New details into the strike that took out Soleimani from the man who ordered it. U.S. President Trump tells Republican donors about the last minutes of the Iranian general's life.
Also Trump's impeachment lawyers: the president reveals new members to his legal team as we see new documents about apparent surveillance of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. We'll talk about that.
And also look at this, a big blast of winter weather, the U.S. is getting hit with snow, ice and sleet and Derek Van Dam will tell you where it is, where it is going and how bad is it.
Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. Coming to you live from Atlanta where the weather is not so bad. I'm Natalie Allen. NEWSROOM starts right now.
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ALLEN: It's 4:00 am here. We appreciate you joining us.
Our top story: Donald Trump is offering a new reason why he authorized the killing of Iran's top general. Friday, Mr. Trump attended a fundraising event at his Mar-a-Lago resort and gave minute by minute details of the U.S. operation which killed Iran's top military commander.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: "Sir, they have two minutes and 11 seconds."
There's no emotion.
"Two minutes and 11 seconds to live, sir. They're in the car. They're in an armored vehicle. Sir, they have approximately one minute to live, sir. Thirty seconds, 10, 9, 8 ..."
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And now listen to what Mr. Trump said about Qasem Soleimani and what led him to ordered drone strike.
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TRUMP: That shook up the world because he was supposed to be invincible. He was saying bad things about our country. He was saying like, we're going to attack your country, we're going to kill your people, we're going to -- and I said, look, how much of this (INAUDIBLE) do we have to listen to?
How much are we going to listen to?
And he would have done it, too. He would have done it.
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ALLEN: Mr. Trump did not speak of an imminent threat which his administration has said justified the attack.
The killing led Iran to retaliate with an airstrike on an Iraqi base housing U.S. troops, injuring 11 people.
President's impeachment trial kicks into high gear Tuesday but already it has the elements of a bad spy novel. CNN's Manu Raju looks at the latest information, where we're getting it and how it is playing out on Capitol Hill.
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MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: House Democrats released new documents on Friday night as part of their push to have the president removed from office, ahead of their filing of a brief that will detail their arguments in the Senate impeachment trial.
Those documents from Lev Parnas, Giuliani associate, somebody who was cooperating with House investigators after he was indicted on criminal charges late last, year. He has provided a trove of documents, showing the role that he played and the knowledge of an effort, to oust Marie Yovanovitch, somebody who was pushed out of that position. Later recalled from the post by President Trump, amidst the push by Trump and his allies to launch investigations from Ukraine into the president's political rival, Joe Biden.
These text messages were given to Parnas by a congressional candidate named Robert Hyde. Now Mr. Hyde is also a Trump ally and somebody who has been in frequent communication with Parnas.
It shows Hyde in communication with someone from an unknown Belgian number. This person texted Hyde to say that they are tracking the movements of Marie Yovanovitch. This comes amid the concerns that she was being surveilled by these Giuliani associates. According to this text message, at one point, from March of 2019,
"Nothing has changed. She is still not moving. They check today again."
That is from that individual with the Belgian phone number, it said, "It's confirmed we have a person inside. She had visitors.
"Hey, brother, do we stand down or you still need intel be safe?"
And then Hyde responds, "Asked."
Also these messages show a deeper involvement of Devin Nunes and his top aide, to apparently dig up dirt that the president had been seeking or the Republicans have been seeking on Capitol Hill, against Joe Biden.
[04:05:00]
RAJU: And to look into this theory, conspiracy theory of sorts, that it was Ukraine that interfered with the 2016 elections, something the president himself has pushed to undercut the findings of the U.S. intelligence community that it was Russia that interfered to help President Trump.
But Nunes' aide is in frequent communication, according to these text messages, with Lev Parnas about trying to set up meetings with various Ukrainian officials so they could get dirt.
At the same time Parnas provided more photographs, photographs of him with President Trump and Rudy Giuliani and all at the same time that President Trump has distanced himself from Lev Parnas, saying that he barely knew the guy, that he's always taking pictures with all of these individuals.
