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Trump Ally Steve Bannon Indicted For Contempt Of Congress; Closing Arguments Set For Monday In Kenosha Homicide Trial; Biden Backs Away From Claims That Inflation Is Temporary; Ahmaud Arbery's Murder; Theranos Founder Faces A Dozen Federal Fraud Charges; Migrants Endure Beating, Days Without Food As Crisis Deepens; How Tidal Waves Could Be The Next Source Of Reliable Clean Energy. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired November 13, 2021 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:32]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with the indictment of a key Trump ally. Steve Bannon is expected to turn himself in on Monday and appear in court to face charges of criminal contempt of Congress. Bannon, a former White House adviser, has repeatedly refused to produce documents or appear for a deposition to answer questions about his role and others connected to Trump leading up to the January 6th siege on the U.S. Capitol.

Bannon's attorney has stated Bannon would not be cooperating with the investigation into what happened that day because Trump directed him not to.

CNN's Kara Scannell is following these developments for us from Washington. Kara, Steve Bannon is supposed to turn himself on Monday. And then what?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes Fred, that's right.

So a source tells CNN that Steve Bannon will surrender on Monday and appear in court that afternoon to face these two charges of contempt of Congress.

The Department of Justice announced these charges yesterday. Bannon is charged with these two counts. One for not appearing before Congress and testifying, and the other for not providing any documents.

Now if Bannon were to be convicted of these charges, he faces a minimum of 30 days in prison and a maximum of one year. The Department of Justice has been under pressure to make a decision on whether to charge Bannon which they did yesterday because the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th riot on the Capitol had initially subpoenaed Bannon in September. He was a no show. He didn't cooperate with them at all. They made this criminal referral to the Department of Justice about three weeks ago in late October resulting in these charges. And the Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a statement announcing these charges in which he said, "Since my first day in office, I promised the Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department is here so the rule of law follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law."

Today's charges reflect the department's steadfast commitment to these principles.

You know, this is a stark contrast to the Department of Justice under Bill Barr, where there had been many congressional investigations and numerous subpoenas including relating to the former president's discussions with Ukraine about trying to stir up investigation into his rival at the time, the candidate Joe Biden who's now president. And we are now seeing that there is a consequence to not complying with these subpoenas, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then Kara, Bannon isn't the only one ignoring congressional committee's requests or at least had been ignoring requests. What message does this indictment now send to the others?

SCANNELL: I mean Fred, this is a game changer. You know, we haven't seen any consequence to people not complying with congressional subpoenas. And now the Department of Justice is saying that yes, you do have to comply with a subpoena. Here's an indictment of Steve Bannon for not doing so.

And there are many other individuals who've been subpoenaed, a number of close allies to the former president and to the former vice president Mike Pence. So it is something that I'm sure a lot of their attorneys will be paying attention to because there are consequences to not complying with these subpoenas. So it is quite significant, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kara Scannell, thank you so much for that.

Let's talk more about all this and get reaction from this indictment.

CNN congressional reporter Daniella Diaz is with us now. So Daniella, what are you hearing from lawmakers? Do they feel like this gives them the momentum, particularly those on the January 6th committee -- momentum?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: That's right, Fred.

The lawmakers specifically on this committee were very quick to react to the news yesterday that Steve Bannon was indicted saying that this sends a very strong message to any other witnesses who refuse to comply with the committee's investigation on the January 6th insurrection.

Now, adding on to what Kara said, this is -- Steve Bannon is not the only one who was called as a witness to this committee and did not comply with the committee. Actually yesterday, Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff to former president, Donald Trump, he was supposed to attend a deposition at 10:00 a.m. yesterday as well as and turn over key documents, but he didn't show. He didn't arrive virtually, nor in person. And there were clues that that might happen.

[11:04:47]

DIAZ: So as a result, on Thursday night, Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the committee, actually went forward with starting the process to possibly refer him for criminal contempt, the same process that actually happened to Steve Bannon which led to him being indicted yesterday.

Now, they really believe to send a strong message to any witnesses that don't comply. I want to read a little bit from Chairman Bennie Thompson's statement as well as Liz Cheney, the vice chairwoman and the Republican on the committee.

They said, "Steve Bannon's indictment should send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can ignore the select committee or try to stonewall our investigation. No one is above the law. We will not hesitate to use the tools at our disposal to get the information we need."

