Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

FBI and DOJ Hold Press Conference on Capitol Building Siege; Interview With Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA); Trump Refuses Any Responsibility for Capitol Building Siege. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired January 12, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:26]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Thank you for being with me.

The breaking news is this. Right now, we are waiting for a press conference from the FBI and the Justice Department about Wednesday's interaction at the Capitol.

Now, keep in mind this will be the first federal press conference addressing that violent attack. And it comes as the FBI is warning that armed protests are planned in all 50 state capitals, in addition to the U.S. Capitol, in the days leading up to and including Inauguration Day, which is next Wednesday.

"The Washington Post" today is reporting the FBI was warned of a violent -- quote -- "war" at the U.S. Capitol in this internal report which was issued the day before last week's deadly siege.

That report directly contradicts officials who said that there was no intelligence indicating that the Capitol would be attacked.

Today, up on the Hill, for House Democrats, it is full steam ahead. All indications suggest that, by the end of the day tomorrow, President Trump will be the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice. The charge? Inciting an insurrection.

Today, President Trump is on his way to visit the border wall in Texas. He denounced last week's violence this morning, but had this to say about whether he had any role in inciting that mob:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, if you read my speech -- and many people have done it and I've seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television. It's been analyzed.

And people thought that what I said was totally appropriate. And if you look at what other people have said, politicians at a high level, about the riots during the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle and various other places, that was a real problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, to recap here, taking accountability? Nope. Continuing to sow divisions? Yes. Deflecting blame? Check.

Let's begin with our senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez.

And, Evan, as we mentioned, we're waiting for this DOJ-FBI news conference to begin. What should we be hearing?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think we're going to hear a little bit more about the type of people that they have been arresting.

This is a nationwide effort, Brooke. This is probably, frankly, unprecedented since 9/11. This was a major failure on the part of some parts of law enforcement. The fact that these folks got into the U.S. Capitol, were able to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden's election victory at the -- frankly, at the urging of President Trump is a major, major failing on the part of various parts of law enforcement.

And some of that, we're beginning to see. As you pointed out, "The Washington Post" has this report, based on an internal FBI report that came from the Norfolk field office, Norfolk, Virginia, was shared a day before the January 6 Trump rally. And there was plenty of warnings, that, as we said before, that there were plenty of indications that there were people who were set on violence who were coming here to Washington to this rally.

And I read you just a part of what "The Post" has in their report. It says that there was this online thread being -- discussing the calls for specific violence. And it says: "Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood being spilled. Stop calling this a march or a rally or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our president or we die. Nothing else will achieve this goal."

Those are some pretty chilling words. It is not clear how far and how wide that warning was shared with law enforcement around the country -- I'm sorry -- around Washington. We know it was shared with the field office here in -- the FBI field office here in Washington.

The question is, why wasn't the Capitol Police more ready? You can see the pictures. They were not ready for what they were facing. And we're totally, Brooke, at this point, there are thousands of leads now being followed by the FBI, by the ATF around the country.

They're knocking on doors. They're talking to people who they are concerned about. Again, some of this stuff, they knew before last Wednesday. It's just taken a different -- a different tone or a different view, in light of what happened.

BALDWIN: And now that we know what they were capable of, the question then turns to these next couple of days.

PEREZ: Yes. BALDWIN: Evan, thank you. We will listen in for that news conference.

And we will we will chat on the other side of that.

Let's go now to Manu Raju there, who's up on Capitol Hill.

And, Manu, we know tomorrow is the huge day, the historic day for the big impeachment vote. What's happening right now?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right now, the Democrats are preparing for that moment.

They're setting the stage for the floor debate tomorrow and they're taking care of some last-minute business today. One of the things that's going to happen today is a vote later tonight to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment of the United States to essentially force Donald Trump out of office.

[15:05:14]

Now, Pence has not commented publicly on this, but, privately, he is indicating he has no intention of moving ahead on this and has not returned the speaker's phone calls about this matter. So, the expectation here is that he will not go forward with the 25th Amendment.

So, the Democrats are planning an impeachment resolution. It has already been drafted. They're setting the stage for a floor debate that would occur tomorrow, a historic Florida floor debate, because the president, as you mentioned, will be the only president ever to be impeached twice, this on the charge of incitement of an insurrection.

This comes on top of him being charged on two separate counts back in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But this charge points to his actions after the elections about his efforts to subvert the will of the voters and what he said, his comments to that violent riot that led to the deaths of five people here in the Capitol last week, including that U.S. Capitol Police officer.

