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Judge Hears Arguments on Unsealing Mar-a-Lago Affidavit; Former Trump Organization CFO Expected to Plead Guilty in Tax Fraud Scheme; White House to Announce Key New Steps in Fight Against Monkeypox. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that they might turn out to be useful to others.

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KEILAR: I love that.

BERMAN: Adversity inspires creativity. That is just a wonderful example of someone going through something and then trying to make everyone else's life better because of it.

KEILAR: Yes, through art, which maybe you wouldn't think of, but you can see how it adds so much.

CNN's coverage continues right now.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

Right now, a deadline for former President Trump and his legal team. They had up until just seconds ago to respond to request to unseal the affidavit that laid out the FBI's reasons for searching Mar-a-Lago. And while the former president has said he wants that affidavit released, it is unclear if his legal team actually agrees.

But we won't have to wait long to find out. In just a few hours a judge will hear arguments in that dispute. The DOJ fighting the release of the affidavit, which would be unusual, insisting it could compromise its ongoing investigation.

GOLODRYGA: Now this all comes as CNN has learned some allies of the former president are urging him to publicly release surveillance footage of the FBI's search at Mar-a-Lago. His son Eric Trump says that will absolutely happen at the right time.

Plus, we're learning more about a separate probe of Trump's role in the January 6th Capitol attack. Overnight, "The New York Times" reporting that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed White House documents from the National Archives, asking for all materials in whatever form that were handed to the January 6th Committee.

SCIUTTO: What's clear is that these investigations are ongoing. Let's begin with CNN senior crime and justice reporter Katelyn Polantz in West Palm Beach.

Katelyn, ruling expected today or just the consideration?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is possible there could be a consideration. The judge could rule live in court or could decide to do it at a later time. But I just looked, moments ago, I refreshed that page in the court docket, we don't are have anything yet from the Trump team saying exactly what their position will be yet on transparency.

We're waiting to see potentially the Trump team show up in court and decide to take a position, say what they want to say, about what might be in this affidavit, why they may want to see it or not. But really the focus here today is going to be on the Justice Department and the prosecutors, how much they are willing to give if anything else as they try and argue for secrecy. We already know that they are saying this investigation implicates highly classified material, that there's a grand jury investigation that is confidential, that is ongoing, that there are witnesses both past and potentially in the future that should be protected.

So there is going to be a lot of arguments today before this judge that we're going to be watching for. We also know that media organizations will have a lawyer in court today representing multiple media organizations, almost a dozen, including CNN, fighting for transparency, fighting for the public interests because of the historical nature of this. And one of the things that the media has said so far, at least in the court record, is this, "Not since the Nixon administration has the federal government wielded its power to seize records from a former president in such a public fashion."

So that's the perspective on the transparency side. Of course, with all of this, there is a lot of politics at play in the background. There are Republicans who want more transparency because they are interested in attacking law enforcement, there are calls to defund the FBI. Yesterday, though, out of the White House we said that that is not going to happen, it is off the table, not something that President Biden would ever want to do, defund the FBI.

GOLODRYGA: Katelyn, what more are you learning about that "New York times" reporting that federal prosecutors are working to subpoena the National Archives for documents that January 6th Committee already has?

POLANTZ: Right. Well, Jim and Bianna, this is something that "The New York Times" is reporting happened a fair bit ago. And it's something that would have been foundational in their work in investigating January 6th. So we know that the investigation of January 6th turned at one point from the rioters on the ground inside the Capitol to look at more political circles around January 6th, and so this subpoena that they issued to the Archives to get the same set of documents that the House select committee in the January 6th investigation was able to get, that would have been a building block for that investigation.

We also know that since then, investigators have taken additional steps for subpoenas to develop more information and, remember, as we're talking about January 6th, that is a separate investigation than this one that we're outside here in front of the federal courthouse today. That's related to Mar-a-Lago and this classified material. So two separate things, a lot of legal issues at play.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. There are so many. It's admittedly hard to keep track.

Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

Joining us now to discuss, Glenn Gerstell, former general counsel of the National Security Agency, the NSA, serving both the Trump and Obama administrations, and Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI.

[09:05:08]

Good to you both on here. And I wonder if we could begin, Glenn, given your experience in the National Security Agency, how you expect this judge to rule and should we view this as both a legal question, right, that releasing this affidavit would show basically the outline of the DOJ's case, but also an intelligence question, releasing more details about what is intended to be secret intelligence?