It's not surprising he took pictures with Lev Parnas but Parnas is saying he has lots of pictures with Trump. He was in the inner circle and has extensive knowledge of this operation, what Democrats called a corrupt scheme.
So expect all of this to come out as the impeachment trial takes shape next week in the Senate. This new evidence Democrats plan to bring forward, we'll see how the Republicans react when they're presented with it next week -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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ALLEN: The White House has confirmed President Trump added several high profile attorneys to his impeachment defense team. Our Tom Foreman tells us more about Mr. Trump's controversial picks.
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KEN STARR, FORMER SPECIAL PROSECUTOR: Indeed, the evidence suggests that the president repeatedly trying to thwart the legal process.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Ken Starr was building the impeachment case against Bill Clinton, saying the president had sexual relations with an intern and lied about it under oath, Donald Trump called the special prosecutor a freak and more.
TRUMP: I think Ken Starr is a lunatic. I really think that Ken Starr is disaster.
FOREMAN: But now Starr is on Trump's impeachment defense team, joining Robert Ray and Alan Dershowitz as the president's latest ready-for-TV legal heavyweights.
ROBERT RAY, FORMER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL: We shall do our best to be thorough and fair.
FOREMAN: Ray took over the Whitewater probe when Starr stepped down and seems ready to stand by him again.
RAY: Although there may not be at this point the votes to actually dismiss this outright, I think you can look for summary proceedings in the United States -- in the United States Senate without witnesses.
FOREMAN: Dershowitz was part of the so-called dream team that defended O.J. Simpson.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: If Your Honor didn't see, everybody else in the country saw.
FOREMAN: He represented Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst and for a time the late accuse sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. He told "The New Yorker" he regrets that one.
But he's also said a lot of other things.
DERSHOWITZ: Black Lives Matter is endangering the fairness of our legal system.
FOREMAN: His flair for grabbing headlines may be why a defense team spokesperson says Dershowitz will present the oral arguments against the impeachment charges.
DERSHOWITZ: They're the kinds of broad, general, vague, open-ended criteria that can be weaponized against virtually any president.
FOREMAN: The defense team also includes former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, longtime Trump lawyer Jane Raskin and, leading the effort, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and outside attorney Jay Sekulow.
Yet, even with all that legal firepower, a question remains.
STARR: One of the issues is, will the president follow legal advice?
FOREMAN: Even as the president stacks up all this big name legal help, he keeps insisting that the case against him is incredibly weak and anybody can see it is a hoax -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ALLEN: Alan Dershowitz has been quick to put some qualifiers on his
involvement as a member of the defense team. Here's what he told CNN's Anderson Cooper and Jeffrey Toobin.
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DERSHOWITZ: I've been asked to prepare and deliver the case, the constitutional case against impeachment, that benefits the president.
It's the same argument I would have made if Hillary Clinton had been elected and she were being impeached. It's similar to the arguments I made when I testified as a witness against impeachment of Bill Clinton and when I consulted with the Bill Clinton legal team.
I'm there only to argue about the constitutional criteria for impeachment, which I've written about extensively and why these articles don't rise to the level of an impeachable offense.
I will go into the history of the formulation in the Constitution and the history of how these words came to be and leave it to others to argue the facts, to make strategic decisions about witnesses. That's not within my jurisdiction.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Alan, why are you playing these semantic games?
Whose side are you on?
I mean, you're part of the defense team.
Why?
Are you embarrassed?
DERSHOWITZ: You sound like my mother when I said I was challenging --
TOOBIN: I look like your mother, too.
DERSHOWITZ: Well, you wish.
(LAUGHTER)
DERSHOWITZ: Well, I said, I said that I was defending the right of Nazis to march through Skokie.
[04:10:00]
DERSHOWITZ: And she said to me, "Son, are you for the Jews or are you for the Nazis?"
I said, "I'm for the Constitution."
And she said, "I'm your mother, don't tell me that."
I'm against impeachment. I'm clear about that. I think it would be unconstitutional. It would set a terrible precedent for this president to be impeached for these alleged articles of impeachment.