Now, another Democrat on the committee, Jamie Raskin, had very strong words for Donald Trump's allies. He actually said all of the hottie (ph) friends of Donald Trump should take note, the justice system of the United States is not going to tolerate these contemptuous violations of the rule of law.

So very strong words from members of this committee to any other witnesses or anyone that was subpoenaed that does not comply with the committee's investigation. They're trying to really send the message that if they don't comply, there will be consequences, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Daniella Diaz, thank you so much for that.

All right. Joining me right now former Nixon White House counsel and CNN contributor John Dean. John, so good to see you.

I mean your reaction now to the fact that there is an indictment, that Bannon is expected to appear on Monday. How does this perhaps impact the ongoing probe involving the January 6th committee? Does it give them now some teeth as they continue forward?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It certainly does. It means that you can't ignore a subpoena. Fred, the statute under which Bannon was indicted has two parts. One is willful default which is what Bannon did, he just didn't even show, didn't make an effort through his attorney and just said I'm not coming.

But the statute has another part that says also you can be -- you can bee indicted if you failed to answer pertinent questions. So you just can't play with the committee, show up, and then stonewall it. You have to have a very legitimate privilege, otherwise you too, can be held in contempt for refusal to comply with the committee. So this does send a deep message into the ranks of the Trump people who think they could just brush this off and that's not going to happen.

WHITFIELD: So you're saying if he finally appears and he says I'm going to plead the fifth to everything.

DEAN: That's ok.

WHITFIELD: It's ok.

DEAN: You can. But if you go in and say listen, I'm just not going to talk about anything. I'm not going to take any privilege. I just don't want to talk. Then you can be indicted for failure to respond to pertinent questions. You have to have legitimate privilege.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, even though he's now facing this indictment, he has signposted a lot previously. Just listen to what he had to say the day before the January 6th riot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. Just understand this. All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.

It's not going to happen like you think it's going to happen, ok. It's going to be quite extraordinarily different.

And all I can say is strap in. The war room, a posse. You have made this happen and tomorrow it is game day. So strap in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So he's foreshadowing in a really big way. So what could his defense possibly be now when asked about his culpability, the White House's culpability, the planning to know that the consequences are going to be as great as he just shared?

DEAN: Fred, I think Steve Bannon is somebody who probably quietly last night celebrated his indictment.

WHITFIELD: Why?

DEAN: He's somebody who -- well, he wants to take on and destroy the administrative state or democracy. This is one of his campaigns. This is the sort of issue that he can attract a lot of people to his podcast. He can play the victim.

So I think, you know, he'll be happy to take on a year in prison to draw more attention to this. So that's how I suspect he'll play this, that he's proud of it.

It's not unlike from Watergate era, Gordon Liddy who was the person who refused to testify under any circumstances. He too, was indicted by several committees of Congress for refusal to actually take the oath. He couldn't not appear because he was in prison and Bureau of Prisons delivered him, but he wouldn't take the oath.

So this kind of behavior some people want to draw attention to their thinking and philosophy.

[11:39:49]

WHITFIELD: So when you compare and contrast your approach during the Watergate investigation, and you were working in the White House at the time, and then you did testify to all that you knew against the sitting president.

Contrast that to Steve Bannon no longer working in the White House at the time of the insurrection or even the planning or whatever led up to it.

And then you think of Mark Meadows, now the former chief of staff, but chief of staff at the time. I mean what do you think is going through the mind of a Mark Meadows versus what was going through your mind at the time and why you did what you did at the time of the Watergate investigation.

DEAN: Well, I must say I thank John Harwood at CNN the other night. I caught him right after I appeared when I addressed this subject.

Harwood very clearly remembers the tapes where I thought it was wrong what we were doing and that was recorded, that I actually sought out the prosecutors and the committee because it was just wrong and had to end.

So my whole mentality was very different than Meadows' or Bannon's who seemed to think there was nothing wrong with what they were doing or indeed it's behavior they want to encourage.

So I was 180 degrees away, Fred. And I thought these were things that should be known and should be stopped.

WHITFIELD: Right.

And at the same time I mean for Mark Meadows, who was a former congressman, and for him to even defy or show that he has no respect for this committee as part of Congress and this subpoena or expectation of testifying and that he is sending the message of not respecting Congress -- that's pretty extraordinary.

