Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Mar-a-Lago Inventory Reveals 48-Plus Empty Folders Marked Classified; Biden, Trump Descend On Key Battleground State Of PA; NASA Scrubs Artemis I Launch; Serena Williams Exits U.S. Open, Honored As Greatest Of All Time; Jane Fonda Announces She Has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Getting Chemo; Machine Gun Conversion Devices Spreading Across U.S.; Dignitaries, Citizens Pay Tribute To Gorbachev At Farewell Ceremony. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired September 03, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:24]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Empty folders marked "Classified", at least 48 of them, were part of that stack of documents and items the FBI found and took from Donald Trump's resort home in Florida.

That's according to a newly released and very detailed inventory of the things recovered from storage rooms at Mar-a-Lago, and even from the former president's office there. What we don't know is what was inside those folders, if anything, and if classified or sensitive material is still unaccounted for.

The inventory also revealing that more than 100 classified documents were found mixed in with newspaper clippings, clothing and gifts.

Trump's former attorney general and former loyalist Bill Barr is now defending the search and seizure saying, yes, that should have been done a long time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: What people are missing is that all the other documents taken, even if they claim to be executive privilege, either belong to the government because they're government records, even if they're classified, even if they're subject to executive privilege, they still belong to the government and go to the Archives.

People say this was unprecedented. Well, it's also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, ok? And how long is the government going to try to get that back, you know, they jawboned for a year. They were deceived on the voluntary actions taken. They then went and got a subpoena. They were deceived on that, they feel, and the facts are starting to show that they were being jerked around. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And joining me now, CNN senior legal analyst, and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig. Elie, I mean I have to say, first of all, you wrote a book about Bill Barr, so it must be remarkable for you having done all that research and written that book to see the former attorney general talking about this.

But 11,000 documents, more than 100 of them classified mixed in with clothing and gifts and newspaper clippings, and then those dozens of empty folders marked classified. What are your thoughts on all of this?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well Jim, first of all, I hardly recognize this Bill Barr. I know we'll talk about him in a little bit.

But look, the three words that jump out at me are "empty classified folders". I mean even with all the sordid details that we've learned over the last several weeks, empty classified folders. Now, it's important for people to understand, you can have empty classified materials where the materials have been properly removed in the due course and sometimes you'll end up with a folder that's supposed to be empty.

But you also could have a scenario where those folders went down to Mar-a-Lago with information in them and then were emptied out at Mar- a-Lago. If that's the case, that is a big problem. And prosecutors need to dig into that, figure out which scenario is it. If they were improperly emptied of classified material, where are those materials now? Did they recover them elsewhere at Mar-a-Lago, or worst-case scenario, are they gone, are they unaccounted for?

So prosecutors have a lot of questions to answer. We have a lot of questions to answer, but empty classified folders to me would jump right to the top of the list.

ACOSTA: Right, they're empty so presumably something was in those folders at one point. And we heard Trump's former attorney general slam Trump for having all of these documents, these classified documents at his club. And he also said this about Trump's push for a special master.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARR: Well, I think the whole idea of a special master is a bit of a red herring at this stage since they've already gone through the documents. I think it's a waste of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And he also called a crock of you know what, yet the judge seemed to be leaning towards appointing a special master. At least that's how it appeared at this point. What would that mean if she does?

HONIG: Well, it would be a win of sorts for Donald Trump. It's what Donald Trump's lawyers went into court and asked for. They said we want a neutral third party to come in and review these documents and he will get the benefit of having an outsider to take a look. He won't have to just rely on DOJ's judgment about whether documents are privileged.

It's really important to know. If there is a special master, that is a detour. That does not mean this case is over. This case will not be decided, won, lost, charged, not charged, based on the presence of a special master.

It will side track things. It will take several weeks. But DOJ even said in its brief to the judge. They said we oppose a special master, judge. But if you're going to do this, let's put a tight time line on this. Let's get it done by the end of September.

I suspect if the judge does order a special master, she will limit the scope, and she will keep the foot on the gas here to make sure this gets done because I don't think anybody -- I don't think it's in anybody's interests to have this thing sidetracked for two, three, four months. So speed really matters here.