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ALLEN: All right. Let's talk more about it with Richard Johnson, a lecturer in U.S. politics and international relations at Lancaster University in England.
I would imagine that your job has become more interesting perhaps with all the developments that we must follow here in the United States.
So first, I want to ask you, what do you think about what we're hearing from Dershowitz there and the fact that Mr. Trump is also using Ken Starr on his team, who impeached Bill Clinton?
Of course we heard the president made extremely disparaging remarks about Starr years ago and now hires him.
RICHARD JOHNSON, LANCASTER UNIVERSITY: I think it is very interesting what is happening. I think that there a bit of a subtle shift in the arguments that the president's defenders have been making as of late.
As the evidence comes out more clearly of the president's involvement in this Ukraine scandal -- and the latest from Lev Parnas underlines that -- that now what they are arguing is not so much whether or not he was implicated in these actions, putting pressure on the Ukrainian government, but whether that rises to the level a high crime that a president should be removed from office.
Is it a high crime rather than a crime as the language of the Constitution sets out?
And so this was a similar argument that was made in the Clinton trial, where it almost wasn't in doubt that Clinton committed perjury; it was whether that amounted to a high crime for him to be removed from office. And I think that that is sort of subtly what we're getting to now from the president's defenders.
ALLEN: And at that time Kenneth Starr's investigation went on and on and on. He even tried to involve the Secret Service in testimony. He even reached out to Monica Lewinsky's boyfriends. He was very thorough. And now he is saying that he is representing the president and doesn't believe there needs to be witnesses and testimony.
So how does that square?
R. JOHNSON: In that respect, things are very different from the Clinton impeachment. We had the Starr report in the late 1990s, which was an extremely thorough investigation conducted by Ken Starr into all matters relating to the Lewinsky scandal and around it.
In this case, there was no special prosecutor's report for the House to send over to the Senate. The House had to conduct its own investigations using its own committees. And some of the witnesses that the House wanted to speak to them were blocked by the president.
And now there is I think a compelling argument to be made that those witnesses, who -- some of them have now made it be known that they would be willing to speak to the Senate -- should be heard, that for the fact of the completeness of the record of this trial, that those voices cannot be ignored, that they must be brought into the proceedings.
ALLEN: And I want to talk with you about this new evidence from Lev Parnas. He has been all over the New York news, "The New York Times;" with Anderson Cooper. And if that is allowed in the impeachment trial, it could have an impact.
Do you think that this is a spot where is Democrats may try to move to bring in evidence?
That has been their goal from the start for this trial and it seems to have gone nowhere so far.
R. JOHNSON: My understanding is that Lev Parnas' documentary evidence that he has provided managed to get sent over to the Senate, as part of the evidence that the House sent to the Senate through Congressman Nadler, who is the chairman.
I guess what remains is whether or not someone like Lev Parnas ought to be a witness in the trial.
And if we use the analogy that the House is a grand jury which is indicting the president and that the Senate is the actual trial, it is not unusual in a trial to have new evidence entered into that trial and to have witnesses heard in that trial.
And so I think that it is perfectly legitimate for people to suggest that figures like Lev Parnas should be considered as witnesses in this trial.
[04:15:00]
ALLEN: And we know that the American public has sent a strong message that they want a fair trial. Tuesday will be interesting when it gets underway. We'll likely talk with you again. Richard Johnson, thank you.
R. JOHNSON: Thank you.
ALLEN: And we touched on it with Lev Parnas but Ukraine is once again being swept up into U.S. controversy. Ahead, the investigation being launched into possible spying on a former U.S. ambassador.
Also we mentioned this, a winter storm sweeping across the U.S. creating mayhem on the roads and in the skies. We'll find out where it is and where it is headed next with Derek Van Dam.
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ALLEN (voice-over): Welcome back. That video kind of says it all, doesn't it?
A powerful winter storm could affect more than 100 million people across the U.S. This weekend, it is already creating all kinds of trouble in the state of Minnesota. More than 170 vehicle crashes have been blamed on the storm. Some 1,700 flights were canceled across the country Friday and hundreds more already canceled for Saturday.