DEAN: I think that his lawyers will be back in touch with the committee, if not over the weekend, certainly on Monday morning, given the different circumstances that now apply.

I don't think he wants to encourage a criminal indictment. He has a law license. I think he has political ambition. So I think he'll play this a little differently.

And indeed, this could force some of these people to testify and end this charade that they're ignoring this investigation or pretending like what happened on January 6th wasn't serious and not a really serious problem that has to be addressed. WHITFIELD: All right. John Dean, thank you so much. Always enjoy your

perspective. Appreciate it.

DEAN: Yes, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, the homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse is in the final stages. But a critical decision from the judge on potential lesser charges is expected today. We'll explain that coming up next.

[11:12:34]

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WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

We're waiting on a ruling today from the judge in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Prosecutors have asked the judge to instruct the jury on considering lesser charges in the case.

Deliberations are expected to begin Monday after closing arguments. Prosecutors and attorneys will each have up to two and a half hours for their closing statements. Rittenhouse is claiming self-defense in the killing of two men and the wounding of a third during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.

Wisconsin has put 500 National Guard troops on standby to assist law enforcement in Kenosha next week if needed.

Here is CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A dramatic trial nears its final stages. A trial marked by intense emotional testimony from the accused.

KYLE RITTENHOUSE, DEFENDANT: There were people there.

TODD: A trial where the judge commands seemingly as much attention as the defendant, admonishing lawyers like he did Friday during debate over jury instructions.

JUDGE BRUCE SCHROEDER, KENOSHA COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: You're asking me to give an instruction. I want to see the best picture.

TODD: The homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse is now slated for closing arguments and jury instructions on Monday. Prosecutors won a small victory when Judge Bruce Schroeder said he would add an instruction on provocation, allowing prosecutors to argue that Rittenhouse provoked one of the victims who were shot and killed, Joseph Rosenbaum, into chasing him.

Prosecutors also asked Judge Schroeder to give the jury instructions for lesser charges in addition to the six original counts. Some of them more serious Rittenhouse already faces. The judge explaining to Rittenhouse what that could mean.

SCHROEDER: Having lesser included offense included, you're raising the risk of conviction and also decreasing the risk that you'll end up with a second trial because the jury is unable to agree.

TODD: Rittenhouse said he understood the ramifications and agreed to the inclusion of lesser charges. The judge indicated he will likely allow some lesser charges but not allow others.

Kyle Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to six charges, including intentional homicide, reckless homicide and attempted intentional homicide for shooting three people during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August of last year, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Two of those three people, Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, were killed. One was wounded.

Judge Schroeder's behavior has loomed large over the trial.

SCHROEDER: I don't believe you.

TODD: Schroeder has been accused of favoring the defense. He's harshly admonished prosecutors multiple times, including once when a prosecutor asked questions the judge had already disallowed.

SCHROEDER: Don't get brazen with me. You know very well that an attorney can't go into these types of areas when the judge has already ruled without asking outside the presence of the jury to do so. So don't give me that.

AREVA MARTIN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: He seems to be a narcissist, likes a lot of attention, draws attention to himself, engages in these really outlandish outbursts. And a lot of attention has been focused on him -- his demeanor, his conduct when in a trial of this nature.

This is a serious murder trial. We shouldn't be talking after the fact about the judge.

[11:19:52]

TODD (on camera): Kyle Rittenhouse's defense attorneys have filed a motion for a mistrial with prejudice, citing what they call prosecutorial overreach. Judge Schroeder is taking that under advisement so we should know about that by Monday.

Our legal analyst Areva Martin says she believes it is not likely the judge would declare a mistrial at this point.

Brian Todd, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Brian, thanks so much for that. All right. Still ahead, prices haven't been this bad in 30 years. The

administration is vowing to reverse rising inflation, but will we see any reprieve in the near future? We'll discuss that straight ahead.

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[11:24:52]

WHITFIELD: All right. A change of tone from the White House this week as the Biden administration is now acknowledging the rising prices of seemingly everything is likely to last longer than originally expected.

Jasmine Wright is live for us at the White House. Jasmine, the president held a strategy session with his cabinet. And so how is he planning to fix this?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. That's right, Fred.

Look, inflation concerns continue to dog this White House into the weekend as Americans are paying more for everyday goods and frankly they're not happy about it.