Those all are the questions going forward is, how many Republicans ultimately join on? Because Democrats are all on board, and they have the votes here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I want to ask you about that. Do you have any indication -- and I'm talking to a Democratic congressman in a second -- I will ask him too -- but what is the indication that this will be some sort of bipartisan vote, that Republican lawmakers will also vote for impeachment?

RAJU: Yes, the significant portion of this is that House Republican leaders are not pressuring their leader -- their members to fall in line.

Unlike in 2019, in which they urged them all just to stand with the president, here, that is not the case. So, the expectation is that there could be anywhere around 10, maybe more, maybe less, to break ranks. Now, that is still a small fraction of the overall House Republican Conference, but there are members who are very critical of the president's conduct. So, we do expect some to break ranks. We will look at some key members like Liz Cheney, the number three in House Republican leadership.

She has not said how she will come down, but she considers this vote, in her words to her caucus, conference last night, a vote of conscience.

BALDWIN: A vote of conscience.

RAJU: So, that is a key indication that some of these members may go their own way, may not side with the president. And then the big question too, Brooke, what will happen when it goes to the Senate eventually?

A trial likely won't take place until Joe Biden is president. And will there be 17 Republicans who would break ranks in the Senate to convict Donald Trump and prevent him from running from office again? Those are the questions that we will have to see in the coming days, but the big test tomorrow -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Here we are on the precipice of history.

Manu, thank you on the Hill.

Let's go now to the White House to our chief White House correspondent there, Jim Acosta.

And, Jim, the president, meantime, he's down in Texas. He's visiting the border wall. I know that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that the president has taken some responsibility for that insurrection last week.

But when I listened to this president this morning, I heard zero responsibility taken.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

Yes, Brooke, listen to what the president says out loud, not exactly what we're hearing indirectly from people up on Capitol, especially his apologists.

But we do expect the president to start speaking any moment down in Texas. We are getting some indications that he may be addressing the siege of the Capitol that took place last week after his incendiary remarks to the crowd that fired up that crowd and sent them in the direction of the Capitol.

But I will tell you, Brooke, we did hear the president earlier this morning not taking any responsibility for this. But also, interestingly, at one point, the president was saying he didn't want to see any more violence.

Now, I'm told by a couple of sources close to the president that they have been telling Trump, lawyers have been telling Trump, advisers have been telling Trump to tone down the rhetoric, tone down the language, not only because it's good for the country -- obviously, it's good for the country if he does that -- but because he is facing the risk of legal jeopardy.

In the words of one of these sources, he absolutely can be sued for his role in what happened at the Capitol last week.

Another source said that the president is being advised to tone down the rhetoric, not just because it's good for the country, but because he faces the risk of real legal jeopardy.

Now, local and federal prosecutors have talked about whether or not the president could be charged with inciting an insurrection or inciting violence. But there's also the prospect, Brooke, that he could be sued, that he could -- he could face some sort of civil prosecution and civil liability in court.

And so the potential here is, Brooke, the president could leave office, and not only face charges for what took place at the Capitol, but be sued for it as well. And so you may see the president here attempt once again down at the border to once again try to say the right words, even if most Americans realize he may not really mean them -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will listen in for that to see if that happens.

I do want to ask you, Jim, about these reports we are hearing that the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, had to skip his last European trip because -- because no one wants to meet with him? What are you hearing?

[15:10:00]

ACOSTA: Yes, this is being reported in just the last several hours, that the secretary of state has essentially been told by his foreign counterparts that they don't want to meet with him.

And keep in mind, Mike Pompeo has made this happen to himself. Keep in mind, in the days after the election, the secretary of state was saying he was looking forward to a second Trump administration, even though it was all too clear that Joe Biden was going to become the next president.

And so, while the secretary of state would obviously like to stay in office, he was certainly not projecting the kind of values that are shared by major U.S. allies, European allies, who obviously stand for a peaceful transfer of power.

The secretary of state was viewed by some of his counterparts as not really adhering to that principle. And so it's no -- it's no surprise that he's a bit of a pariah now on the diplomatic stage.

I think the secretary of state, to some extent, Brooke, enjoys or relishes that prospect, because, as we all know, he eying the possibility of trying to inherit the Trump mantle heading into 2024. Of course, good luck with that. Others have been talking about doing

this as well. There might not be much of a mantle left, Brooke. The mantle appears to be shattered -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, indeed, it does.

Jim Acosta, thank you very much.

ACOSTA: You bet.

BALDWIN: We will listen to the president's words down in Texas.