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ALLEN: Richmond, the capital of the U.S. state of Virginia, is on edge this weekend after the arrest of three more alleged neo-Nazis. Authorities fear that they may have been headed to Monday's gun rights rally in the city. As CNN's Brian Todd reports, the state governor is worried about a violent confrontation and history repeating itself.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A state of emergency in Virginia's capital city, state and local police, deploying, guns and other weapons banned on the grounds of the state capital in Richmond, ahead of a gun's rights rally this Monday. It's on the orders of Virginia governor Ralph Northam.
GOV. RALPH NORTHAM (D-VA): No one wants another incident like the one we saw in Charlottesville in 2017.
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TODD (voice-over): That's when pitched battles unfolded in the street at a far right rally in Charlottesville, just an hour's drive from Richmond. A woman was killed when a car slammed into a crowd. Governor Northam says state law enforcement has intelligence on threats of violence at this Monday's rally, possibly sparked by white supremacist group converging on the city for the event.
NORTHAM: This intelligence comes from mainstream channels, both offline and online, such as alternative Dark Web channels, used by violent groups and white nationalists from outside Virginia.
TODD (voice-over): The FBI has arrested three men, who a law enforcement official tells CNN, they believe were planning to travel to the rally in Richmond. The men, including one who officials say came into the U.S. illegally from Canada, were picked up on weapons charges.
[04:25:00] TODD (voice-over): A charging document said they put together and tested a functioning assault rifle. Officials say they are members of a shadowy organization called The Base.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a white supremacist group that is very much active online. It's known for memifying and glorifying violence and white supremacist tropes. They believe that now is a moment in this country to create a race war.
TODD (voice-over): Earlier this week three alleged members of The Base were arrested in Georgia, accused of planning to murder a couple and wanting to overthrow the government.
There is no evidence of any connection between white supremacists and the people organizing Monday's rally. Gun rights activists who were protesting against the prospect of new, stricter gun laws in Virginia.
But hate group monitors say extremists often hijack issues like gun control to cause trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're seeing extremists do, especially those white supremacists online, is try to take this issue, stoke the fears and anxieties in a community and try to bring more uncertainty into the situation. And that's what white supremacists thrive on, confusion, anger.
TODD: One key question, with state officials saying that they are securing the capital grounds, some people connected to the rally are concerned about what happens outside of the capital grounds in Richmond.
Nearby streets, where observers fear there could be violence between extremist groups and others.
What are law enforcement officials doing to prevent, that?
Officials from the Richmond and state police and the governor's office were contacted by CNN about that. They won't discuss specific tactics but they do say they will have a big law enforcement footprint throughout the city -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: And CNN will, of course, be covering that rally on Monday.
Next here, was the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine spied on?
Her movements were allegedly tracked, devices possibly monitored. We look at the investigation Ukraine is launching to find out.
Plus, after the wife of a Democratic presidential candidate tells CNN how she was sexually assaulted by her doctor, a new victim speaks out. This is a CNN exclusive.
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ALLEN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We appreciate it. I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our top stories this hour.
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ALLEN: Ukraine has also announced that it is launching an investigation into the possible surveillance of former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. And as Sam Kiley reports, this isn't the first time that the country has found itself in the middle of U.S. affairs.
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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ukrainians once again find themselves at the center of issues that really have their roots in Washington, D.C., and Donald Trump's impeachment trial now.
The latest evidence suggesting from the Ukranian perspective that they should open a criminal investigation. This follows a text exchange that suggests, in texts between Robert Hyde, a congressional candidate, and Lev Parnas, at the time a close associate of Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, frequently a traveler here to Ukraine, in which Mr. Hyde seems to suggest that he has got some kind of information, perhaps even some kind of a surveillance operation that he has got access to or privy to, involving the U.S. ambassador to Kiev.
As a consequence, the Ukrainians have launched a criminal investigation, an extraordinary situation really, in which Americans are being potentially investigated for spying on Americans in a third nation, that being Ukraine.
This angered the Ukrainians, who are also saying that they have no evidence, simply that they are conducting an investigation to see whether or not there's been any criminal activity.
