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U.S. Intel Chiefs To Assess Security Risks From Seized Documents; Trump And Allies Dismiss Heavily Redacted Mar-a-Lago Affidavit; Interview With Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH); Near-Total Abortion Bans Now In Effect In At Least 11 States; NASA Restarting Lunar Missions With Artemis Program. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 27, 2022 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:33]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: New tonight: Damage assessment. U.S. Intel set to assess the security risks stemming from the top-secret documents found at former President Trump's Florida home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the documents that prosecutors used to establish probable cause that Federal crimes were committed, violation of the Espionage Act, destruction of government documents, and obstruction.

BROWN: A woman from Louisiana fighting for her reproductive rights after she was denied an abortion even though her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want you to imagine what it's been like to continue this pregnancy for another six weeks after this diagnosis.

BROWN: The woman at the center of the controversy shares her story.

Meantime, NASA's most powerful rocket is set for Monday's moon mission launch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The challenger has landed.

BROWN: Artemis is on the launch pad and ready to fly.

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Now, we're going back to the moon to stay, to live, to learn, to build.

BROWN: And a Missouri School District reinstates paddling as punishment, but would you want your children spanked at school?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's something that we don't anticipate using frequently. This is an opt-in only option for parents.

BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington, you are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And just in to the CNN NEWSROOM, a Federal Judge has scheduled a Thursday hearing to consider Donald Trump's request for a Special Master to oversee the FBI's review of evidence seized from his Florida home. She says she has "preliminary intent" to make that appointment.

This development coming amid new questions of national security and Donald Trump's stash of top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago. Just one day after the Justice Department released that redacted affidavit that led to the search of his Florida resort.

The U.S. Intelligence Community is now assessing whether national security was put at risk.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is here to break it all down.

So Natasha, what are we learning about this damage assessment?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Pam. So we just learned this afternoon that the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, she sent a letter to the House Oversight, House Intel, and Senate Intel Committees, telling them that in conjunction with the Justice Department, she is going to be conducting a classification review.

And importantly, she is going to be conducting along with the entire Intelligence Community a review of whether or not these documents that have been in Mar-a-Lago and were just retrieved pose a risk to national security whether or not essentially any kind of mitigation of any damage needs to be done by the fact that these documents were not properly stored.

Now, this is significant because of course, we just learned from this FBI affidavit that these documents that according to the Bureau were not properly stored at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort had a number of highly, highly sensitive classification markings on them, including information about human sources, things that are of course, exceptionally sensitive, because they have to do with human intelligence sources, people that are providing information to the Intelligence Community and risking their lives to do it every day.

So obviously, the Intel Community now needs to know, do we need to pull any sources out? Do we need to change our methods here? Because of course, there was also signals Intelligence that was in these documents according to the FBI.

There were other things that foreign nationals were not supposed to see, of course, Mar-a-Lago is teeming with foreign nationals at any given day.

So, the Intel Community now is going to be conducting this damage assessment to see whether or not they need to change anything, whether there needs to be any kind of mitigation done here to protect sources and methods.

BROWN: All right, Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much.

And later this hour, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will join us to talk about classified documents and how mishandling them impacts our national security.

Well, the redacted affidavit, 38 pages long, much of it blacked out, but much of it also very illuminating.

Teams of CNN reporters, producers, and researchers have sifted through it all and CNN's Marshall Cohen is here with us to walk us through what we've learned from it.

So Marshall, tell us what are some of the key takeaways here?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Pam, before we dive into the takeaways, just remember how we got here for a moment.

This is about the request from the FBI to a Judge to have a search executed at Mar-a-Lago, but before that dramatic step was taken, Donald Trump was cooperating with the National Archives and gave over 15 boxes of materials from Mar-a-Lago.

[18:05:07]

COHEN: It was what was inside those boxes is what caused all of these problems and triggered the FBI investigation. That's because according to the FBI affidavit, in those boxes, tons of classified material: 67 confidential, 92 labeled secret and 25 top-secret, that is of course, the highest level of classification, but it gets worse.