And that unhappiness has led to a messaging shift from the White House. Instead of using terms like "transitory" or "temporary" that they first used a few months ago, we now hear everyone from the president to the vice president to officials both publicly and privately saying that this is a big deal. And that it is a top priority for the administration.

But no matter of those messaging shifts or the measures that they put in place like at ports to try to break apart that log jam of the supply chain, really officials have been starting to say that look, it may extend, these inflation prices may extend well into the next year.

No doubt adding pressure to families as we head into the holidays when they start -- of course, continue to grocery shop, fill their gas tanks but also start their present buying process.

So on Friday as you said, the president convened his cabinet members for the first time since that bipartisan infrastructure deal passed. And he made the case that that deal could be the key to easing some of those inflation pressures.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We gather my cabinet this afternoon at a moment of immense hope and possibility for the United States. American people sent us here to deliver. We're going to I will say ease -- and I say yes, ease -- lower inflationary pressures on our economy. And we'll be carrying this out what I call the blue collar blueprint of America, one that builds the economy from the bottom up and the middle out and one not from the top down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: So the president also said that next week we will hear an announcement about who he is going to appoint to be kind of this infrastructure czar, who will be doling out the money who he says will have the moral obligation as well as those cabinet members to spend that money responsibly.

And of course, Fred, we expect to see him on Monday finally signing that infrastructure bill so these things can get started, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Another big job. Jasmine wright, thank you so much for that.

So families all over America are indeed feeling the squeeze. The USDA says the monthly cost of groceries for a family of four is $175 more than a year ago.

And it doesn't stop there. Filling up the car, well, that's more expensive, more than it has been in the last seven years. And millions of families could see their heating bills double this winter.

CNN's Nadia Romero joining me right now. It's never good to hear that your heating bill is going to go up and many believe this is going to be an especially cold winter.

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And when you talk about what this means for families, it really puts a spotlight on how you were faring before inflation.

Middle class families are more likely to put fewer dollars into savings, retirement funds. If you're lower income, this is when you're already strapped.

So you're reaching out to United Way and Food Banks. They're seeing an increase in need right now all across the country. They're asking for more donations but a lot of people just don't have the extra cash to give.

So let's break this down. Consumer price index up 6.2 percent. So what does that mean?

Let's take a look at where you're seeing those costs go up. Gas prices up 50 percent this year compared to last year. You're feeling it at the gas pump. Beef prices, that's what's for dinner, up 20 percent compared to last year. Rent is up 3.5 percent. Those are national numbers.

So let's talk about the city of Atlanta, leading the nation as far as the rate of inflation. Not a place anyone in Atlanta wants to be.

And the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta says this all comes down to housing. About 30 percent of consumer price index is related to housing and because of the economic boom here, there's just not enough houses for you to buy or rent in Atlanta compared to the demand, the people that are coming in trying to live somewhere. You have to live just like you have to eat. So these are must haves. And we're also seeing this happening all across the nation. California right now has the highest gas prices in the country at $3.66 per gallon of unleaded -- just one penny shy.

Fred, we looked at all of these numbers all across the country. People are feeling it right now.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

ROMERO: The University of Michigan just released new data that shows consumer confidence is at a ten year low. Where were we ten years ago?

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: -- quite frankly. But ok.

ROMERO: It was right after the recession, right.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

[11:29:48]

ROMERO: And so people are feeling really uneasy about the economy then. Are people feeling like that again now? I mean it is scary to think about where we were in 2008, 2009, 2010. Those sentiments coming back again.

WHITFIELD: Yes. I think everyone feels very strange. And you know, it's something because Atlanta, the cost of living -- the lower cost of living proportionately to the rest of the country's metropolitan areas, that had been something that people, Atlantans had really celebrated.

ROMERO: Loved it.

WHITFIELD: Now taking the lead in a distinction that nobody wants.

ROMERO: Yes absolutely.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nadia Romero, thank you so much.

All right. Coming up, a defense lawyer on the trial of three white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery asks the judge not to allow anymore black pastors in the courtroom. He is now trying to clean up his comments. But is this apology enough? We'll discuss next.

[11:30:36]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. The Ahmaud Arbery murder trial is on break after a tense week in the courtroom. A law enforcement official testifying one of the defendants said in an interview that instinct told him Arbery did something wrong.