They say that they have reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation but have not yet heard back from them. They want to see all of the evidence available to the United States so that they can conduct their investigations because they are angry and they are saying that Ukraine cannot ignore such illegal activities on the territory of its own state.
And now secretary of state Mike Pompeo has been asked about this text exchange and indeed wider questions on this whole virago that has engulfed Ukraine and, of course, his own administration have been very, very reluctant indeed to respond in any meaningful way -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Kiev.
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ALLEN: And we want to point about out that Hyde denies monitoring Yovanovitch and, as we've mentioned, U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo has announced that his department will investigate the possible surveillance.
Bottom line, there is a lot going on in Ukraine right now. You heard that police are investigating the possible surveillance on former U.S. Ambassador Yovanovitch.
Cyber police have opened an investigation into reported hacking of Burisma, that is the gas company at the heart of the Trump impeachment process, the one that hired Joe Biden's son, Hunter.
And remember, from the Lev Parnas interview with Anderson Cooper, he said Ukrainian President Zelensky and other leaders are, quote, "still rocked to this day" over that fateful phone call with Mr. Trump.
For more, we're joined now by Michael Bociurkiw, a global affairs analyst and a former spokesman for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
[04:35:00]
ALLEN: Thanks so much for joining us, Michael.
MICHAEL BOCIURKIW, GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: My pleasure.
ALLEN: All right. First, I want to get your reaction to this story about the possible surveillance of a former U.S. ambassador allegedly involving Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Parnas and perhaps a Republican member of the House, Mr. Nunes.
BOCIURKIW: Well, as I told your colleague, Michael Holmes, I don't think Hollywood could have scripted this any better. It gets more bizarre by the day.
But look, this is -- as much as we like to read about this and the drama and everything, at the end of the day, it does appear more and more that the United States, which is, of course, a traditional ally of Ukraine, did threaten not only President Zelensky but former President Poroshenko in order to dig up dirt on the Bidens.
And to Ukraine, this is -- I don't know if I would use the word they are angry, I think that they are more hurtful and bewildered by what is going on. Because not only does Ukraine depend on that bipartisan support but it also depends on the White House being a close ally when it goes, for example, to negotiate with Russia to bring peace to Eastern Ukraine.
And without that backing, it is at a very big disadvantage. I spoke day before yesterday in London with the foreign minister from Ukraine and he said that our main goal is to keep the strong bipartisan support and, in terms of investigations, while it is still conjecture and rumor, but if there is any substance to what was said by Parnas, then we will look into it.
ALLEN: And we also know that the president, Mr. Zelensky, is lamenting that phone call, where he picked it up, and President Trump was on the other end. And this is a new president that no doubt had any idea what he might be walking into.
So how is he able to lead during this mess?
BOCIURKIW: Well, I don't think -- I think that he was put to the test very early over all of this, how to handle it. I think that he was going really on the fly. But you know, it hasn't really damaged him at home. His popularity ratings are still very high.
And you know, Natalie, once again he is being put to the test amid all of this, what is happening in the United States with the tragedy crash of the Ukrainian airliner, he has really stepped up to the plate and dealing with something that deals with many countries.
So not much damage there but, with every day of new revelations, you never know what is around the corner.
ALLEN: Right. And with the possible spying on Yovanovitch, this is being carried out by an investigation there in Ukraine so they have to put resources on that. And the State Department is investigating as well.
And I also want to add, could this information that we're learning in this story impact the impeachment trial?
And what impact is this having on Ukraine's ability -- you mentioned Russia -- to be able to focus on its most important need and that is to make sure that it is independent of Russia and keeps Russia at bay?
BOCIURKIW: Well, you know, your second question there about Russia and its involvement, look, they have very, very deep tentacles in Ukraine and that is why there not only one investigation in terms of alleged spying on Yovanovitch but also into the possible hacking of Burisma, the firm that Hunter Biden was apparently involved with.
So the Ukrainians have asked for additional resources from the FBI to find what happened there. But it wouldn't be unusual for Russia to be hacking in.