As Natasha explained, there was critical national defense information according to the FBI in some of those documents. There were markings on some of the documents, indicating that they were about CIA sources and spies, people overseas that risked their lives to help America, markings about NSA programs and collection of Intelligence. FISA, that's foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, and other surveillance.

This type of stuff is closely guarded. It's not just thrown around or left at a resort. It is the type of material that you're supposed to give extreme care toward, but in addition to Pam to the documents and the classified materials and the possible mishandling of classified materials, there is another prong of this investigation, and that is possible obstruction of justice.

From the FBI affidavit, the Special Agent who swore the affidavit told the Judge that there is, "Probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found at the premises," and that's referring to Mar-a-Lago.

So, what led the FBI to believe that there was evidence of obstruction? It is redacted. They did not release that yesterday in the affidavit. We'd love to know what's under those redactions.

We've previously reported, though, that it was one of the factors that fueled this search of Mar-a-Lago was a growing suspicion among investigators that Trump's attorneys weren't being completely forthcoming about whether anything was left there in terms of classified information.

And Pam, as we know, once they got permission for that search, and executed that search, they found more classified documents.

BROW: Yes, 11 sets of classified documents during that search there at Mar-a-Lago in August.

Also, I want to get to you on this breaking news coming in. A Federal Judge saying that she has preliminary intent to appoint a Special Master to oversee the Mar-a-Lago search review.

Tell us about that, Marshall.

COHEN: So, this is in a lawsuit that Donald Trump has filed about the search. It's a little bit separate, though, legally, he wants a Special Master to get involved. That is a legal jargon, which is basically that he wants someone outside of government, outside of the DOJ to be brought in, to look at what was collected in the raid.

According to Donald Trump and his lawyers, they don't trust the FBI. They don't trust the DOJ. They say they're all biased and hate Donald Trump and therefore, they should have nothing to do with these documents.

The Judge tonight, on a Saturday indicated that she has a preliminary intent to grant that request, which means that it looks like Donald Trump will get a victory eventually, to bring in someone an attorney from the outside to look at the materials that the FBI got from Mar-a- Lago, see what might be privileged, see what might be out of bounds for their investigation, and then give it back to the FBI.

There is a hearing scheduled for Thursday, where hopefully she will elaborate a little bit more on her thoughts on the matter -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Marshall Cohen, thanks so much for that.

Let's continue this conversation with CNN legal analyst, Carrie Cordero and Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio.

Hi to you both.

So Carrie, I want to start with you. Did Donald Trump's legal case just get more complicated with the Intelligence Community doing this assessment -- this damage assessment?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think, Pam that those two things will take place on different tracks. So, the damage assessment is something that the Intelligence Community has an obligation to do.

If there was classified information, and it appears that there was at a high level, unsecured for a really long period of time, then they have to go back and assess whether information in those documents was inadvertently released or intentionally released, who those documents might have been viewed or seen by, whether it impacted Intelligence operations, including overseas operations.

So, there is a wide range of things that the Intelligence Community needs to run down, but I think that that will take place on a separate track from the criminal investigation and from the litigation that the former President is engaged to, to try to suppress information from the search. BROWN: And from what you have seen, and there is still a lot we don't know, obviously, with all these redactions from the affidavit, but from what we do know, do you think Donald Trump will face prosecution?

CORDERO: I don't think that's clear at this point, Pam. I think there is more information that the FBI is still investigating and obviously, all of the information supporting their investigation is still redacted because they are continuing to investigate.

[18:05:03]

CORDERO: So, when I think of cases that are potentially analogous, although there is nothing quite like this as it relates to a former President, there are some cases of former senior Intelligence Community officials who ended up with a misdemeanor charge or, in one case was pardoned. In another case, someone pled guilty to a misdemeanor mishandling of classified information.

That's very different from the many cases that have taken place over time where former Intelligence Community or national security, government employees or contractors gave documents, classified documents to the media or to foreign governments. Those are individuals who were heavily prosecuted, and ended up serving jail time.

So, I think there's a wide range of potential legal exposure here and we don't know the full scope of the investigation yet.