With me now is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna from California,

Congressman Khanna, good to see you, sir. Welcome.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Good to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: You heard the president this morning before he headed to Texas, saying that his speech last week was totally fine, that everyone's overreacting. He called it a witch-hunt.

What say you, Congressman?

KHANNA: Well, it's not surprising, but it's disappointing that there's no introspection.

And what people don't realize is that the threat of violence is not just against Democrats or progressives. It's actually against Republicans. I have talked to some of my colleagues -- I don't want to say who -- but who have had death threats.

People who have voted for certification, they are facing the threats of violence. So, this is a terrible situation for many people who are serving, and it crosses party lines.

BALDWIN: So, to your point about those threats of violence, and even to your Republican colleagues, I just want to really directly quote what the president said this morning.

He said: "For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue this path," meaning impeachment, "I think it's causing tremendous danger to our country, and it's causing tremendous anger," and then he ended with, "I want no violence."

He seems to imply, Congressman Khanna, and that you will be included here with a yea vote on impeachment, you all could be provoking more violence.

KHANNA: Well, this just doesn't have any logic.

It says, if someone commits a crime, robs a bank, and then says, well, the person to blame are the police for arresting them or the prosecution for holding them accountable.

What we need is accountability for the act, and then we do need to figure out how we start to stitch this country together. And, Brooke, it's not going to be easy, because the reality is, there is still a large base of Donald Trump supporters in these constituencies who believe him.

And we have to be candid about that, that this country is divided. And the question is, how are we going to have a peaceful transition of power and then convince a chunk of that base that it's time to heal this country?

BALDWIN: That's such an important question on, even if some of these Republicans move away from Trumpism, I'm just -- we're all left wondering, what about these supporters? And how do they, will they, why would they disavow the then former president?

I want to ask you, Congressman Khanna, specifically on the vote tomorrow on impeachment. We're hearing -- and Manu just said maybe 10 Republicans. I'm curious what you're hearing, a handful of Republicans will be willing to break ranks, vote with you in impeaching the president.

Republican Liz Cheney referred to it as a vote of conscience. Do you know how many Republicans you expect to vote with you right now?

KHANNA: I have heard the same ballpark that Manu has,. In fact, I had just told someone I think about 10 Republicans will. And that is showing real courage.

But the Republicans who are in the toughest spot right now, actually, probably politically, who have the hardest decision is the ones who didn't vote to overturn Joe Biden's legitimate election. They're facing enormous pressure.

And I think many of them are grappling with their conscience, and then what some of the base and constituency is demanding. And so it's an ongoing process, but I think around 10 seems realistic.

BALDWIN: We have also learned -- forgive me, Congressman.

We're going to go straight to this news conference, DOJ, FBI on the insurrection from last week.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the operator said, please queue up ahead of time, so, when we get to the Q&A period, we can go right into it.

The speakers today will be first Assistant Director in charge of the Washington field office of the Steven D'Antuono. He will be followed by acting U.S. attorney for the district of Washington Michael Sherwin.

[15:15:03]

Be right back. Thank you.

BALDWIN: OK, so-- STEVEN D'ANTUONO, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI WASHINGTON FIELD OFFICE: Good afternoon. I'm Steven D'Antuono, the Assistant Director in charge of the Washington field office of the FBI, and I'm here to provide a quick update on the FBI's activities since the violence and destruction at the Capitol last week.

The FBI is quite familiar with large-scale, complex and fast-moving investigations. We are -- we are up to the challenge. As Director Wray says, "the FBI does not do easy." To be clear, the brutality the American people watched with shock and disbelief on the 6th would not be tolerated by the FBI.

The men and women of the FBI will leave no stone unturned in this investigation. Since these events, the FBI has worked hand in hand with the United States Attorney's Office and our law enforcement partners here in DC and across the country to arrest and charge multiple individuals who took part in the destruction.

In six days, we have opened over 160 case files, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The significance of this investigation is not lost on us. This is a 24/7, full bore, extensive operation into what happened that day. We cannot do our job without the help of the American people.

Since our call for tips, videos and pictures, we have received more than 100,000 pieces of digital media, which is absolutely fantastic, and we are scouring every one for investigative and intelligence leads. We continue to ask for more. If you have information, contact 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit photos and videos to fbi.gov/USCapitol -- and that's "Capitol" with an "O."

I want to stress that the FBI has a long memory and a broad reach. Agents and our partners are on the streets investigating leads not only here in the DC area but also across the country through the FBI's 56 field offices.