GLENN GERSTELL, FORMER GENERAL COUNSEL, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY AND CENTRAL SECURITY SERVICE: Sure. Jim and Bianna, thank you very much. So we'll know -- we may well know in a few hours the answer to this question. My guess is that this is from the judge's point of view a relatively straightforward issue and so I think there is a good chance he might rule directly from the bench rather than taking the matter under advisement. It's not that complicated.

I say that because the law in that judicial circuit, the 11th Circuit, is pretty clear, that when something is in an investigative mode before anybody has been charged, motions relating to that matter are kept secret. And here the Justice Department has advanced a number of good reasons as to why they think their investigation would be derailed, witnesses could be put in jeopardy, a road map could be presented to the defense of what the nature of the investigation is, if this was revealed at this stage. Maybe later on down the road, that might be appropriate.

GOLODRYGA: Glenn, assuming that this judge then keeps this affidavit under seal, do you see a scenario in which House or Senate Intel members may have access to what's in this affidavit, perhaps in a secure facility, like a SCIF?

GERSTELL: Both the House and Senate have separate intelligence committees that are entitled under law to full and complete information about our intelligence community, and that would include such things as what documents, what classified documents belong to the intelligence community might have wound up at Mar-a-Lago. And so as a result, I would expect that at least the leadership of those committees would be able to view in a secure facility in the basement of the U.S. Capitol where they normally review these secret documents exactly what it is or at least summaries of what the agents have removed from Mar-a-Lago that were stated to be classified documents.

It's even possible the entire committee could get access to it. But I would expect that would occur fairly soon.

SCIUTTO: And that's been a public request of Senators Rubio, Republican, and Mark Warner, Democrat, from the Senate Intelligence Committee, to do just that.

Andy McCabe, a word caught my attention, you know, in the documents and comments we hear coming out of the DOJ, and that is the word ongoing investigation of the handling of these documents. Should we read that to mean that they're still looking for more documents or just looking into the damage or potential damage done from these documents having been kept down there for so long?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Jim, I think you need to read those -- all the statements in the government's motion in the broadest terms possible because we simply don't know. So I thought it was really fascinating the way they referred to the potential harm to witnesses if the affidavit is released. They made it very clear it could have a chilling effect on witnesses who already have cooperated, presumably in the course of putting the motion together, the search warrant but also for future cooperation.

They don't want those witnesses who are helping them now to back away later because they have been exposed, and they also make that reference to future investigative steps. I'm quite sure DOJ and the FBI are open to the idea that this case may continue to grow. It may go in new directions. They may find additional materials or find they have to seek out additional materials.

GOLODRYGA: Andrew, if I can get you to respond to the new reporting that there are advisers among President Trump's inner circle who are suggesting that he should release the Mar-a-Lago footage of the FBI, removing those documents from that room there. He's mulling that over as the reporting suggests.

Your thoughts on the outcome of releasing that footage. It's debatable as to whether it would even benefit the president, but that having been said, last night you said there is deep concern among the FBI, within the FBI, to release that. Why?

MCCABE: Well, let's be clear, Bianna, it's his property. He's free to do with it what he wishes. There is no legal problem here. But there are two major concerns that the bureau would have right now. First of course is the work, that video coverage may have images of the material that we're talking about. Top secret material, TS=SCI material. So you wouldn't want to inadvertently have the sensitive material essentially leaked to the world via the videotape. And secondly, and probably more important, is the people. So the

search warrant undoubtedly involved more than just the two names that were exposed last week, the two agents who had signed the paperwork.

[09:10:06]

So now literally every FBI person who is present on that search could be, you know, their images released to the public, they could be identified by what seems to be a growing chorus of extreme Trump supporters to do harm to these people. So it's -- it absolutely increases the risk on these men and women, the risk that they're now subjected to by the former president for simply doing their job. Executing a lawful warrant in the way that agents do around the country, you know, hundreds of times a day.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And there's already been doxing done, right, of the names so far.

MCCABE: That's right.

SCIUTTO: And within risk to them and their families.

Glenn, before we go, I just wonder for folks at home who've been watching this and say, OK, so you had a lot of boxes down there, listen, you know, could have made a mistake in leaving the White House. Yes, some were classified, we don't know how bad.

