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Ahmaud Arbery Murder Trial Resumes for 2nd Day of Testimony; U.S. Seizes $6 Million in Ransom Payments in Connection to Cyberattack; Obama Urges Global Action on Climate Crisis, Rips Trump. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 08, 2021 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:32:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: The trial of the three men accused of chasing down and killing unarmed Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood is continuing today.

Prosecutors called the sergeant who was first on the scene where Arbery was killed. Now they show the jury graphic pictures of his body, the gunshot wound to his chest, blood on a shotgun as well.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: You could imagine the images were upsetting. Inside of the courtroom, several jurors were seen squirming in their seats. And Arbery's mother appeared in distress.

CNN's Ryan Young joins us now.

So, Ryan, what did we learn today?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn and Victor, the pictures that you were describing were very tough to look at. And they were from all angles.

Obviously, the crime scene investigator arrived on scene. And as they built this investigation, obviously, pictures were at the center of the investigation.

At the time, that crime scene investigator didn't realize that the trucks that were nearby were involved. And she didn't realize there was video in possession of some of the men who were standing nearby.

I could tell you, for the last few hours, as I look over right now, the first officer who arrived on scene actually has been talking since about 11:00. And there has been a lot of back and forth about how he proceeded once he arrived to the area.

One thing that we noticed, and even Ahmaud Arbery's mom said the same thing, he did not render aid to Ahmaud Arbery as he was on the ground.

He said he was worried about his safety so he wanted to check the scene first. But as you watched this, it was sort of a causality to everything that was going on and how people were talking back and forth when this first happened.

Listen to some of the testimony and the back and forth in court just in afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED PROSECUTOR: Did he say, specifically, that he blocked Ahmaud during this chase?

RICKY MINSHEW, FORMER GLYNN COUNTY POLICE OFFICER: Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED PROSECUTOR: Did he say specifically that he cornered Ahmaud during this chase?

MINSHEW: Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED PROSECUTOR: How many times did Mr. Bryan say that he either blocked Ahmaud or cornered him during this chase?

MINSHEW: After going back and reviewing the transcribed body camera, it appeared to be approximately five times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: And that was Ricky Minshew, the first officer who arrived on scene. He's no longer an officer. I'm still looking at him on the stand.

In fact, at some point, he looked nervous during his testimony.

Ahmaud Arbery's mom came out and actually talked during the lunch break and she said she was surprised that he did not render aid.

And then there's the conversation about how the men were allowed to sort of walk around the scene. That was going back and forth.

So we've seen this progression sort of about the investigation, what happened in the moments leading up.

And we saw more video today. and I could tell you there were people in the courtroom that definitely bristled when they heard the audio, the shotguns being fired, a gunshot three times.

And you could actually see his body kind of rocking backwards during those shots being fired. You could you tell, again, that was such a gut punch for so many people in the courtroom.

So this is continuing. We don't know how many people will be on the stand for the rest of the day, as this is extending with the first officer on scene, especially after all of the video we saw on Friday that obviously rocked people's minds in terms of how graphic it was.

[14:35:09]

Today, again, those pictures really setting the tone for the entire day as investigators and the prosecution and defense sort of goo bit by bit -- Alisyn and Victor?

CAMEROTA: OK, Ryan Young, thank you for that reporting.

Let's discuss this with former New York prosecutor and civil rights trial attorney, Charles Coleman Jr.

Charles, great to have you here in studio.

Explain to me how a self-defense argument works? Ahmaud Arbery, it is clear, was on a jog. He was out for a jog. He was unarmed.

These guys, the defendants, chased him down. They had guns. How can they claim self-defense?

CHARLES F. COLEMAN JR, CIVIL RIGHTS TRIAL ATTORNEY & FORMER NEW YORK PROSECUTOR: Well, Alisyn, one of the things I'm thinking about, as I watch the trial unfold, is the defense has a narrow window through which they could plead a viable self-defense claim.

They were the aggressors. Ahmaud Arbery was outnumbered but he was also outgunned.

So as the ones that provoked the altercation, established that they are going to have to do a really good job treading the needle. As of yet, it hasn't been seen. And I don't know that they're going to be able to do it.

