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Figure Skating Body May Raise Minimum Competition Age to 17; IOC President: Lack of Support from Valieva's Team "Chilling"; U.S. Officials Prep Big Banks for Potential Russia Cyberattacks; Judge Orders Trump & Two of His Children to Testify; NASA's Perseverance Rover Celebrates One Year on Mars; "LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy" Aires Sunday Night at 9:00. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 18, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

DON RIDDELL, CNN HOST: It was really terrible to see what happened to Kamila Valieva, a young woman with so much promise, so much talent.

And we've seen in the last week or so just her entire life completely unravel. She clearly crumbled under the pressure, given that she was the gold medal favorite.

And what happened afterwards really was terrible.

Not surprising that there has been a reaction from the Russian government. The Russian spokesman from the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, had strong words to say back to Thomas Bach, the head of the IOC.

Peskov saying, "He doesn't like the harshness of our coaches but everyone knows that the harshness of a coach in high-level sport is key for their athletes to achieve victories."

"And we're seeing that the athletes are achieving victories. So let's be proud of our winners, congratulate our medalists. Valieva was fourth but, in high-level sport, the strongest wins. Remember, Russian athletes took the gold and silver in this competition."

But it was just so bizarre afterwards, wasn't it? Nobody was celebrating. Everybody was crying for different reasons.

They are all young athletes. They look even younger in that moment. The gold medalist just looked alone and confused. It was just such a terrible scene, wasn't it?

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Yes.

RIDDELL: And some have described the whole situation as child abuse playing out on the biggest stage in international sport.

CABRERA: Really painful to see some of those images. And then to hear that statement from the Russian coach is pretty harsh.

Let's talk about, though, this now, you know, waiting game for U.S. ice dancers, for example, waiting on the decision about what's going to happen in the team competition.

The U.S., obviously, got silver. But they could be elevated to gold depending on the outcome of the investigation into Valieva.

RIDDELL: Yes, I mean, a tragedy for Valieva, of course. But it's a tragedy for everybody else and all the other athletes competing. They want to know they're competing on a level playing field.

So often in the past, we have had athletes banned after the event and then eventually the gold medals are redistricted. But that's a process that can take months, if not years.

Now we have this situation where there isn't even the medal ceremony.

So the American team, as you say, won silver. They, I think, would like to stand on the podium and at least celebrate some kind of achievement.

But there's no podium ceremony. They are literally leaving with empty boxes.

This is what Madison Hubbell said to CNN a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADISON HUBBELL, USA OLYMPIC ICE DANCER: It's hard to go home empty handed. We have our empty medal box waiting in our room and we have no answer as to what the timeline could be for that issue to be resolved.

So it is really tough. And my heart goes out to everyone on all of the teams.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: Ana, it is such an unsatisfactory situation for everybody. The International Olympic Committee and all the governing bodies involved here really have failed all of the athletes.

CABRERA: Don Riddell, thank you very much.

RIDDELL: Thanks.

CABRERA: Back now to the warning we told you about at the top of the show. This is our breaking news. U.S. officials preparing big banks in this country for potential Russian cyberattacks as this Ukrainian crisis deepens.

Our next guest is a cybersecurity expert. Alex Stamos is the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and partner in the Krebs Stamos Group. And was also chief security officer at Facebook and Yahoo!.

Good to have you here, Alex.

As we mentioned, the Justice Department is urging all U.S. companies to shore up their cyber defenses.

What type of cyberattacks do you think are most likely? What are you watching for?

ALEX STAMOS, CYBERSECURITY EXPERT & DIRECTOR, THE STANFORD INTERNET OBSERVATORY & PARTNER, KREBS STAMOS GROUP: So I think we should expect the cyberattacks against Ukrainian infrastructure and companies that are operating in Ukraine.

And the possibility of attacks against Western organizations, including American companies, to try to deter the United States and our NATO allies from backing Ukraine during what looks to be a horrible humanitarian crisis that's on the edge.

What we're expecting right now is attacks against telecom infrastructure, oil and gas, water infrastructure, power infrastructure in Ukraine itself.

So you'll have attacks that are in support of Russia's invasion to try to cause chaos and logistical problems for the Ukrainian defense.

But then we might also see attacks against American businesses. And those attacks are probably going to be more subtle and will probably come in the form of what looks like ransomware attacks.

Ransomware is this huge problem for companies already where their computers are hacked and then they're demanded a ransom to be paid for those computers to be unlocked.

We have a history here of Russia, during other Ukrainian crises, utilizing what looks like ransomware to actually harm American and other businesses who have had the temerity, from their perspective, to operate in Ukraine and to back the Ukrainian government.

CABRERA: Let's go back to what happened this week in Ukraine. It was Tuesday. This attack was the largest denial-of-service attack in the country's history, we're told.

STAMOS: Yes.

CABRERA: How does this denial-of-service attack work? And who would be doing it? And why?

[13:35:00]

STAMOS: Right. So, what we're starting to see is the Russians step up what we call the escalation letter.

Taking steps, first, of distributed denial-of-service attacks, which are effectively attacks where you get thousands or millions of computers to send, to flood targets with traffic to make them go offline.

And so we saw those denial-of-service attacks against the Ukrainian government, against Ukrainian banks and the Ukrainian media.

So this is effectively the first level, trying to cause panic, trying to make it difficult for the Ukrainian government to communicate with its people, trying to start to punish Ukrainian companies. This is different than breaking into computers. It's effectively a

cyber-vandalism. But at the size that we're seeing, that kind of vandalism can really bring these organizations to their knees.

And the next step of escalation would be actual breaches of these organizations to try to either cause down time or to steal information that would be useful to the Russians in their invasion.

CABRERA: It's fascinating.

We have to leave it there today, Alex, but I hope you'll come back so we can dive deeper. So much to learn in this realm.

STAMOS: Thank you.

CABRERA: Alex Stamos, good to have you. Thanks.

A judge orders former President Trump and his two oldest children, Ivanka and Don Jr, to testify under oath within 21 days. This fight is far from over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:41:03]

CABRERA: A judge this weekend swatted away the Trump family's attempts to dodge questioning from the New York attorney general.

The court ruled Thursday that Donald Trump and his children, Ivanka and Don Jr, must testify in the civil case involving the Trump Organization.

This is a huge victory for the New York A.G. who has been trying to depose key Trump family members for months now as she investigates whether the company misled lenders and insurers.

Let's discuss with someone who really knows the legal system, our CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig. He's a former federal prosecutor.

And somebody who really knows Trump well and that's former Trump biographer and CNN contributor, Michael D'Antonio.

Good to talk to both of you.

Elie, let's start here.

First of all, there's so many different cases. Trying to keep track of them all can be a bit confusing.

Talk to us about this specific case and where it's going.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Ana, big day yesterday. It's important to understand, there's really two separate investigations here happening in parallel to one another.

There's a civil investigation being run by the New York state attorney general, Letitia James. At the same time, a criminal investigation being run by the Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, and Letitia James as well.

Of course, a civil suit involves lawsuits and potential money damages. A criminal suit involves potential indictments and imprisonment.

Now the dispute that was resolved yesterday is on the civil side of things.

Letitia James, the attorney general, sent subpoenas to Donald Trump, his son, Donald Trump Jr, and his daughter, Ivanka Trump.

The Trumps objected. They said these are improper. These are politically motivated. The attorney general said these are necessary. I have a legitimate investigation, evidence, I need to talk to them.

The judge sided with the attorney general. Now the Trumps have to sit for sworn depositions.

CABRERA: This comes down to numbers, right? This is essentially an allegation that the Trump Organization cooked the books, right?

HONIG: Cooking the books is exactly right.

We learned an interesting tidbit in a filing by Mazars, which is the Trump Organization's financial accountants, they put in a letter saying:

"Nearly a decade of the Trump Org's financial documents should no longer be relied upon."

Essentially, Mazars dumped the Trump Organization, for lack of a better term.

And really important, in the judge's ruling yesterday, he found copious evidence -- copious, that means a lot, I googled it -- copious evidence of possible financial fraud.

That's saying a lot from a judge.

CABRERA: Let's get Michael D'Antonio into the conversation.

Because Trump has always framed himself, Michael, as the expert on all things finance, taxes, his business, et cetera.

Listen to this example.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (voice-over): Nobody knows the tax code better than I do, OK? I know it better. I'm the king of the tax code.

(on camera): I know more formulas, more about tax abatements, more about taxes than any human being that God ever created.

I understand the tax laws better than almost anyone, which is why I am one who can truly fix them.

See, I understand the tax code better than anybody that's ever run for president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Of course, Trump also wrote "The Art of the Deal."

Did he know his way around accounting or is this all an act?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it's mostly an act, Ana. There's copious evidence, as well, that Donald Trump is always hyping both himself and his businesses.

He would call it truthful hyperbole. The problem was a lot of those hyperbole found its way into his financial statements.

So you got a fellow who is sort of like the bank robber who then comes out of prison and says, I can teach all the banks how to protect themselves. That's his claim.

But he has yet to be held accountable for any of his shenanigans that have gone on so far.

And as Elie said, this Mazars filing, indicating a decade worth of financial statements may not be accurate, is a big sign there's trouble ahead.

CABRERA: And just this week, in fact, when Mazars broke with the Trump Organization, Elie, he put out a statement almost immediately saying this, and I quote:

"We have a great company with fantastic assets that are unique, extremely valuable and, in many cases far more valuable than that what was listed in our financial statements."

[13:45:09]

So, Elie, he seems to be implying that he knows exactly what his finances are and that he understands them.

Could these words be used against him?

HONIG: Yes, legally, this statement is a disaster.

The defense here is going to be, Donald Trump didn't know about the nuances. He had accountants. He had people handling that. Here he's saying I knew it all.

(LAUGHTER)

CABRERA: He knew it all. OK.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER) CABRERA: So let's depose him, right?

So, Michael, that's where this is all headed. The Trumps have been ordered to be deposed in the next 21 days. They could appeal, of course.

But Donald Trump is no stranger to depositions. We all know, though, he has an interesting relationship with the truth.

In fact, how do you see him behaving if he's deposed? Will he plead the Fifth?

D'ANTONIO: I think he'll plead the Fifth many, many times. If Eric Trump's testimony is any indication. He did a deposition in the same prosecutor's investigation. He took the Fifth more than 500 times.

This is from a family where Donald Trump has said, what are you doing taking the Fifth if you're innocent? He's criticized people who take the Fifth.

So he now has a choice. Does he take the Fifth and protect himself and protect his businesses?

Or does he try to cooperate, commit a lot of deception, which I think is inevitable for him -- he can't not deceive people -- and then run into further trouble?

It's a very bad situation for him to be in.

CABRERA: Elie, it sounds like a lose/lose for Trump. What is next here?

HONIG: Yes. So a couple of things.

First of all, he will be appealing. His lawyer has already said that. I think he'll lose when it comes time for appeal.

As Michael said, he's very likely to take the Fifth.

Look, any person has the constitutional right to take the Fifth. It looks terrible. Cannot be used against them in a criminal case but can be used against him in a civil case.

The judge will tell the jury, essentially, in a civil case, if a person takes the Fifth, you can assume the worst about what they would have testified to.

CABRERA: And that could look real bad, obviously.

HONIG: Yes.

CABRERA: Thank you so much, Elie Honig --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: -- and Michael D'Antonio. My thanks to both of you. It took Perseverance, the rover, seven months to make this 290- million-mile trek to Mars. Man, one year after it landed, it was worth the trip.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:45]

CABRERA: It's been one year since the rover, Perseverance, landed on Mars. So what did it find? Since the rover, Perseverance landed on Mars, what did it find?

Let's ask CNN space and defense correspondent, Kristin Fisher.

Fill us in, Kristin. Any major discoveries? What have we learned?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Ana, the biggest thing that this rover has done is it has collected the first rock samples from another planet.

And this is, of course, so important because scientists are hoping that someday a future mission will be able to return those rock samples back to earth.

And then those scientists can, of course, search for perhaps signs of a very ancient line, perhaps microbial life in Mars. So that is the big thing.

It had a little bit of trouble at first. But Perseverance has now collected six rock samples and is holding them until the point when a future rover can come and then return it back to earth.

The other thing that is the Ingenuity helicopter, which this rover helped bring to the red planet.

Ingenuity, this was kind of an afterthought. It wasn't even supposed to be in the original mission.

And now it is has proven to be massively successful. It has done 19 successful flights. And it's become a companion to the Perseverance rover.

The scientist will have Ingenuity fly up ahead and kind of scout out to make sure the Perseverance rover isn't going to fall off a cliff or run into some big rock patches.

The other thing it has done is it has educated the world. I mean the quality of the images that this rover has sent back, videos, selfies even, have really inspired generations of kids.

And finally, Ana, the other thing -- and this is just huge -- it has proven and actually tested technology of transforming and generating oxygen.

And of course, that will be critical whenever astronauts finally land on the red planet, too. CABRERA: So cool.

So what is next? Where is this rover going now?

FISHER: Well, Perseverance is heading out on the biggest, longest adventure yet, the place where it was intended to land.

Perseverance actually landed one year ago today about a mile and a half off target in a place called the Jezero Crater.

And so scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have had to make the best of it for the last year. And that is when they came up with so many of the great rock sample discoveries.

But now the rover is going to head to this dried-up river delta.

And of course, the reason they want to go there is because they're hoping that all of the rocks and sediments that have fallen to the bottom of the river delta, those could hold some clues to ancient signs of life as well -- Ana?

CABRERA: Kristin Fisher, thanks so much for staying on top of that for us.

Well, this Presidents' Day weekend, CNN is premiering a new series focused on the life and presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.

He passed major legislation like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. But his decision to escalate the war in Vietnam overshadowed his legacy.

Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the end of oath, LBJ turned and embraced Mrs. Kennedy and he kissed Mrs. Johnson.

And they wanted us to get out of Dallas and get back to Washington as soon as possible. So Johnson said, let's get airborne.

The Democratic congressmen started to move toward him and they had their hand out to shake his hand. And I saw him. President Johnson had his hands below his belt. You couldn't see him on camera. But he went like this.

[13:55:11]

Everything about -- that he did on that airplane was directed toward Mrs. Kennedy.

Lyndon Johnson had many wonderful days. But that day in Dallas, he was magnificent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: "LBJ: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY," premieres Sunday night at 9:00 here on CNN.

And that does it for me. Thank you so much for spending your Friday with us. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. You can always join me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.

For now, I hand you over to Victor Blackwell after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:00]