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Russia Intensifies Attacks on Cities Across Ukraine; Synagogue Basement Used as Bomb Shelter During Putin's "Anti-Nazi Campaign" in Ukraine; Jan. 6 Committee Says Trump Part of "Conspiracy" to Overturn Election; Outpouring of Support for Refugees at Polish Train Station. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 03, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:34:54]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Welcome back. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

Anderson Cooper is back with us now from Lviv, Ukraine.

[13:34:59]

And, Anderson, as you can see on the map, Lviv is pretty far west in Ukraine. Right now, the fighting is mainly to the south and east of where you are.

I understand you've been talking to people there in Lviv. You went to a cancer hospital today. Tell us about that.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes, you know, we've seen images of children in oncology wards in Kyiv who have had to be moved down to basements because of the air raid sirens and the bombings.

And they can't receive treatment often in those basements. Obviously, with children with cancer, the conditions that they are living in are extremely important. It's got to be clean conditions. It's untenable.

So parents are -- there's no way to move by ambulance kids with cancer from Kyiv or Kharkiv or Kherson or anywhere in Odessa even. So basically it's up to parents to try to bring their kids as far west as they can.

Right now, Lviv is a destination for parents who are able to bring their children. Oftentimes, it's just the mother and father who is able to bring the child.

But they're coming on packed trains, by vehicles, if they can, on buses if they can. It's extremely difficult for them just to get here.

And even here there's air raids virtually every day. The kids have to move down. They're trying to get these kids to Poland.

It's an extraordinary situation to see on top of a war to see these children dealing with cancer and their lives really hanging in the balance because of the war and the lack of complete treatment that they are able to get to be able to get here.

We've also spent time on the streets just talking to people about what they are doing to prepare. As you said, Lviv is, in terms of being anywhere in Ukraine, it's probably the safest place to be.

It's a major city. It is close to the Polish border. But just about everybody here is preparing to fight, is preparing and already involved.

I want to show you some of the civilians that we talked to over the last day or so here.

CABRERA: We're looking at images right now, Anderson --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: -- of I think --

COOPER: Yes.

CABRERA: -- a Molotov cocktail-making factory. I don't know if that's an official factory, but they've been stocking up it looks like.

COOPER: Yes, in fact, it's an old brewery that's now making Molotov cocktails to -- a lot of which they've sent further east, some of which they've distributed throughout this city.

In other apartment complexes, there are people who are gathering clothing together, gathering supplies together to send out to people on the front lines.

So everybody is involved, even in a city where the war has not come in the full way that it has in Kyiv and other places. Everybody here is involved in this fight already and committed to it.

We've been seeing -- our CNN Sam Kiley is in Uman in Ukraine. I want to go to him now.

Sam, tell us what you have been seeing there.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, just as you are at the -- in the sense at the end of the Ukrainian, or near the end of the Ukrainian refugee trail, this is the kind of midway point for a lot of people fleeing fighting in Kharkiv, in Kherson, in Mariupol and, of course, in the capital Kyiv.

A lot of them pass through here. A lot of them shelter here in the local synagogue, which in the -- underneath in the basement.

It's the biggest synagogue, they say, in Europe. It's got a very large basement. It's able to shelter many hundreds of people as they often stream in here.

Because there's air raid sirens at least nearly every day and every evening. The town or the outskirts of the town have been hit, particularly at the beginning of the assault. But what we're seeing here is, and you're seeing there, is really the

mass movement of population as a result of this gear change really from the Russian assault, which has gone from targeting military installations, communications, now appears to be stalling.

And they are turning a variable firepower, particularly in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, onto the civilian populations.

Using, in particular, multiple rocket-launching systems, sometimes with thermobaric bombing, which are fuel air bombs. These are all intended -- they're called area weapons. They're intended to kill everything over a wide area.

They're not the sort of precision weapons that you would want to use if you were trying to avoid civilian casualties. These are the weapons to use if that's precisely what you want to inflict -- Anderson?

COOPER: It's sickening to see. And more of that will be coming.

Sam Kiley, appreciate it.

[13:39:38]

Stay with us for all the breaking news on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We'll be right back.

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CABRERA: Back to our Ukraine coverage in just a moment.

But first, another big story we're following today. The House committee investigating the January 6th capitol attack accuses former President Trump and one of his lawyers of being part of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.

Now the allegation is part of that panel's new court filing as it tries to convince a judge to allow access to that attorney, John Eastman's, emails. Eastman continues to claim attorney/client privilege.

[13:45:00]

Let's discuss with CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig.

Elie, it's important to note the committee can't prosecute. So this isn't an indictment. What is the significance?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Not an indictment but very, very important.

Here's how we got here, Ana. So the committee wants to get access to emails between Donald Trump and this attorney, John Eastman.