And the homeowner for the property at the center of the case is saying he never asked the defendants to secure the home.

I want to bring in now Page Pate. He's a criminal defense attorney. Page, so good to see you.

Wow. I mean this was already an incredibly, you know, emotional, you know, impassioned trial from the very start. But then this week took some strange turns.

So where do you see it going in terms of victories for either side?

PAGE PATE, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well Fredricka, I think it is a little early to declare one side a winner or loser. I think the prosecution has done a pretty good job of laying out all of the evidence.

We have seen a lot of videos, not just the video that all of us have seen about what happened to Mr. Arbery, but also body cam footage of the officers responding. We've seen surveillance camera footage. We've heard a lot of 911 calls.

The prosecution is putting it all out there. Of course, their position is Ahmaud Arbery was doing nothing wrong. Now, it may be true that people in the neighborhood were all up in arms because there was a young black man in the neighborhood, but he hadn't committed any crime.

And so the defense has been trying to chip away at that, suggesting that maybe he had committed a crime. But I just don't think the evidence so far is supporting that whatsoever.

WHITFIELD: And we also heard that there were others who had looked at the property as well but they weren't treated as suspects from these defendants who took it upon themselves to try to protect property.

And it is remarkable too that the defense attorneys were also trying to allege it was self defense in the end as they hunted him down Ahmaud Arbery. It was self defense that precipitated the pulling of the trigger.

PATE: Right. I mean you can't argue self defense if you're in a place that you shouldn't be to begin with. So if you're chasing a man through a neighborhood, you're trying to corner him. And that is the evidence, that they were trying to corner him with pickup trucks, with firearms in order to stop him under a citizen's arrest?

Well, he hadn't done anything wrong. He had not committed a crime. Even the person who saw him at the house before this chase began said they didn't think he was doing anything wrong.

So if you can't support citizen's arrest, then you have no legal right to take a shotgun, get out of the truck, and then start a struggle with him and then shoot him.

So it's an uphill battle for the defense. Obviously they're going to have their turn to call their witnesses, but the evidence is not much in dispute. It is how you look at this evidence. And that's why the jury is so incredibly critical in this case.

WHITFIELD: The eyewitness accounts, evidence, those aren't the only things that really caught attention of everyone this week.

We've got to talk about the defense attorney's comments Thursday when he objected to nationally recognized civil rights leaders and, you know, he pointed out black pastors attending the trial in support of Ahmaud Arbery's family.

We would ultimately hear that defense attorney apologize, sort of, the next day for his remarks. But now several civil rights leaders pushed back calling on faith leaders to stand alongside Arbery's parents unlike before.

What sort of impact do you believe ultimately that will have on the jury. I mean jurors watch and notice everything, whether they hear it directly. But they're certainly watching the behaviors of people. So how might what has transpired impact their point of view of things?

PATE: I think it can have a considerable impact and not one that's favorable for the defense. I mean it was a ridiculous thing to say and it was gratuitous. I mean I don't think the lawyer really expected the judge to say I'm going to bar all black pastors from the courtroom. I mean that's a ridiculous thing to even suggest.

And of course, it's probably to have the reverse result, right. I mean you tell a black pastor you can't come to the courtroom, well, there are going to be 100 plus black pastors at this trial as the case continues on.

And what's strange to me, Fredricka is the defense keeps arguing that this is not about race. You know, we were concerned about crime. But yet you have a defense lawyer who continues to make it about race. I mean even during jury selection. He was complaining --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: I was just going to say, it starts with jury selection process as well.

PATE: Right. Right. He said look, there are not enough bubbas here to pick from which again made no sense given the demographics of this county and the fact they ended up with 11 white people and only one black man on this jury.

[11:39:54]

WHITFIELD: It all continues to be so unsettling on so many levels. Page Pate, thank you so much. Appreciate you.

PATE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And then today in the 2:00 p.m. Eastern hour, I'll talk to Bishop William Barber who has been in Brunswick, Georgia this week and is encouraging other ministers to join him in days to come. All right. The U.S. government says it expects to rest its case in a

matter of days against Theranos former CEO and founder Elizabeth Holmes. Holmes is accused of knowingly misleading investors about her failed company's blood testing capabilities for more funding.