BROWN: You know, we certainly don't know. And as I mentioned, part of the reason we don't know is because the affidavit is heavily redacted and that gives us visual, as you see here on your screen, Michael of page after page largely blacked out.

Now the DOJ outlined its reasons, right, that this is to protect the investigation and protect its informants. But does that help Trump and his allies paint this conspiracy theory of secrecy and sinister doings by the DOJ?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, and that would be the automatic response from Trump world is that they would read something nefarious to every stroke of the black pen and this would be consistent with the former President's handling of absolutely everything that arose of controversy during his presidency.

I think what I imagine or struggle to imagine is what those black marks might be hiding in relation to Donald Trump's behavior. Do these marks indicate that there are suspicions about an array of crimes other than obstruction of justice, that may have been committed by the former President with these documents.

So, we don't know to whom he has shown these. We don't know whether he has talked to other people about them. I imagined that they were souvenirs for him, that he wanted to have evidence of his time in the White House. He just threw some of this stuff in with his news clippings, which are among his most prized possessions.

So, maybe it was as simple as that, but I certainly don't trust him any more than he is encouraging people to not trust the FBI.

BROWN: All right, Carrie Cordero and Michael D'Antonio, thank you so much for coming on sharing your analysis and perspective on this.

CORDERO: Thanks, Pam.

D'ANTONIO: Thank you.

BROWN: And up next on the Saturday, a woman from Louisiana says she has been denied an abortion even though the fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition. She shares her story in just a moment.

Also ahead for you tonight, 50 years since humans first stepped onto the lunar surface, NASA has a new mission to return to the moon.

Kennedy Space Center Director, Janet Petro joins me live to talk about Monday's critical test launch.

And would you want your child spanked in school? The debate on discipline in Missouri that not all parents are against.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:32]

BROWN: Public outrage and pushback from Donald Trump allies this weekend after the release of that heavily redacted Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit. Predictably, the former President has dusted off the term "witch hunts." But we do know that in a preliminary review, the FBI turned up 184 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 67 documents marked as confidential, 92 documents marked as secret, and 25 documents marked as top-secret.

The Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines has now sent a letter to the House Intelligence and House Oversight Committee Chairs saying the Intelligence Community is conducting a damage assessment of what was found.

Republican Congressman Warren Davidson joins me now with more. He's a member of the Financial Services Committee and House Freedom Caucus.

Congressman, nice to have you back on the show. So, I just want to start off and make clear we have an accurate understanding of your view on this.

You believe that the DOJ investigation into the classified documents at Trump's Florida beach home is politically motivated. Is that right?

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): I have a hard time trusting the DOJ at this point. I think millions of Americans do. That's really disappointing.

You know, part of the mandate Christopher Wray had when he took over was to try to de politicize the agency after Director Comey, and clearly it's gotten more and more political. But what hasn't in this era?

So look, no one is above the above the law. I think everyone agrees on that, but there is a lot of suspicion with this activity. And when you look at the Presidential Records Act, there's always an ongoing debate between outgoing administrations and National Archives. This is still debated, you know, with every presidency.

BROWN: But this is unprecedented in terms of the volume of classified information at a private residence, at the former President's private home. I mean, is it okay then, for the former President to have all these top secret sensitive national security documents just in a basement storage room and other rooms in his unsecured house?

DAVIDSON: Well, his contention is they are not classified. He declassified records. I don't think he knows everything that was in the box from what I've heard publicly, but it is not unprecedented at all, and frankly, the good thing about the boxes is they're not connected to the internet.

There was no outrage when Hillary Clinton had thousands of classified documents on her own server with weak security with her own e-mail using classified e-mails, so that that's a clear violation of the protocols, and so, you know, I think the American people are sick of a double standard. They just want one standard and they don't trust the FBI to deliver that.

[18:20:19]

BROWN: And of course, as you all know, Hillary Clinton and her supporters would say, look, the FBI aggressively investigated me during the presidential election. Hillary Clinton herself has said she believes she lost the election due to that FBI investigation reopening the probe a month before the election.