[17:04:58]

ACOSTA: And Elie, we have this new CNN reporting that within a week of the FBI search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows handed over texts and emails to the National Archives that he had not previously. They weren't classified documents or anything like that, as far as we know, but what does that tell you?

HONIG: The pattern here Jim, is remarkable. I mean, what is with all these White House officials, high ranking officials making off going home with documents and then not just turning them all over. I mean it's very similar what we're seeing from Mark Meadows to what we saw from Donald Trump.

They head home, leave their job at the White House with all sorts of documents, sensitive documents, in Trump's case classified documents. And when they're asked to return them, it turns out they're turning them back over in this sort of piecemeal bit by bit manner. Making officials, sometimes investigators beg, use subpoenas, ultimately use a search warrant.

So Mark Meadows has sort of fallen off the radar a bit let's recall. He got a subpoena from the January 6th Committee. He ignored it. He was not charged with criminal contempt by DOJ, so we've sort of forgotten about him. But he's still a central figure here, and if DOJ chooses to subpoena Mark Meadows in its criminal investigation of January 6th, he's going to come right back into the spotlight as a critical player.

ACOSTA: And the other new information that we learned, too Trump's top White House lawyer Pat Cipollone and Pat Philbin had weeks of discussions with the Justice Department about executive privilege before they appeared Friday before a federal grand jury. How damning could their testimony be? HONIG: Well, we've seen a bunch of Cipollone's testimony in front of

the January 6th Committee. It's very important because he was present at many of the most dangerous sort of craziest meetings that we saw, meetings where there were discussions about pressuring DOJ, pressuring the vice president.

And generally speaking Pat Cipollone was a voice of reason. He would try to talk the president and others out of some of these worst laid plans. The question though is where will Pat Cipollone draw a line on executive privilege, if any. Because if we remember his January 6th testimony, he would not answer certain questions about what did you say to Donald Trump, he claimed executive privilege.

The committee did not have the opportunity to go to court to fight that. So the question is will DOJ accept those indications of executive privilege or will DOJ go to court and say, no, those conversations are not privileged. We need to know about them. If they get those conversations, Jim, those are the most important.

ACOSTA: And Elie, something that really jumped out at me this week, Trump claiming this week that he has been paying the legal bills of January 6th insurrectionists and rioters, and that he would even consider pardons for some of them. Let's take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- their net worth and I'm financially supporting people that are incredible. And they were in my office actually two days ago, very much on my mind. It's a disgrace what they've done to them.

I will look very, very favorably about full pardons. If I decide to run and if I win, I will be looking very, very strongly at that pardon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Elie, what was your reaction to that?

HONIG: I'm stunned. I don't get stunned that much. I know he said it before, but it's remarkable to hear him reiterate the possibility of giving pardons to people. Forget about whatever political persuasion or anything else, people who destroyed the capital, who broke windows, who smashed items in the U.S. Capitol, who physically assaulted police officers, he can consider pardoning them?

But it's worth noting Jim, he can do that, if Donald Trump becomes president again in January of 2025, he absolutely has the power to issue pardons to January 6th rioters, to virtually anybody else arguably or not, himself we don't know that, but he can do that.

So let's take it for what it's worth. Let's take Donald Trump at his word. I suppose he thinks there's some political benefit to this. I'm not sure how it would be a political benefit to pardon people who destroyed the Capitol and attacked police officers, but I guess I'm not the political expert here. I'm just the legal guy. ACOSTA: Right, well, it certainly was a candid comment, and I think

you're right. You'd have to take him for his word, at least in this instance.

All right. Elie Honig, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

For all of Trump's railings and rantings against the search at Mar-a- Lago, CNN's KFILE actually found the former president once held a much different view on how those who have mishandled classified information should be treated.

CNN's Andrew Kaczynski joins me now with his reporting. Surprise, surprise, that Trump had a different view on this when he was pointing the finger at others.

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN REPORTER: Yes, that's right. So our team reviewed Trump's comments from his 2016 presidential run. Everybody obviously remembers the "lock her up" comment during that debate where he sort of famously told Clinton that she would be in jail, a lot of us remember.

But he also made a lot of pretty specific comments during that campaign too about how he himself and his administration would be handling classified material.