Right now we don't know if the judge will give a self-defense instruction to the jury.

CAMEROTA: They might not let them. They might not let them claim that.

COLEMAN: That is correct.

BLACKWELL: And we heard from prosecutors here that William Bryan, according to that officer, five times said that after the incident that he blocked or cornered Ahmaud Arbery.

So reconcile that with self-defense. It doesn't seem like you could.

COLEMAN: Legally, you can plead in many jurisdictions, Georgia being one of them, self-defense. even if you provoke the altercation.

However, again, it is going to be up to the judge after having heard the testimony to determine whether the defense or the whether the prosecution has left open a window or whether there appears to be factually enough for the defense to plead a self-defense and get that instruction to the jury.

So at this point in the trial, it is probably too early to make that determination. But they do, the defense, that is, have an uphill battle to climb.

CAMEROTA: So much has been made about the racial makeup of this jury, one black juror.

COLEMAN: Right.

CAMEROTA: Do you think that will impact the case?

COLEMAN: You're absolutely asking the right question, Alisyn. I think this is think conversation that too few of us are having.

That race in this case is sort of 13 juror, as I would say. In as much as it is one of the things that is hanging in the balance. And it is coloring this trial and sort of very few people want to talk about it.

We know what it is, when we look at the race of the defendant and you look at the race of the victim here.

But when you think about it, in a larger context, what it was to select that jury.

They have such a problem selecting the jury because, on the one hand, you had the defense attorney who was trying to preclude jurors because they didn't want people who had been affected or felt things related to their experience or of being black in America or related to racial prejudice or discrimination and so on and so forth.

But that is a part of so many different people's experience that you kept eliminating people. And so it is like we want to be able to identify as a black person but not with the experiences of what a black person does. And so that is very challenging for many people.

And I think that as we go forward into this trial, if prosecutors are smart, they'll figure out how to bring the element out and make it apparent to the jury without using the words explicitly.

BLACKWELL: We heard the reporting there from Ryan Young of Ahmaud Arbery's mother reacting to the pictures of the blood-stained sheet over her son, and the blood on the gun.

What is the influence of those reactions on the jury potentially?

COLEMAN: Victor, those things are incredibly important. Because what you are seeing the prosecution do is that they are recreating the entire scene for the jury.

Normally, you have witnesses who will talk about what happened, what they observed, what they smelled, what they saw, the heat. and the pain, all of these things are likely to be described from a first person's point of view.

And we're going to hear from police officers and first responders and people that deconstructed the crime scene and the 911 operator.

But there's one person that you won't hear from and that is Ahmaud Arbery. And he's the only person that could paint that scene.

So those types of things, Ahmaud Arbery's mom being in the courtroom, and the jury witnessing her seeing that tape for the first time, those all sort of giving people a color for what this trial is about.

That can't be recreated by officers or 911 representatives or anyone else. And it is missing because Ahmaud Arbery can't take the stand.

So that is a key element of what the prosecution is trying to do to in terms of making this case real for the jury.

BLACKWELL: Yes. An emotional day for her and the jury. They're squirming in their seat after seeing some of these photographs.

All right, Charles Coleman, thank you.

COLEMAN: Thanks for having me.

[14:39:49]

CAMEROTA: All right, the Justice Department seizes millions in ransomware payments and arrests the Ukrainian hacker who has been tied to this global spyware attack. We have more.

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CAMEROTA: The Justice Department announcing today that it has charged a Ukrainian man who allegedly was the mastermind behind a massive cyberattack on a U.S. company.

BLACKWELL: CNN senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, is live in the Justice Department with the details.

So, tell us about this man.

[14:45:02]

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor and Alisyn, not often does law enforcement have good news when it comes to the hundreds of millions of dollars paid in the ransomware attacks.

And in this case, they're charging Yaroslav Vasinskyi, He's arrested right now and being held by Polish authorities.

The Justice Department said that they're going to seek him extradition in with regard to an attack on U.S. companies, on companies worldwide actually, using this ransomware known as REvil.

There's also in the announcement today from the Justice Department charges being announced against Yevgeniy Polyanin. This guy is at large. He's a Russian national believed to be back in Russia.