And then yes, in terms of the way forward for Ukraine, I mean, it is not only negotiating for gas contracts with Russia, not only negotiating for a ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine but many other things, which touch upon their bilateral relations.
So the last thing that they need right now -- and this is what the foreign minister told me as well -- is to be distracted by this, they really need the strong U.S. support and if they don't get it, I think that what is going to happen is you will see them leaning more on European allies who they are closer to or perhaps they trust more and can get things done without the drama in Washington.
ALLEN: Can't blame them for that. Michael, we really appreciate you joining us and for your insights. Thanks so much.
BOCIURKIW: You're welcome.
ALLEN: Next here, an exclusive report; more alleged victims are coming forward after the wife of a U.S. Democratic presidential candidate says that she was sexually assaulted by her doctor.
Also Delta Air Lines tries to smooth things over after one of its planes dumped jet fuel over Los Angeles schools. Many residents aren't having it.
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ALLEN (voice-over): A Delta spokeswoman there not exactly getting a warm welcome when she addressed a town hall meeting near Los Angeles. Residents are angry over a Delta plane dumping fuel on to their community.
This video captures the moment it happened, 15,000 gallons in all, the flight from L.A. to Shanghai experienced an engine problem shortly after takeoff. Fire crews treated 60 people after the fuel was dumped that landed on elementary schools and one high school.
Some of the teachers are now suing Delta and the company faces an air pollution violation as well.
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ALLEN: Three U.S. airports have begun medical screenings to check passengers arriving from China, where a mysterious new coronavirus was identified. The SARS-like illness has killed two people and infected dozens in China and several cases have also been reported in Thailand and Japan.
More than 100 U.S. health officials are deploying to airports in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, looking for symptoms such as coughing and high temperatures.
Thursday, in an exclusive report here on CNN, the wife of U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Evelyn, revealed for the first time she was sexually assaulted allegedly by her doctor while she was pregnant.
Since that report aired, 15 more women have come forward. That is in addition to the 32 women, who had already made similar accusations against the same doctor. CNN's Drew Griffin has our investigative report.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The indictment reads likes the acts of a serial sexual predator, six victims, nine counts, criminal sexual abuse, women who were forcibly touched, orally violated. [04:45:00]
GRIFFIN (voice-over): The alleged perpetrator, a respected OB-GYN at New York Presbyterian Columbia University Medical Center, accused of assaulting his own patients.
But Dr. Robert Hadden served no jail time for his crimes, he cut a deal with the D.A.'s office in New York and pleaded guilty to just two charges. He lost his medical license but doesn't even appear on the public sex offender registry.
To his accusers, a sweetheart deal.
MARISSA HOECHSTETTER, SAYS SHE WAS ASSAULTED BY SAME DOCTOR AS EVELYN YANG: There's a clear pattern of bad behavior by the doctor, a lack of institutional courage by his employer, Columbia University and a lack of willingness to take the case seriously by the Manhattan district attorney. Everyone did the best they could to make it go away.
GRIFFIN: Marissa Hoechstetter is one of dozens of accuser now suing Hadden and his former hospital network. The lawsuit alleges Columbia allowed Dr. Robert Hadden unfettered access to female patients, many of them as young as 15, or 16 and that he had been assaulting women for decades, while staff, coworkers and even patient chaperones looked the other way. A nurse tried to send out a warning in the early warnings but was told to be quiet. Hadden was known as a shark around the office because he knew how to
outmaneuver patient chaperones. And one patient told another doctor in the practice, Hadden said she had a medical condition requiring her vagina to be examined every three months. It wasn't true.
Hoechstetter's attorney is Anthony DiPietro, he represents 32 women and counting, who say they too were victims of Dr. Hadden.
(on camera): Not a day in prison. Does that make sense to you?
ANTHONY DIPIETRO, ACCUSERS' ATTORNEY: No community service, no fine, no jail time. He received what seems to be the equivalent of an early paid retirement.
GRIFFIN: Why?
DIPIETRO: He worked at Columbia University.
GRIFFIN: Got away with it.