So even -- like I've said before, so even if you've left DC, agents from our local field offices will be knocking on your door if we find out that you were a part of the criminal activity at the Capitol. But before we do this, this is your opportunity to come forward, as several individuals who have -- were involved in Wednesday's riots have done -- to volunteer about their participation.

In the weeks leading up to the January 6th rally, the FBI worked internally with every FBI field office to ensure they were looking for -- that we were looking for any intelligence that may have developed about potential violence during the rally on January 6th.

We developed some intelligence that a number of individuals were planning to travel to the DC area with intentions to cause violence. We immediately shared that information and action was taken, as demonstrated by the arrests of Enrique Tarrio by the Metropolitan Police Department the night before the rally.

Other individuals were identified in other parts of the country and the travel subsequently disrupted. The FBI receives enormous amounts of information and intelligence and

our job is to determine the credibility and viability of it, under the laws and policies that govern FBI investigations.

We have to separate the aspirational from the intentional and determine which of the individuals saying despicable things on the Internet are just practicing keyboard bravado or they actually have the intent to do harm. In the latter, we work diligently to identify them and prevent them from doing so.

As offensive as a statement can be, the FBI cannot open an investigation without a threat of violence or alleged criminal activity. However, when that language does turn to a call of violence or criminal activity, the FBI is able to undertake investigative activity -- action.

And in this case, we had no indication information was linked to any specific person but this was a matter of an online discussion. This information was immediately disseminated through a written product and briefed to our command post operations to all levels of law enforcement.

Part and parcel of our investigation into violent actors is the fact that we continue to gather intelligence that will aid in our ability to disrupt possible future violent activity. Suffice this to say, we are leveraging our relationships with federal, state and local law enforcement partners, using our tools at our disposal to find and bring everyone involved in last week's criminal activity to justice.

[15:20:01]

I'm now going to turn it over to Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin.

MICHAEL SHERWIN, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: All right, thank you, Steve. I think I mentioned this before, a few days ago, that just to begin, I think the scope and scale of this investigation in these cases are really unprecedented, not only in FBI history but probably DOJ history in which essentially the Capitol grounds, outside and inside, are essentially a crime scene, and -- scale in which we have literally thousands of potential witnesses and a -- a scenario in which we are going to have, I believe, hundreds of criminal cases, both filed with our local courts, the superior court (ph) and the federal court system.

So just to frame things, the enormity of this investigation is -- is going to take a lot of work and a lot of effort and this is not going to be solved overnight, it's not going to be solved within the coming weeks, it's not going to be solved within the coming months.

This is going to be a long term investigation and rest assured the Bureau, the Department of Justice, all the U.S. attorneys across the United States that are assisting these investigations, every one is in for the long haul.

So that being said, let's turn to the numbers that Steve referenced, and the numbers are going to geometrically increase. So as we sit here now, literally days after this event happened, we have already opened 170 -- more than 170 subject files, meaning these individuals have been identified as potential persons that committed crimes on the Capitol grounds, inside and outside.

So of those 170 cases that have already been opened -- and I anticipate that's going to grow to the hundreds in the next coming weeks -- we've already charged over 70 cases -- and again, that number, I suspect, is going to grow into the hundreds.

So what are the types of cases we initially charged? And I think there's some misconceptions and I want to clarify some of those misconceptions because given the enormity of the actors we saw both inside and outside the Capitol, the range of criminal conduct is really, I think, again, unmatched in any type of scenario that we've seen, the FBI or the DOJ.

We're looking at everything from simple trespass to theft of mail to theft of digital devices with -- inside the Capitol to assault on local officers, federal officers, both outside and inside the Capitol, to the theft of potential national security information or national defense information to felony murder and even civil rights, excessive force investigations.

So just the gamut of cases and criminal conduct where we're looking at (ph) is really mind-blowing, and that has really put an enormous amount of work on the plate of the FBI and field offices throughout the entire United States.

So let's look at those initial cases -- and again, I want to clarify some misconceptions. When criminal conduct occurs, we try to obviously charge people as soon as possible. So the way -- looking just at the federal system, we'll try to do that via criminal complaints.

So when these actors left the Capitol, these individuals, these defendants, obviously the -- the impetus, the marching orders by federal law enforcement was to find, fix and charge these individuals as fast as possible.

So the prosecutors from the DC U.S. Attorney's Office, we look for the most simple charge we could file as quick as possible. So therefore, the initial charges filed in these cases, a lot of them were misdemeanors, they were trespass cases.