[17:09:50]

KACZYNSKI: Let's take a listen to just one of those rallies from the summer of 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: On political corruption, we are going to restore honor to our government. In my administration, I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KACZYNSKI: Now, it wasn't just Clinton that Trump targeted with this rhetoric. Even after he became president, there were those calls between Trump and foreign leaders that leaked, and there was also everyone remembers we started off the administration with the whole deal with Michael Flynn, his calls were leaked. He eventually resigned.

And speaking with "Time Magazine" at the time, Trump was pretty angry about this, speaking specifically on the classified nature of those calls, saying you go to prison when you release material like that.

He also was very, very, very aggressive about John Bolton in 2020 after Bolton left the administration. They left on sort of bad terms. And Bolton wrote this memoir that came out, and Trump was very -- was very angry about it as well.

He then went after James Comey. He said that Comey should be imprisoned saying that Comey, you know, leaked classified information for basically which, you know, there was no evidence of that at all.

And in the instance of Bolton, he was very, very, very aggressive on this. We can take a listen here to just one of those interviews that he gave, and there were a number of them in which he called out Bolton, very aggressively calling for his prosecution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: John Bolton is incompetent, ok? But here's what he did. He released classified information, highly classified information, and confidential information -- all different categories.

John Bolton should never have been allowed to do that. You know the young sailor that gave a picture, sent a picture home to his mother and other people, they go to jail for a long period of time. You can't do that. And that was not nearly as vital, as important as John Bolton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KACZYNSKI: Now, there was an investigation into Bolton like an investigation into Comey. Neither of them were charged, and that investigation into Bolton was actually ended in 2021.

ACOSTA: Andrew, it's amazing how he doesn't apply the same standard to himself as he applies to others. But he hasn't always been as worried about coming across a separate rule as you know. Andrew Kaczynski, thanks for digging all of that up for us. We appreciate it. Great reporting.

As the public learns more about the dozens of classified documents the FBI found at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail. He'll take the stage in just a couple of hours in the battleground of Pennsylvania.

He's stumping for two GOP candidates, Senate hopeful, Dr. Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano. Both have the full Trump endorsement, and both are struggling, if you look at the latest polls.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is there for us right now. Kristen, this rally comes days after President Biden was in Pennsylvania calling out the Trump MAGA movement. What message do you think is resonating with Pennsylvanians right now, and what are you hearing from some of these rally participants so far? Are some of them engaging in this election denialism that's been a hallmark?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we certainly heard the speakers that are introducing this rally set the tone including from Marjorie Taylor Greene who took the stage to a standing ovation. She denied that Biden won the election. She also sympathized with January 6th rioters as well as said that Fauci should be jailed.

So if that is the pattern that we're going on, then it's likely we hear a message at least in that direction from the former president tonight. I will note, of course, This is the first time we're going to see him at a public event since his home at Mar-a-Lago was searched by the FBI, so something else we expect to hear about tonight.

And of course, Jim, as we know, as you know better than anyone, there are always two groups of people in Trump world. There always have been and probably always will be. Those who hope he will stay on message and the message here tonight is supposed to be for those struggling Republican candidates; and those who say Trump is best when you just let Trump be Trump.

So of course we'll wait and see tonight, but I think we can see the direction that this rally is going. Now, the visits from Biden and now Trump just goes to show you how critical the state of Pennsylvania is right now, particularly that Senate seat that was left open by Republican Pat Toomey who is retiring.

[17:14:47]

HOLMES: Right now Democrats believe this is one of the only seats that they could actually potentially pick up in the midterms as they try to cling to that majority, and as you said, the polling here is showing both (INAUDIBLE) Oz and Mastriano lagging. It's not just the polling. It's also in those fund-raising numbers.

Now, advisers to Trump as well as state Republicans, they are hoping that his popularity in the state can boost up those two campaigns, but I've got to tell you, it might be a heavy lift particularly when it comes to Mehmet Oz.

I have talked to a number of Trump supporters here on the ground who say that while they still love Trump, they trust his decision-making, they just really aren't sure about Dr. Oz. They don't feel like they know him.

He's actually taking the stage right behind me now, so we'll take a listen. They don't feel like they know him. They don't feel like they can connect with him. So it will be interesting to see if Trump can try and push them any further.