But I just want to ask you, just to delve a little bit deeper into what you said. You know, that the President has said that he has declassified everything.

Are you comfortable and used to be an Army Ranger working with Intelligence? Are you comfortable with the idea that documents that were classified that were meant to protect human sources and their identity were in an unsecure location? I mean, is that something that you're okay with? Or is that something that you think is okay to be in a basement storage room?

DAVIDSON: Well, I don't think they were unsecure. I don't think the President's residence is unsecure. But yes, look, he does have the clear authority to declassify things, whether they should have been or not, once we know what was actually there, I guess, we can debate whether it should have been declassified or not.

But you know, the President has the clear authority to do it.

BROWN: And as we know, one of the charges that the FBI is looking at the Espionage Act, it doesn't matter whether or not it is classified or not when it comes to that charge, in particular, but I just wonder, I just want to circle back on that.

For you personally, as someone who has no doubt dealt with Intelligence, dealt with classified information, you know, I know you said in your contention it was secure because of the Secret Service. But the bottom line is there is video footage of people going in and out of the storage room where these classified documents were being held that were marked as top-secret, including information about human sources, foreign spies for the U.S..

Are you comfortable with that just being there in a room where people can just walk in and out of?

DAVIDSON: Okay, I'm positive that if the FBI had to cordon off 15 to 18 boxes, however many boxes of stuff, it's been all day looking for them and they found out of those boxes of papers, 184 documents, I don't think that they were unsecure. I don't think they were just pilfering through them.

And I'm also confident, if you went through anyone's presidential library, Barack Obama's all the way back to Jimmy Carter's, HW's at the immediate aftermath, as they were sorting their papers out, there was an ongoing dialogue in every one of those administrations with the National Archives.

What is unprecedented is for the FBI to conduct a raid, because of a breakdown in that dialogue. There were lots of breakdowns in previous outgoing administrations with National Archives. So, I think there's a lot of suspicion that the FBI is very politicized, and this is just another instance of it.

I hope that's not the case, but I am optimistic that Republicans are going to take back the House, and we're going to have very vigorous oversight of this topic, and many others.

BROWN: Just to put a button on this. So, we do have to -- I'm going to talk about the student loan debt forgiveness. I know you're passionate about that.

But there may have been back and forth between, you know, former Presidents and NARA, but certainly, this is, you know, more than a year-and-a-half of this ongoing, and there were more than 20 boxes, according to DOJ and NARA that had classified information including the highest classified information in the boxes.

I'm not aware of any other similar situation to that in past examples and if you do have anything similar, we'd love for you to bring it forward, so we can talk about that.

But I do want to move to what I just mentioned. The President's decision to cancel some of the massive college debt in this country. Here is what you tweeted: "This may be one of the dumbest most unjust gifts from the Treasury ever. It's also unconstitutional. Joe Biden cannot simply give away hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars without legislation."

So my question to you is, explain to us in your view, why this is different than when President Trump used the same principle to forgive PPP loans?

DAVIDSON: Well, PPP loans, the Payroll Protection Plan, the main difference is that was an act passed by Congress that was appropriated by Congress. So right there, President Trump just didn't decide to create the legislation.

The whole point of the Payroll Protection loans was to pass through businesses, to keep employees on payroll. So, let's not forget, the unemployment system was overwhelmed even with PPP.

So, what we did was we kept over 50 million people on payroll, that that would have otherwise been off of payroll. So, we had hundreds of thousands of people in my district that were able to stay on payroll, no break in their benefits, no break in their paycheck. People that did get laid off that couldn't get PPP or had other big disruptions to their business and livelihoods, they were waiting weeks, in some cases, months to even get an unemployment check and that was diminished from what their previous pay was.

[18:25:14]

DAVIDSON: So this was really something that, yes, it was treated as a loan, it passed through the Small Business Administration and they did more loans in 14 days than they had done in the previous 14 years, but the reason it was structured as a loan is if in the event, the business didn't use the money as they were required to, then it would be, you know, they would have to repay it. But if they used it, you know, for payroll and a handful of other purposes, then the loans would be forgiven. That was the whole purpose of the PPP structure.