Here is CNN's Dan Simon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH HOLMES, FORMER CEO, THERANOS: So this is the little tube that we collect the samples in, we call them the nano-tainer. They're about this big.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Elizabeth Holmes, who once graced magazine covers and was estimated to be worth billions of dollars, now potentially faces decades in prison for her blood testing startup called Theranos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In your (INAUDIBLE) thought, what's the thing you're most certain about?

HOLMES: More people will have access to their own health information.

SIMON: Holmes claimed her machines could conduct hundreds of blood tests with a single drop of blood from a finger. At one point, Theranos had lucrative deals to have their machines in Walgreens and Safeway pharmacies across the country.

Accused of misleading her investors and patients, Holmes is on trial for a dozen counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elizabeth any comment to say about the trial.

SIMON: She's pleaded not guilty. Holmes' backers included an array of former U.S. officials -- Henry Kissinger, George Schultz and Betsy Devos among them.

The Devos family investing a whopping $100 million in Theranos. Media titan Rupert Murdoch invested $125 million.

How such prominent individuals ultimately fell for what prosecutors say was a scam is part of what makes the Holmes case so intriguing.

ELLEN KREITZBERG, SANTA CLARA PROFESSOR: An important component for the government is to show not only that she made factual misrepresentations but when she did it, she was intending to defraud them.

SIMON: Ellen Kreitzberg, is a Santa Clara University law professor who's been closely following the case.

KREITZBERG: And so once you get a certain number of people in that are reputable. Other people assume that due diligence or the investigation had occurred.

Secondly, this was an exciting opportunity in terms of changing health care.

SIMON: Among those who have testified, former defense secretary James Mattis who had served on Theranos' board. Mattis invested $85,000 in the company.

EMILY SAUL, REPORTER, "BAD BLOOD": Compared to other investments that were made in this company, that's not a huge one. But as you pointed out, for someone who spent their life in civil service, it is not an insignificant amount of money.

SIMON: Holmes also claimed her devices had been used by the military in the battlefield to assess the wounded. A Theranos project manager testified they had no deal with the military.

Emily Saul, reporter with podcast "Bad Blood: the Final Chapter" has been in the courtroom for every day of testimony.

SAUL: Holmes owned the room when she was CEO of Theranos. And I can say that she does not own the room in this courtroom. There's a big change in whatever demeanor she was presenting before. You know, she cuts a very small, respectful, almost timid figure.

SIMON: Quite a difference from 2015.

HOLMES: It's an incredible honor to have this group.

SIMON: When the Silicon Valley entrepreneur appeared alongside then Vice President Joe Biden at the company's California lab.

BIDEN: Talk about being inspired, this is inspiration, man. This is inspiration.

SIMON: The trial wrapping its tenth week. It's not clear if Holmes will take the stand when the defense gets the case likely next week.

But her attorneys are expected to argue she was a hard working founder whose company ultimately failed. But failure is not a crime.

(on camera): Three jurors have already been dismissed for one reason or another including one juror who was dismissed for playing a game of Sudoku during testimony. That leaves just two alternates left and according to legal analysts, given the pandemic, that puts the prospect of this ultimately going to the jury at significant risk. Keep in mind, the trial still has at least one more month to go.

Dan Simon, CNN -- San Francisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Dan.

All right. And don't miss a new episode of the "CNN ORIGINAL SERIES: DIANA" where we go inside her lasting legacy more than 20 years after her death. It airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m.

We'll be right back. [11:44:18]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Poland's interior minister is calling the growing migration crisis on the Poland-Belarus border an attack on the E.U. Thousands of people are stranded as they try to migrate deeper into parts of Europe.

Immigrants say they've been beaten and have gone without food or water for days as they hope to cross the border.

CNN's Matthew Chance got exclusive access to a migrant camp near the border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These are the desperate trapped on the front line of Europe's latest refugee crisis.

We gained exclusive access to the burgeoning camp at the Polish border in Belarus.

"Help, help," the little boy shouts. But there's barely enough help here to keep everyone alive. Already people have died in the cold as Polish forces stand guard on the other side.

(on camera): You can see how close we are just across this razor wire fence are Polish security forces there on Polish territory, keeping a close eye on the situation, trying to prevent refugees, migrants from this camp here in Belarusian territory from crossing over that frontier line. You see there are thousands of people here.