This is the attorney who came up with the idea of we can have Mike Pence unilaterally reject some of the votes and steal the election. But Eastman saying those are protected emails. I was the attorney

giving advice to my client, Doanld Trump. They are privileged. Can't have them.

The committee is firing back, saying, oh, no, no, there's an exception called the crime/fraud exception. If the emails involve communications about a crime or fraud between a lawyer and a client, the committee can get them.

So the committee alleges that they have evidence and information available to the committee that "establishes a good-faith believes," meaning the committee believes -- "that Mr. Trump and others may have" -- that's important, they are being careful -- "engaged in criminal and/or fraudulent acts."

That's a very big deal to put on paper and submit to a federal judge.

CABRERA: What kind of crimes are we talking?

HONIG: The two main crimes the committee mentions, obstruction of an official proceeding. Here, that proceeding is Congress counting the electoral votes as required by the 12th Amendment.

Also conspiracy to defraud the United States. People hear defraud and they think of money. Here, the fraud is defrauding the United States of a free and fair election.

And now the committee argues this wasn't just bad legal advice from John Eastman. This was false. This was fraudulent.

And they know it because DOJ said so. Homeland Security said so. People in the White House said, you didn't win, Mr. President.

John Eastman himself even acknowledged that he knew that this legal theory was bogus.

CABRERA: Let me pick up on that last point because there was a quote of an email exchange within this 61-page court filing. I want to zero in on it.

Because this was a quote sent by a lawyer of Vice President Pence during the capitol siege.

At 12:14, in fact, on January 6th, in which this lawyer wrote to John Eastman, very respectfully, that he didn't believe any Supreme Court justice would approve of Eastman's legal theories.

And quoting here, "Thanks to your B.S." -- although he didn't quite say it that way -- "we are now under siege."

How strong is this kind of evidence? Do you think the committee will get these emails?

HONIG: I do. I think the committee with get these e-mails. I think they'll win in court. This piece of evidence is so strong. Eastman himself later admitted he knew he would lose. By the way, this is such a lawyerly thing. They start with "very

respectfully" and end with "the B.S."

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CABRERA: So beyond what the committee does with this, where could it go from here?

HONIG: This, to me, was a call to action from the committee to the Justice Department.

We remember, Merrick Garland vowed he would investigate all January 6th perpetrators at any level. That's such an important phrase.

Look, DOJ has prosecuted over 700 people, but all people who were physically present at the capitol.

I think what the committee is trying to do here is amp up the pressure on Merrick Garland, we want you to start looking at the bosses, we want you to start looking at the people who plotted this in advance.

CABRERA: Elie Honig, you do it well. Thank you so much for explaining to us.

HONIG: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Ahead, more on the refugee crisis in Ukraine and along the border. What people who have fled Ukraine face when they get to Poland.

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CABRERA: Just a short time ago, the European Union announced it will grant temporary protections to all refugees from the conflict in Ukraine.

And there's a mass exodus under way. The U.N. says more than one million people have fled so far. And Poland has taken in about half of them.

CNN's Sara Sidner is at the first train station in Poland for people arriving from Ukraine.

Sara, fill us in.

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Ana, I'm in Przemysl, Poland. This is 20 minutes from the Polish/Ukrainian border. And this is where a lot of people are coming because it's a train station.

So when people show up, they will get a free SIM card, allowing them to call wherever they need to call when they are here in Poland or anywhere in Europe.

Then, as they walk in, if they are hungry or need warm food, there's warm food now set up here. And by the way, it's delicious.

And then, if you come over here, there are people trying to arrange rides for anyone who is trying to get into Europe, deeper or into Poland, deeper to meet friends or family or anyone who's taking them in.

What is incredible is this place is popping all day and night. People just keep coming.

You see families and a lot of women and children. We are seeing so many children come with their mothers.

The fathers, for the most part, if they are between certain ages, they have to stay behind and fight. So you are seeing women and children alone but you're seeing such a beautiful outpouring of help.

To my left, these are people who have come from Denmark. And they are offering eight people free rides to Denmark.

We are seeing people from Germany who are also here to help people find a place to live.

The bottom line is, when people show up at this train station in Przemysl, Poland, the first thing they see when they get on the platform and into Poland, is, "You are safe."

There's a huge sign that says, "You are safe. You are welcome here in Poland."

That is the scene here at the train station in Przemysl, Poland -- Ana?

CABRERA: Sara Sidner, doing great work. Thank you.

And organizations all around the world are there on the ground in Ukraine and neighboring countries to try to help people who need shelter and food, water and other things.

[13:55:00]

To find out how you can help, just visit CNN.com/impact.

That does it for me today. Thank you for being with us.

Our breaking news coverage continues after a quick break.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is inflicting death and destruction in

several areas of the country.