BROWN: I want to ask you, before we let you go about the war on Ukraine, I know that's also something that you've been passionate about. As I mentioned earlier, you're a former Army Ranger.

You voted no on the massive Ukraine aid package in May. You have been highly critical of the U.S. spending there. A few days ago, the Biden administration announced its largest ever military aid package to Ukraine, nearly $3 billion.

And you tweeted that you were against that, that you don't think the U.S. should have done that. So my question to you is then, what is your solution here?

DAVIDSON: Well, look, we agree that Vladimir Putin is unjust. I mean, this is an unjust war by Putin against Ukraine. We're right to be supportive of Ukraine, but what we should be doing that we're not is we're part of an alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, so NATO. We've decided to expand NATO. We've had a different vote to change the strategic purpose of NATO.

It's a defensive alliance and the United States has contributed multiple times more than all of NATO combined. So, if we're not going to fight everybody else's war, which was the problem for the previous 20 years, it seems that this administration is committed to fund everybody else's war. And, you know, it would be the one thing if our country wasn't $30 trillion in debt, if our economy wasn't overheating with inflation. They're paying more attention to Ukraine's borders than they are to our own and I think we need to call this administration to account.

Again, I'm very optimistic that come November, we will have a Republican majority. And come January, when we see that majority, we will begin very vigorous oversight of this administration.

Who could object to having an Inspector General to oversee the use of funds in one of the most corrupt governments going that we align with? Now, there are corrupt governments, we don't align with them. We support Ukraine, but we know there's been a lot of corruption there. And the idea that Republican amendments couldn't even get a hearing to have an Inspector General to overseas these funds. Why not?

BROWN: Okay, Congressman Warren Davidson, I really appreciate your time for coming on and sharing your opinion on these issues of the day. We appreciate it.

And we'll be right back.

DAVIDSON: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:32:13]

BROWN: Laws banning or severely restricting abortion have now gone into effect in about a dozen states and their residents are beginning to feel the repercussions. In one of the states, Louisiana, a pregnant woman Nancy Davis says she was denied an abortion at a Baton Rouge hospital, even though the fetus she's carrying has a fatal condition called acrania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY DAVIS, LOUISIANA WOMAN DENIED ABORTION: Basically they said I had to carry my baby to bury my baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Acrania is a rare congenital disorder in which the school does not - skull does not form inside of the womb. Now, the hospital Davis went to says laws pertaining to medically futile exceptions are abortion - for abortion are complex and hard to navigate. Well, she now plans to travel out of state next week for the procedure.

Nancy Davis, her fiance, Shedric, and her lawyer Benjamin Crump, they all join us now. We are not disclosing their locations. Hi to all three of you. Thank you for your time today.

And Nancy, I want to start with you here and talk about that emotional news conference yesterday where you told the audience to imagine what it has been like to continue the pregnancy for another six weeks after your diagnosis. Tell us more about what you've been going through. DAVIS: Well, there's been a lot of mental anguish, hurt. I also feel like being a mother starts in the womb, so the attachment is instantly, the connection is instantly. So having to continue to carry has been very, very emotionally draining for me and my family. But ultimately, as a parent, my best interest is my kids.

BROWN: Yes. And tell us - I can't imagine what that is like going through what you're going through right now. Finding out you're pregnant, then finding out that your baby would not survive without the womb and then going through this emotional roller coaster, having to make the decision to get an abortion but not being able to do it in the state that you're in. Tell us more about what the hospital told you once you had reached that agonizing decision to get an abortion, Nancy?

DAVIS: Well, the hospital pretty much told me because of the Roe vs. Wade and by me living in Louisiana, they will not be able to do it and I would have to go out of state to get it done.

BROWN: And Shedric, what was that like for you to learn about that the hospital wouldn't grant your wife's wishes?