[11:49:59]

(voice over): 2,000 now say Belarusian officials; but with migrants still flooding in from the Middle East and Asia, it could be 5,000, they told CNN, in just another week. For Europe, that's a threat.

(on camera): You're warming children's gloves here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CHANCE (voice over): Most like Fina (ph) have already paid big money to traffickers or travel agents just to get this far.

(on camera): You're telling me you've paid $2,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CHANCE: Which is a lot of money, right, to come from Iraqi Kurdistan to here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CHANCE: Do you think you're going to get through? Do you think you will go to Germany?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CHANCE: You do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We are. Our people here want to go to Germany.

CHANCE: Yes. But do you think it will happen? You'll try.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll try. We don't want to stay in Poland here.

CHANCE (voice over): And the more migrants arrive, the more desperate their plight. We witnessed these refugees frantically scrambling for firewood, essential supplies as temperatures here plunge.

When Belarusian aid workers arrive with food and water it seems they're even more (INAUDIBLE).

(on camera): I hope you get some food.

You can see these are pretty extraordinary scenes. You've got Belarusian military forces essentially trying to push back the crowd of migrants that's gathered around this distribution of aid.

They're just giving out bottles of -- you know plastic bottles of water, but the people here are so desperate for any kind of nutrition, any kind of food, water, shelter.

Oh, look. They're being asked to kneel down in front of the Belarusian security forces. And when they kneel down, look then, some of them are being allowed to go through.

Who's this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His name is Aji.

CHANCE: Hello, Aji. How are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.

CHANCE: You're good. You speak English too. You speak a little bit of English.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

CHANCE (voice over): Shohan (ph) and her four year old also traveled to Belarus from Iraqi Kurdistan to help her child, she tells me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We came here because of my son. Because he needs an operation.

CHANCE (on camera): He needs an operation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, big operation in the back. CHANCE: Oh, no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. He can't walk away without this --

CHANCE: I see he's got this splint on his leg.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. And he can't walk away without this.

CHANCE: Why didn't you do this operation in Kurdistan?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because not very good. Maybe he fail, the operation fail. We need to go to Germany. Everyone and the doctor told me that the operation in Germany very good.

CHANCE (voice over): But now Germany looks a long way off.

With Belarus in the west blaming each other for this crisis, it's these people stuck in the middle who are paying the price.

Matthew Chance, CNN, at the border between Poland and Belarus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Powerful view of what's happening.

All right. Still ahead, a stark warning to Trump allies after the U.S. Justice Department indicts Steve Bannon for defying Congress. What this means for the January 6th investigation, next

But first, how companies are harnessing the untapped power of water. Here's this week's "Mission Ahead".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over) : For decades, wind and solar have been the centerpieces of green energy, but the ocean's ever constant waves and tides are also rich with renewable power that has remained largely untapped.

Off the coast of Scotland the company Orbital Marine Power is trying to change that. Its jumbo jet-sized floating platform called the O2 has two giant rotors that sit 60 feat below the surface of the water and going to harness the energy of the ocean's tides.

ANDREW SCOTT, CEO, ORBITAL MARINE POWER: It's kinetic energy so the bits of technology that generate power look not too different to a wind turbine.

CRANE: But unlike wind turbines that have to accommodate for wind coming from all directions, the O2 only needs to capture energy from two.

SCOTT: You have a flood tide when the tide comes in and you have an ebb tide when the tides goes out.

CRANE: And tides are far more reliable than wind. SCOTT: You can predict those motions years and decades into advance.

CRANE: This is Orbital's third tidal turbine system that's going to be connected to the UK national grid for testing since 2012. The company says one O2 unit generates up to 2 megawatts, which it says is enough to power around 2,000 homes a year.

Right now the high cost of building, operating, and maintaining tidal power technology means that tidal energy comes at a premium, a hurdle for not only Orbital but for the many other companies in the industry.

So for now they're relying on government investment to help drive the price tag down.

[11:54:53]

SCOTT: What we're really asking at this stage for policy makers here in the U.K. and around the world where there's tidal stream energy is make allowance for early stage technology hopefully in the course of the next 10 or 15 years.

Not only will we be able to deploy hundreds of O2-style machines, but we'll be able to see that levelized cost of energy fall down to somewhere that's far more competitive.

CRANE: Rachel Crane, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:00:04]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield.