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Trump Part of Criminal Conspiracy; Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) is Interviewed about Russia's Attack on Ukraine; Russian Airlines Pulled from Global System; Putin and Macron Speak about Invasion. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 03, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:39]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The committee investigating January 6th says former President Trump may have broken the law in its efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The panel says Trump and right-wing attorney John Eastman were part of a, quote, criminal conspiracy, accusing the pair of pressuring former Vice President Mike Pence to manipulate the election results in Trump's favor. It's important to note here, the former president has not been charged. The committee does not have the authority to bring criminal charges.

But what does this all mean potentially? Joining me now to discuss, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams. He's also, of course, a former federal prosecutor and former deputy assistant attorney general.

Elliot, good to see you this morning.

So, this is not an indictment.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It is not an indictment.

HILL: As I just said, these are -- these are not criminal charges. It's the language here, though, about a criminal conspiracy that's really key because this has a major impact on that claim of attorney/client privilege from John Eastman. So, how concerned should Donald Trump be this morning?

WILLIAMS: Somewhat concerned. Look, and you touched right on the point, Erica. In order -- John Eastman is claiming attorney/client privilege, seeking to have a lot of documents shielded by attorney/client privilege? You can't claim attorney/client privilege over matters that are related to fraud or, frankly, the commission of a crime. And what the committee does here is lay out quite clearly instances in where they have what's called a good faith belief, and they use those words repeatedly through their filing, a good faith belief that crimes were committed. And they lay out three crimes that they say might have been committed.

HILL: So, what are the chance these emails are, in fact, turned over? WILLIAMS: Oh, I think pretty significant. Now, the way it works is

that the judge will review each of -- if the judge buys the argument here, and it's a very strong argument made in this detailed pleading, if the judge buys it, the judge will review privately outside of the view of any of the attorneys all of the statements and documents that Eastman is seeking to have privileged. Now, look, some of them might be protected. But at the end of the day, if there is a serious allegation of good faith belief that a crime has been committed, then those documents should not and cannot be protected.

HILL: So, as we're looking at all of this, the chair of the committee, Bennie Thompson, saying the panel should wrap up depositions by the end of the month, April 1st.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HILL: Then we're going to move on to public hearings.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HILL: In your view, are those hearings more about laying out a case, laying out what they found for lawmakers, or for the American people?

WILLIAMS: Oh, it's, without question, the American people, Erica. The evidence that they have thus far, the information largely from the staff to Mike Pence. It really is clear. And when you read this pleading from last night and the attachments that included with it, it seemed that Mike Pence's staff were the adults in the room trying to put the brakes on all of this.

Most of the information is really in the papers. Now, hearing it out of people's mouths and seeing it under the klieg lights of primetime, certainly that can have an effect on the public. But in terms of putting together a coherent report and maybe even referral to the Justice Department for charges, that's all in the papers.

HILL: Elliot Williams, always great to have you. Thank you.

WILLIAMS: Thanks, Erica.

Protecting Ukrainians in the United States from deportation. You're going to hear from one of the lawmakers who was urging President Biden to do just that. That's next.

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[09:39:24]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: The Biden administration is now asking Congress to approve billions of dollars in new aid for Ukraine as it continues to fight off the Russian invasion. The president seeking $10 billion to address Ukraine's humanitarian, economic and also security needs. The aid would be part of a much larger emergency funding request, which includes more than $22 billion to shore up the U.S. effort to fight coronavirus as well.

I'm joined now by Colorado Senator Michael Bennet. He serves on both the Intelligence and Finance Committees.

Senator, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO): Thanks, Jim, for having me. I really appreciate it.

[09:40:02]

SCIUTTO: So, we are watching here the slow annihilation, as the Pentagon describes the Russian strategy, of what was, until a week ago, for most of the country, a peaceful country. I know you do not support U.S. troops on the ground. It's the position of Biden administration as well no no-fly zone because both those things would put U.S. forces into direct, deadly conflict potentially with Russian forces.

I wonder, if Ukraine falls, if this progress continues, will you still believe that?

BENNET: Well, look, Jim, this is a devastating attack on Ukraine. And we have to do everything we can right now to supply Ukrainians with lethal aid that they can use to try to fend off this criminal Putin, this tyrant, Putin. And that's what we're going to do.

I think that I do -- my view is that we should not put U.S. troops on the ground or in harm's way in Ukraine. And I think that's the Biden administration's view as well. But we have to do absolutely everything we can do as an international community to try to slow Putin's progress and to punish him as hard as we can. And, to me, it's gratifying to see the way the international community has mobilized to do that.

SCIUTTO: I just wonder if it's enough, right? I mean we heard Sergey Lavrov say today that this campaign is going to continue, right, no matter what the costs, in effect. And it's CNN's reporting that, yes, Russia has suffered losses, perhaps 3 percent to 5 percent of their total force, but Ukraine has suffered 10 percent losses. And it's a smaller force, as you know. The direction lines are not good.

Is the west doing enough?

BENNET: Yes, I think the direction lines are not good. And while we should hope that the Ukrainians are going to be able to stop this, and I hope the Ukrainians will be able to stop this, and that Putin will seek a political off ramp of some kind, that's not what we should expect because the numbers are just -- the numbers are what you just described them to be.

But this is an attack, not just on Ukraine, this is an attack on democracy. It's an attack on the ability of humans to determine their futures. And I don't think that we should be going to war with Russia. We just spent 20 years fighting two wars in the Middle East that, by the way, I think was a tragic mistake for the United States of America. We shouldn't have done that.

This is not the same situation, but I think that we have to be disciplined about this. We have to offer the Ukrainians all the aid we can. We need to summon the world to push back on Putin. And I think that's what we're trying to do.

But there is a -- And I'm not going to say that it's inevitable that Putin's going to succeed here militarily. I think it's inevitable that he has made a horrendous decision for himself, for the world, and for humanity. The United States has to stand up for democracy, and for the Ukrainian people.

SCIUTTO: Is this, though, perhaps a 1939 moment in that are we confident that Putin stops at Ukraine? If he doesn't believe Ukraine is a country, that's somehow part of the greater Russian empire, he feels the same way about Belarus, which he's already subjugated. He doesn't believe the Baltic republics should be independent. Why should we believe he stops here?

BENNET: Well, I don't think we should believe that. And I think we should reserve the right to change our position if he goes beyond Ukraine. I, you know, my mom and her parents were Polish Jews who barely survived the Holocaust in Warsaw.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BENNET: They and an aunt were the only ones that got out. I can tell you that nobody in my family, including myself, is assuming anything about what this lunatic is going to do. When you saw him the other night on television, talking about, you know, throwing, of all people, Vladimir Lenin (ph) over the side, saying Lenin gave away Ukraine, and sort of making himself into a Peter the Great figure, re-establishing the Russian empire. We should be very clear-eyed about what is possible here.

So, I think we need to stand up the way we are. We need to lead the rest of the world. We need to be pleased that Germany and Switzerland and others have come in, in ways that I think a lot of people didn't expect. And we're going to have to do what is necessary.

And, again, this is a battle. The president is right about this. We are living in an era, speaking of 1939, when what's on offer here is totalitarianism versus democracy. And whether you think about what Putin is doing in Russia today, or what China is doing with their state-sponsored capitalism, they believe democracy is -- when they looked at January 6th, what they said is, America can't lead.

[09:45:08]

Democracy is ruined. And what we have to do in this moment is show them that we're here to fight for the people of Ukraine, and the right of human beings to determine their future.

SCIUTTO: Senator Bennet, until a week ago, a former American president, a former American secretary of state, many on right wing media, regardless of what they're saying now, until a week ago, they were defending, praising even Vladimir Putin. By doing so, were they emboldening him? Were they, in effect, aiding and abetting? BENNET: Of course. Of course. Of course. Of course. And it's tragic

and outrageous. You know, some have said that it's treasonous. You know, I -- people can make their own judgments about that. But when the Russian television is playing the words of cable television hosts in America, to support what Putin is doing, when a former president of the United States is championing this kind of outrageous behavior, it's pathetic.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BENNET: And, by the way, I think this is not --

SCIUTTO: Senator Michael Bennet --

BENNET: I'd say, this is an opportunity. The other thing is, this an opportunity for people in this country to say it's time for us to put our divisions aside, to unify and to begin to work together because our internal divisions are a threat to democracy as well.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, Russia celebrates them, we know, very publicly.

BENNET: No doubt about it. No doubt.

SCIUTTO: Senator Michael Bennet, thanks so much for joining us.