[18:35:05]

SHEDRIC COLE, NANCY DAVIS' FIANCE: I was confused. We are - we're in a dark place, didn't understand what - fully what was going on. When we initially got the diagnosis that the baby had acrania, it was completely unfamiliar to us and so we started to educate ourselves about it, going through the process. And - but we've been continuing to pray and (inaudible) first and leaning on family and friends for support and we've been trying to make the best of it.

BROWN: Yes. This is certainly not a situation you ever wanted to find yourself in, no doubt.

And Benjamin, you also said in this press conference that Louisiana lawmakers are causing 'unspeakable pain, emotional damage and physical risk' to your client, because there was confusion with the trigger laws, what is the legal path forward for Nancy in your view?

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR NANCY DAVIS: Well, the hope is that the legislature and the governor in Louisiana will put people over politics, whether you're pro life or pro choice, you would all have to agree that making Nancy Davis carry this baby just to bury this baby is inhumane. And so we are calling on the governor and the Senate leadership in Louisiana to have a special session to address these vague and ambiguous laws to make laws that are clear and laws that protect their citizens so the medical providers will know what is legal or not legal.

Can you imagine them having to make this decision that I may lose my medical license and worse I may have to go to prison if I give medical care to this woman who is in medical need and that's what this is about, women. Women. Today it's Nancy, tomorrow it can be any woman in America. BROWN: All right. Nancy Davis, again, I'm so sorry for what you've had to go through getting that diagnosis about your baby and going through this. Shedric Cole and Benjamin Crump, thank you all. We really appreciate it.

CRUMP: Thank you.

COLE: Thank you.

DAVIS: Thank you.

BROWN: And we should add that a spokesperson for the Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge said to CNN that the hospital cannot comment on a specific patient, but that navigating an enviable pregnancy is extremely complex. And she responded with this statement, "We look at each patient's individual circumstances and how to remain in compliance with all current state laws to the best of our ability even if a specific diagnosis falls under medically futile exceptions provided by the Louisiana Department of Health, the laws addressing treatment methods are much more complex and seemingly contradictory."

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday. Up next, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper joins us live. We're going to talk about the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and how mishandling them impacts U.S. National Security.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:23]

BROWN: New tonight, the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, confirms the U.S. Intelligence Community is carrying out a damage assessment of the classified documents taken from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. Joining us now is James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence. So first off your reaction to the current director of national intelligence launching this damage assessment, how significant is it?

JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's - Pamela, it's quite significant. And unfortunately, I have some familiarity with doing damage assessments from the Manning and the Snowden cases. And this is, I think, logical thing for the intelligence community to do led by the Director of National Intelligence. And she will, I'm sure, engage all the relevant components who may have had a stake in these documents, particularly if there can be identified an originating agency or originating component who was sort of lead the assessment.

And I think the assumption, the operating assumption is that what could a sophisticated adversary intelligence service do with these documents if they had them in terms of exploiting and gaining - and gleaning insights from them. So that will be the task for the intelligence committee led by the DNI to do.

BROWN: And we now know the documents retrieved earlier this year contained information that could compromise 'clandestine human sources', do you figure that these documents could put lives at risk?

CLAPPER: Well, the there is a risk there. But I have to point out as I've always done in these discussions that we don't know the substantive content of these - of the documents. We know the classification descriptions that have been assigned to them, but that's all. So we're only - we're speculating here and potentially - particularly with respect, I think, to the human control system documents that this could involve human intelligence collection, resources and assets that could potentially be compromised.

I should also point out that with all the alphabet soup of these caveats, that they are not mutually exclusive.

[18:45:00]

Meaning that - and this often happens in the case of human control system documents, they could also be originator controlled. Meaning, you have to seek the permission of the originator to further disseminate such a document. And, of course, no foreign dissemination. Meaning, a foreign nation or foreign national cannot have access to those documents.

So potentially, the - this is quite serious, depending on the substance content of the documents and it'll be up to the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, to lead an effort to assess the potential damage caused by these documents. I also should mention, I think, that this - her examination, her assessment will be limited to those - to intelligence documents only, because there could be other classified material that's not intelligence.