I mean, you worked for the NSA for a number of years. Can you describe it in a couple of sentences, the risk of having top secret documents in an unsecured facility for so long?

GERSTELL: Sure, I think the former president is in a bit of a box here because on one hand he could either admit to the existence of the classified documents which is completely inappropriate and therefore expose himself to these criminal statutes, or his other argument is, look, I didn't know what was there, I had no idea, I wasn't careful, I just threw a bunch of boxes in a closet along a hallway next to the pool in my house.

And that certainly sounds like gross negligence and sloppy handling of secure information, which is precisely why we don't want them in that storage place. We don't want them available where anybody can get it. And we already have a history of some Chinese nationals who have been arrested at Mar-a-Lago for apparently, we're not clear, possibly doing surveillance. So there is an issue there that this could fall into the wrong hands.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I remember that story well.

Glenn Gerstell, Andy McCabe, thanks so much. I'm sure we'll have more to talk about in the coming days and weeks.

GERSTELL: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, less than an hour from now, former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, CFO, Allen Weisselberg, is expected to plead guilty to a 15-year long tax fraud scheme.

GOLODRYGA: Now, while Weisselberg will not cooperate with New York prosecutors in their criminal investigation of the real estate company's finances, he could end up on the stand when the case goes to trial.

Here is CNN's Kara Scannell with more.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim and Bianna. A short time from now Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, is expected to enter a guilty plea, pleading guilty to a 15-count indictment alleging that he didn't pay taxes on a number of corporate benefits he received, including a company car, a corporate apartment, and private school tuition for two of his grandchildren.

Now, as part of this deal, Weisselberg has agreed to testify against the Trump Organization when they're set to go to trial in October. They're facing the same charges as Weisselberg and he is prepared to be a government witness at this trial. However, Weisselberg is not going to be cooperating with the Manhattan district attorney's long running investigation into the Trump Organization's finances.

Under this deal he's reached today, he's expected to serve about five months in jail at New York's notorious Rikers Island Jail -- Jim, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Kara Scannell, thank you. We'll continue to follow the story today.

Also this morning, several developments in the Georgia special grand jury investigating attempts by former President Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp is asking a judge to throw out a subpoena requiring him to appear before the grand jury. He had been scheduled for a voluntary interview in July, but that was canceled after Kemp's legal team inquired about the scope of that interview.

SCIUTTO: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is also trying to get out of his appearance before the grand jury, asking a federal judge to stay a recent decision requiring him to appeal -- to appear, rather, until he can appeal. The judge has given prosecutors until tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. to respond to Graham's motion.

Plus, a judge in New Mexico has ordered former Trump election attorney John Eastman to appear in front of that grand jury in Georgia, because of his alleged role in pushing a plan to organize a false slate of electors, fake electors, after the 2020 election. Eastman's legal team had argued that by testifying he would be violating attorney-client privilege.

And first on CNN, new details about how the Biden administration plans to ramp up access to the monkeypox vaccine. What we're learning this morning about where exactly those shots will be available. That's coming up. GOLODRYGA: Also ahead, dangers at Europe's largest nuclear plant.

Ukraine now warning that shutting down the facility could bring them closer to a radiation disaster.

And with reports of unfilled teaching positions in schools across the country, I'll speak to the superintendent of Los Angeles schools as their students return to class this week.

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GOLODRYGA: First, on CNN, just moments from now the White House is set to roll out an aggressive new plan to increase the supply of monkeypox vaccines across the U.S. The CDC reports there are currently more than 13,500 cases of monkeypox currently in the country. But health officials have faced strong public criticism over what some see as a slow response to the spread of the virus and a sluggish vaccine rollout.

SCIUTTO: CNN's John Harwood is live at the White House.

John, clearly the level of urgency from the administration has ramped up in recent weeks. So what is the new plan?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're definitely responding to that criticism, Jim. And we've got some details of the acceleration of that response that have been first reported by our CNN colleague Betsy Kline.

[09:20:01]

First of all, you've got 1.8 million additional doses of vaccine that are going to be available beginning Monday. You're going to have an availability of heightened amount of antiviral drugs that are in position for people who test positive for monkeypox. They're going to have outreach and expanded vaccine allocations for places with communities with substantial numbers of gay men who are at especially high risk of contracting monkeypox.