BENNET: Thank you, Jim. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: We'll be right back.

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[09:51:10]

HILL: Breaking news, Russia's government owned airline has just been yanked from the global reservation system in what could be yet another crippling blow to the economy and to travel specifically in that country.

CNN's Pete Muntean joining me live now.

So, Pete, just give us a sense. What is -- how broad is the impact of this move?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, this is pretty huge. This is called Sabre. It is the reservation system that is at the backbone of airlines worldwide. And they just announced that the Russian government-owned carrier, the flag carrier of Russia, Aeroflot, has now been cut off from what's called the global distribution system. This is so critical to airlines everywhere. It makes it so that an airline is represented online, on travel sites, like Google Flights, Expedia, Travelocity, et cetera.

Also, at travel agencies. Also by corporations when they try and book airlines. Also, this essentially cuts off the airline from itself. It cannot now make bookings for passengers to be on Aeroflot flights. Just the latest signal of how increasingly isolated Russia is becoming from the rest of the western world.

Just yesterday we saw the U.S. restrictions go into place barring Russian civilian aircraft from U.S. airspace. We know that plenty of other western countries have done that as well. Not only Canada, but also the European Union. This is just getting worse and worse for the travel industry in Russia and it's getting increasingly hard to get out of there. But this is so big. You know, Sabre is so central to so many airlines and many industry analysts have been waiting for something like this to happen and now it is. It's pretty huge, Erica.

HILL: Yes, it is. Pete, appreciate it. Thank you.

Russia, meantime, is doubling down on its baseless, outrageous claim that it invaded Ukraine to get rid of Nazis and now a group of Ukrainian Jews, who survived the Holocaust, are calling out the claim for the lie it is.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): ON June 22, 1942, during war I was in Kyiv being shelled. My relatives were killed in Babyn Yar. February 24 in 2022, I'm in Kyiv again being shelled. Putin, withdraw your army and get out from Ukraine!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a horrifying monstrosity. Putin, I hope you die! Leave us alone, you bastard! We want peace! It hurts!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joining us now from Moscow.

So, Nic, I know you're also learning more about a call that Vladimir Putin just had with French President Emmanuel Macron about his goal in Ukraine. What more do you know about that call?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, frank and difficult, that's how the Kremlin's describing it. The best way to think about these phone calls between Putin and people like Emmanuel Macron, a few weeks ago these were the sort of -- the place where there might be some diplomatic hope that things could move forward, where international leaders were appealing to Putin's better will and telling him what could happen if he invaded Ukraine.

The state of these calls now are not like that. This went very much sort of Putin's way, if you will. According to the Kremlin, Putin told Macron that if these peace talks with Ukraine don't speed up and get results, then he's going to essentially increase the pressure on Ukrainians. He's going to switch up his demands of demilitarization and neutrality from Ukraine.

No mention here in this phone conversation at all about Russia backing off with all the sort of missiles and bombs and attacks that it's having on Ukrainian civilians. So, the calls have really radically changed in their nature. And the reality is that this is leaders trying to sort of take Putin's temperature. [09:55:02]

And, right now, you know, listen to the readout from the Kremlin, still seems pretty red hot.

HILL: Yes, it certainly does.

Meantime, we are seeing more and more of these images of protests of people out on the streets in Russia. What more are you hearing about how this is being viewed in Russia and how accurate is the information they're getting, Nic?

ROBERTSON: The information people get off state media here is woefully inaccurate. It doesn't provide information about the civilian casualties. It doesn't provide information about the missiles landing in civilian neighborhoods or landing on government buildings. The narrative that's being put out here is that the Ukrainian military is hiding their weapons in civilian neighborhoods, that this was a war that the Russians just had to do, that this was seven years of, you know, built-up Ukrainian, you know, provocation. This is the Russian line. This is what's on state media here.

And I was out talking to people on the streets just the last couple of hours and I would say about two-thirds of them buy that message from the government. There's a lot that don't. There's a lot that believe they're being fed lies. They don't like it. They don't want the war in their name.

The split is younger people more sympathetic to Ukrainians, older generation, not so much.

HILL: Nic Robertson, always appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, Ukrainian cities under attack. We've been showing you the images. In our next hour, we're going to take you to Kyiv where we're on the ground with more on the Ukrainian resistance, as Russian forces make their way to the capital city.

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