BROWN: How much do you think foreign governments like China, Russia, North Korea have focused on the vulnerabilities of Mar-a-Lago, which is open to the public? I mean, what are the odds that a foreign adversary really could have seen these documents or have access to it?

CLAPPER: Well, there have been incidents that have been discussed previously today about tempted or people have had kind of apparently free run of Mar-a-Lago. And I would imagine it's kind of a physical security nightmare in terms of preventing unauthorized access, since they really can't control who's in and out of the place.

And complicating this further is, I think, is not knowing exactly what the chain of custody has been for these documents since they left the White House, how were they transported, how are they protected, who's had access to them at Mar-a-Lago, has someone, perhaps, reproduced these documents or taken pictures of them. Apparently, there's - they've been moved around or mixed up with other documents.

So this - undoubtedly Mar-a-Lago is a target for adversary foreign intelligence services, so potentially, this is quite concerning.

BROWN: James Clapper, thank you so much for your analysis.

And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. It's been nearly 50 years since NASA last sent a manned rocket to the moon and this weekend, final preparations are underway for our return. Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro joins me live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:52:05]

BROWN: More than 50 years after the last Apollo mission, NASA is looking out to humans - looking to get humans back on the moon. CNN's Kristin Fisher has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's been a long time since NASA has had its own candle to light.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lift off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): Eleven years since the last space shuttle launch, 50 years since the last launch of the Apollo program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The (inaudible) has landed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): But now, Apollo's mythological twin sister, Artemis, is on the launch pad and ready to fly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Until all of us that gaze up at the moon, dreaming of the day humankind returns to the lunar surface. Folks, we're here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): The Artemis rocket or SLS is years behind schedule, billions over budget. But it's also the most powerful rocket ever built and it's designed to launch people even deeper into space than the moon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REID WISEMAN, CHIEF NASA ASTRONAUT: Our sights are not set on the moon. Our sights are set clearly on Mars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): But first, it has to pass this uncrewed test flight with only mannequins on board. Artemis 1 will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but Mission Control is at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Apollo Control Houston.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): The same place that controlled every Apollo and Shuttle mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK LABRODE, NASA LEAD FLIGHT DIRECTOR: This is where it all happens as far as human spaceflight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): Rick LaBrode is in charge of it all as lead flight director. LaBrode and his team had been training in this room for this moment, for over three years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LABRODE: When flight day comes. It's a whole different ballgame. It's when it really gets real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): After launch, the SLS rocket will separate from the Orion crew capsule on top. Orion will then fly a quarter of a million miles to the moon, and then go 40,000 miles beyond it farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans has ever flown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LABRODE: And we're going to swing by the moon. And when we swing by it on the way there, we're going to be 60 miles off the surface. It's going to be incredible. The pictures that we get as we go by are going to be really impressive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): After orbiting the moon for more than two weeks, Orion will head back to Earth hitting speeds of around 25,000 miles per hour and temperatures half the surface of the sun, something engineers can't replicate here on Earth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LABRODE: The number one highest priority for our mission is actually to test the heat shield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liftoff of space shuttle Columbia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): It was a damaged heat shield that caused space shuttle Columbia to burn up on reentry, killing seven astronauts. So testing it before astronauts fly on Artemis II is crucial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR GLOVER, NASA ASTRONAUT: For me Artemis I is exciting, but it's really a stepping stone, a milestone to get humans back in the vicinity of the moon and that is awesome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): Victor Glover is one of more than 40 astronauts in the running to fly on Artemis II and Artemis III, which will land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLOVER: We explore for all people, but now we can actually say we explore with all people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER (voice over): Kristin Fisher, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

[18:55:05]

BROWN: And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday. Ukraine and Russia are blaming each other for new shelling at Europe's largest nuclear power plant. How vulnerable is it to a major catastrophe? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:59:45]

BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. The top stories for you on this Saturday night, damage assessment. U.S. Intel chiefs now examining the National Security fallout from the top secret documents found at Mar- a-Lago.

[19:00:02]

And security threat, more shelling brings renewed concerns about a radiation leak and a Ukrainian nuclear plant.