This is contracted by close skin to skin contact, many, many cases through sexual contact. You also have a transition of the administration of vaccine doses, a new technique that expands the number of doses. That is not injecting deep into the skin, into the fat of the recipient, but between layers of skin that allows them to stretch out vaccine doses. All of these things are taking place in response to that criticism.

Of course, more broadly, the government has been critiquing its own. The CDC has been critiquing its own response to the coronavirus outbreak and they're now trying to get ahead of monkeypox. The good news is even though there have been 13,500 cases that you mentioned, Jim, zero deaths in the United States so far.

GOLODRYGA: But still a lot of criticism as you have said about the administration not getting out ahead of the spread of this virus. John Harwood, thank you.

So let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, how important is this new action plan? Will it be effective in your view?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it is very important. I think as you and John were just talking about, I mean, this reflects a sense of urgency now that probably should have been there some time ago, but is important nonetheless. When you look at those numbers, again, you just put them up there, the number of cases now in the United States, compared to the world, I mean, you know, it's a third of the cases, confirmed cases here in the United States.

Just think about that. We're less than 4 percent of the world's population and we have about a third of the confirmed cases. Now, there may be other places that aren't testing as much, but that is still a significant disparity overall. So when you look at the plan that John just laid out, these vaccine doses, 1.8 million doses, and then also making sure that you have plenty of the antiviral TPOXX available, some 50,000 doses, that's going to be important.

One thing about the vaccine, and John mentioned this, the technique that it will be required to inject these vaccines intradermally is a more sophisticated technique. It's not simply injecting the needle into the muscle, it does require a bit more sophisticated technique and more trained professionals, different kinds of needles, different kinds of vials, so sometimes the idea is really smart, the execution is everything. That's going to be really important.

And also the vaccine is two doses. So even if you're injecting this vaccine in places where the virus is presumably spreading it won't necessarily cut down on the spread right away because it takes at least a couple of doses for you to get the maximum benefit from those vaccines. So, yes, important strategies, but, again, look, this was an outbreak that is now becoming an epidemic. Probably very preventable, lessons learned, right, over the last couple of years. Hopefully we'll apply those here.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And the good news, of course, the vaccine we know it works so people are clear about that. I do want to ask you to help clear up where there's been some public confusion. And that is exactly how monkeypox is spread. There's been some public debate about whether it's largely through sexual activity or can be spread in other means of physical contact, skin to skin. What do we know?

GUPTA: I think it's pretty clear that this can spread in other ways as well. It does not appear to be strictly a sexually transmitted disease. You know, you have prolonged skin to skin contact, but even bedding and sheets like that where people who have been infected have been could also potentially spread the virus. So that should give you a pretty clear indication of how this spreads. Part of what's driving this discussion is that there was a recent report from the CDC about a man who had been in various situations, outdoor festivals and things like that, had not had sex with anybody, by his own admission, and yet still contracted monkeypox.

So we know, and this has been pretty well documented, close personal contact, skin to skin contact, but also close contact. It could potentially spread through respiratory droplets if someone is very close by. Does not seem to be airborne at this point, but look, we got to keep following this and see what happens, and then as I mentioned direct contact with scabs.

One thing that I think was also interesting in this report that came out of the CDC, you say, well, look, I don't see any rashes on somebody, so I'm not concerned.

[09:25:07]

I touched skin, but it's not concerning. But if you take a look at the images of what monkeypox can look like, there is not a characteristic -- as characteristic a rash. Sometimes it can look more innocuous than what people might think of a classic sort of pox rash. So I think that's something to keep in mind. Not to alarm people, but to remind them rather that close skin to skin contact is really -- seemingly the primary way that this is spread.

SCIUTTO: Understood. All right, well, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, so good to have you. Always nice to have you clear things up. Have you help us clear things up.

Well, more than two dozen election deniers have now won their Republican primaries for key positions across the country with oversight of elections. Who they are, what critical offices they could end up holding, that's coming up.

GOLODRYGA: And we're just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street, where stock futures are slightly higher this morning as key economic data rolls in. Weekly jobless data released this morning shows that 250,000 people filed first-time claims last week.

Investors are also watching the Fed's moves on inflation. The Central Bank says it remains committed to fighting rising prices but indicated that it could adjust its pace of tightening based on market conditions.

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