And the importance of these two twin announcements, again, is the fact that it is very rare for the Justice Department to be able to charge and figure out who is behind some of the ransomware attacks.

And today, they also said that they were able to seize $6 million that was paid in some of the ransom attacks.

Listen to Attorney General Merrick Garland talk about this today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Our message today is clear. The United States, together with our allies, will do everything in our power to identify the perpetrators of ransomware attacks to bring them to justice and to recover the funds they have stolen from the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And, Alisyn and Victor, unrelated to today's announcement, we asked the attorney general about the criminal referral against Steve Bannon.

This is the referral that was made by the House Select Committee looking into the January 6th attacks. The attorney general refused to talk about it.

Obviously, this very -- a lot of impatience on Capitol Hill as to when the Justice Department will take action on this. It has been over two weeks now that that's been under review by prosecutors here at the Justice Department -- Alisyn and Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right, Evan Perez, at the Justice Department for us, thank you very much.

So this was a rare moment. A former U.S. president slams another on foreign soil. But what we saw play out today when President Obama rips his successor for pulling out of the Paris climate deal. Hear what he said.

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[14:51:44]

BLACKWELL: Former President Obama urged the world to act now against the climate crisis. He spoke at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow today.

CAMEROTA: He also brought up President Trump's inaction on the climate crisis and tried to assure the world the Biden administration is committed to fighting climate change.

CNN's Renee Marsh joins us now from Glasgow to tell us more about President Obama's message today.

RENEE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon.

Yes, President Obama's speech, this all came at a time where there's this hard-fought battle to hammer out details for these climate negotiations among nations. So the timing of this speech was no coincidence.

But during his speech, Obama really teased out his genuine concern and worry about countries around the world not acting fast enough, aggressively enough to save the planet.

But he also spoke about the politics of climate change. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, back in the United States, of course, some of our progress stalled when my successor decided to unilaterally pull out of the Paris agreement in his first year of office. I wasn't real happy about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: So part of Obama's role here today was really to assure the country, the world that the United States was back and they are fully committed to combatting climate change.

This on the heels of four years of, as you heard him say there, the Trump administration.

But he also took time to call out the leaders of Russia and China for actually not showing up to the conference because the science shows that the truth of the matter is that everyone needs to come to the table with aggressive and bold plans in order to truly save the planet.

And Russia and China's leaders are actually not present.

But also, equally significant here today, is just the fact that President Obama, former President Obama was here. I mean, he came out of retirement to travel here to Glasgow.

Our conversations with U.S. envoy to -- for climate change, John Kerry, discussing this possibility, and that's how it came to be.

And it really speaks to the urgency here because we all know that this is something that was a big part of President Obama's presidency. He has that legitimacy. He has the credibility when it comes to climate change.

And this is an example of what the Biden administration wants to be an all-hands-on-deck sort of response here at COP26 to try and reinvigorate the talks and negotiations happening here.

Because they know that former President Obama is still so widely respected on the world stage, and again, has that credibility when it comes to climate change.

So that's a lot of what we heard here today.

But again, everyone hoping that it was enough because noticeably missing, once again, was China and Russia.

And again, as the president said, former president said, everyone needs to be at the table, no one can afford to be on the sidelines.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Renee, very rare to have a former president in this role. But even more rare to have a former president on foreign soil go after or in these references another former president. And this was not the only reference that you played there. [14:55:14]

MARSH: Right. There were more. He certainly did not mince words. I mean, it was interesting in that he didn't mention former President Trump by name. He referred to him as his successor. But everyone knew exactly who he was talking about.

But I think that all plays into what Obama's role was here today. And it was to say, that was four years ago. The U.S. is back. We are committed to this. And we are partners with the world in trying to aggressively combat climate change -- Victor?

CAMEROTA: Renee Marsh, thank you very much for that.

I totally agree with you, "on foreign soil" is what makes that criticism a little bit different.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: We'll see if President Obama says anything about that.

Meanwhile, this. The Houston police chief confirms that he did, in fact, meet with Travis Scott ahead of the deadly concert. What did he tell him? What was that conversation? That's next.

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