However, those -- those -- those cases were opened on those initial charges. We also had several firearms charges, we also had several felony charges that were opened with assault and battery, illegal felonious possession of weapons.

However, I want to clarify a misconception -- this is only the beginning. So after these criminal charges are filed via criminal complaints, that allows us, that allows law enforcement across the United States to arrest people from Dallas to Arkansas to Nashville to Cleveland to Jacksonville, and that's what's happened over the past several days. It's really quite incredible.

Now, after those charges are filed, then we have the ability to then indict these individuals on more significant charges, and that's exactly what has happened. For example, yesterday -- again, only days after this event happened -- we had the grand jury in -- in the District of Columbia up.

It was booked throughout the entire day and -- and for several hour upon hour, prosecutors in our office presented felony cases -- significant felony cases related to civil disorder, related to the possession of destructive devices, related to the possession of semi- automatic weapons that are illegal to possess in the District.

So again, I just want to clarify that the initial charges we're filing, these -- these -- some of these misdemeanors, these are only -- these are only the beginning, this is not the end.

So what are we looking at downstream here? So in terms of what we're looking at is the initial charges everyone's familiar with, the zip tie guys, the muscles (ph), and the brocks that were arrested on this -- on the -- on the House floor with zip ties rifling through the House floor.

[15:25:02]

People are familiar with online they see the Barnetts and Johnsons who were literally rifling through Pelosi's office and stealing items, stealing materials; mail and sometimes even personal mementos.

So those are the cases the public's familiar with. They're familiar with those cases because of social media. But what the public isn't familiar with is that the FBI working with the U.S. Attorney's Offices across the country and the crux of those being in D.C.

We're looking at significant felony cases tied to sedition and conspiracy. Just yesterday our office organized a strike force of very senior national security prosecutors and public corruption prosecutors.

Their only marching orders from me are to build seditious and conspiracy charges related to the most heinous acts that occurred in the capitol. And these are significant charges that have felonies with prison terms of -- up to 20 years.

In addition to that we're looking and taking a priority with cases in which weapons were involved and cases in which destructive devices were involved.

As people know through news report there were pipe bombs found outside the capitol. The ATF is working on that, metro police is working on that, FBI is working on that to find that individual or individuals who planted those devices.

So in addition to just those rogue cases we're looking at, we're going to focus on the most significant charges as a deterrent because regardless of if it was a trespass in the capitol or if someone planted a pipe bomb, you will be charged and you will be found.

In addition to that we've also focused on an emphasis on assaults and batteries on police officers, both -- both -- both federal officers and local NPD officers that were assaulted.

And -- and as the days go on there's going to be more social media and people will recognize that in some instances NPD and capitol police were in open handed combat with some of their (ph) persons inside the capitol where tear gas was used on the capitol police and federal officers.

And they were also used against some of these rioters. So the picture's going to build. I think there's a lot of misconceptions about what happened within the capital and it's going to come into laser focus, I think, over the next weeks and days and I think people are going to be shocked with some of the egregious contact that happened within the capitol.

The third area emphasis that our office is also focusing on is we setup a strike force to focus on assaults on the media; some people aren't familiar that some of those rioters specifically targeted members of the media and assaulted them.

So we have assigned specific prosecutors in our office to focus on those cases as well. And I'm naming all these different strike forces to just emphasize regardless of who the victim was, regardless of who the perpetrator was, we're treating all of these cases equally. Thank you very much.

STAFF: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question (inaudible) touch tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question please press "star" then "two."

The first question is from Pete Williams from NBC News, please go ahead.

QUESTION: Can you clarify for us what intelligence did the FBI gather before the assault on the capitol about the potential for violence and what -- how did it share it and did it share it to the capitol police?

D'ANTUONO: We received a lot of intelligence, like I said in my statement, a lot of intelligence information throughout all different means, be it through social media or through CHS's sauces (ph). And then we have a sharing mechanism with JTTFs.

Across the country we have Joint Terrorism Task Forces and in this city in D.C. we have a very robust JTTF. And in that we have capitol police, park police, NPD and all the other federal law enforcement partners, we (inaudible) and we also shared it through our command post structure and then also through other means of -- they have access to our information readily available. So all that information was shared with our partners and then we went from there.

STAFF: The next question is from Evan Perez from CNN. Please go ahead.

QUESTION: Wondering if you could tell us perhaps if you found any indication so far to indicate that there was a level of planning and coordination for -- for these people to go into the capitol and carry out this attack rather than just a spontaneous mob that got out of control?