DIPIETRO: Got away with it.
YANG: It like getting slapped in the face and punched in the gut. The D.A.'s office is meant to protect us, it's meant to serve justice. And there was no justice here.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Evelyn Yang, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, described her own experience to CNN's Dana Bash. She says her assault could have been prevented because Hadden had been arrested before and Columbia University knew it.
In June 2012, police were called to his clinic after a woman reported being assaulted in an exam room. Despite the arrest, Hadden went back to work.
(on camera): Patients weren't told the OB-GYN they were seeing had been accused of sex crimes. In the weeks that followed, two of those patients would become his next alleged victims.
(voice-over): Evelyn Yang was one of them.
YANG: Can you imagine the audacity of a man who does this, continues to do this after being arrested? It like he knew that he wouldn't face any repercussions.
GRIFFIN: The doctor's arrest was voided. He wouldn't be charged with any crime for another two years while the D.A.'s office investigated. Hadden hired a powerful attorney, Isabel Kirshner, a former colleague of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. Kirshner had donated to Vance's political campaign and worked on his transition team.
Both she and the New York district attorney's office claimed the relationship had nothing to do with the plea deal but the original recommendation for Hadden to serve as least four years behind bars would be reduced to nothing. The D.A.'s office agreed to lower Hadden's sex offender status, he wouldn't appear on the registry, though he was convicted of a felony.
Kirshner told CNN Hadden had great lawyering and even brags about the win on his web site.
YANG: He was getting off with a slap on the wrist basically.
GRIFFIN: It's yet another case raising questions about the Manhattan district attorney's office, already under scrutiny for failing to prosecute Harvey Weinstein in 2015 and asking a judge to lower Jeffrey Epstein's sex offender status. Marissa Hoechstetter says it's a pattern of white, powerful, connected men getting sweetheart deals.
HOECHSTETTER: I don't see it any other way, when you see a lack of willingness to do an investigation, look at the employer, you look at the details of the plea agreement, they're painful. It's very painful.
GRIFFIN: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined CNN's request for an interview, instead sending a statement saying: Our primary concern was holding him accountable and making sure he could never do this again. We regret that this resolution has caused survivors pain.
GRIFFIN: Robert Hadden remains a free man. His attorney says he will not talk and in court filings, he is fighting the allegations being made against him.
[04:50:00]
GRIFFIN: As for Columbia University Medical Center, not a single answer to any of CNN's detailed questions about the possible cover-up in this case, only a statement saying the allegations are abhorrent and they deeply apologize to those whose trust was violated -- Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
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ALLEN: Welcome back.
In the waning days of Britain's membership in the European Union, a new question confronts the U.K., not over a customs union or anything like that but how the very moment Brexit takes effect will be marked. Our Anna Stewart looks into that.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: With just two weeks left in the European Union, there's not a moment to lose. The U.K. isn't spending that time debating the incredible complexity of getting out of a decade's long union. Instead, the country is obsessed over whether Big Ben should bong on January 31st.
As you can see, it's under renovation and silent. The government says it won't pay for it to ring.
[04:55:00]
STEWART: So Big Ben buff, Boris Johnson, the prime minister, came up with his own idea.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The bong cost $500,000 pounds. Because --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's a very costly bong.
B. JOHNSON: -- but we're working up a plan so people can bong a bob for being dead bong. Because there's some people who want to --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So bong a bong.
B. JOHNSON: I haven't quite worked that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love the fact you're developing policy live on television.
STEWART: His plan for crowd funding raised over 200,000 pounds and Brexit supporters are clamoring for a vote in the House of Commons. Yet, the House of Commons commission said accepting public funds would be unprecedented. And the prime minister's spokesman said Johnson's office was now focusing on other events to mark January 31st.
Brexit supporters have approval for a party here in Parliament Square. So-- well, it's unclear whether Big Ben will bong, there'll certainly be a dance and a singsong -- for CNN, I'm Anna Stewart, outside Parliament in London.
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ALLEN: We'll wait and see on that one.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. I'll be right back with another hour of news and our top stories.