ACOSTA: All right, Kristen. And as we know, this Labor Day weekend, usually the unofficial kickoff of the midterm campaign cycle. And I suspect we're going to be seeing Trump try to fire up that crowd. But the question remains, is Donald Trump the type of person, the type of surrogate that you want on the campaign trail in a place like Pennsylvania where swing district voters, Charlie Dent was saying in the previous hour, swing district voters are so critical.

HOLMES: That is a big question, and right now they don't know the answer. You've talked about this message resonating and that's really what Democrats and Republicans are trying to do here in the state. They're trying to figure out what message actually resonates with Pennsylvania voters.

And we know of course Trump is not going to shift his message. So it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

ACOSTA: Yes, no question. I suspect there's going to be a great deal of election denialism going on, repeating of the same fact free statements that we've heard from Donald Trump in the past.

All right. Kristen Holmes, thanks so much. appreciate it.

Coming up, Nasa's new moon rocket will have to wait even longer to launch after the mission was scrubbed for a second time today. We'll have the latest from Kennedy Space Center next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[17:16:50]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Talk about a frightening and very uncertain few hours earlier today. A man in Mississippi stole a twin engine airplane from a small airport before dawn and told police he was going to crash it into a Walmart. Thankfully he didn't.

A negotiator managed to talk him into landing the plane, which he did in a field. The plane thief is now in custody. Police know his name and say he worked for a company at the airport in Tupelo. No word yet on why he did what he did.

Another setback on the launch pad in Florida. NASA officials had to scrub the launch of the Artemis 1 lunar mission today for the second time in a week due to technical issues. And we have just learned the mission is now delayed for weeks.

CNN's space and defense correspondent: Kristin Fisher is at the Kennedy Space Center. Wow, Kristin.

So this is just coming into us that this mission is now going to be delayed for weeks because of this issue with this leak. What can you tell us?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, the NASA leadership is briefing reporters about this as we speak. It's ongoing, but here's what we know now. Basically there was a hydrogen leak this morning on the launch pad, a big leak, much bigger than the one on Monday, and there was likely some damage to what NASA calls -- this is very NASA lingo -- they call them the soft goods on the seal.

So essentially this is the seal where there's a pump. They're pumping super cold liquid hydrogen into the main tank, there was a leak there. And those soft goods, that seal was damaged. So now they need to fix it.

The big question now is can they fix it at the launch pad or do they need to roll it all the way back to the vehicle assembly building, which is four miles away.

If that happens, it is a several weeks' long delay. But even if they are able to make the repairs on the launch pad, Jim, as of now, they still have to roll it back to the vertical assembly building because there's an issue with what's called the flight termination system. Basically if something goes wrong with this rocket launch, they have

to be able to terminate it and to change those battery packs, you've got to do it back in the garage, so to speak.

So as of now, it sounds like NASA almost certainly has to roll this rocket back to that garage, that VAB building and try to get this thing fixed.

Now, Jim Free (ph) who is the associate administrator was asked point- blank, you know, was NASA really confident heading into this second attempted test flight of the Artemis rocket, and listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM FREE, NASA: We don't go into these tests lightly, right? We don't just say, hey, we think, we hope this is going to work. The confidence to do another launch attempt today was borne out of the fact that we understood the hydrogen leaks that we had on Monday. Those are different than the leak that we had today in terms of scale. One was in the same place, but today was a different signature.

And we understood the engine issues. So we were confident coming into today, but as the administrator said, we're not going to launch until we're ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: So Jim, in terms of what this means for timing, you're looking at at-best the end of September, more likely mid to end of October as to when NASA is next going to attempt to get this rocket off the launch pad, Jim.

ACOSTA: Wow, that is disappointing. But they have to be safe and not take any chances.

Kristin Fisher, thanks for all the coverage. We really appreciate it.

ACOSTA: Coming up, saying good-bye to the greatest of all time, Serena Williams takes a well-deserved bow as she exits what could be the last match of her career.

And actress Jane Fonda sharing the personal news that she's battling cancer. What she had to say about her diagnosis.

[17:24:41]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Listen to the sound of thousands of Serena Williams' fans cheering her and bidding her farewell at the U.S. Open. Take a listen.

It was a remarkable moment last night, the outpouring of applause followed what very well could be the final game, set and match for the 23-time Grand Slam winner.

She battled to the last in three thrilling sets Friday night, but ultimately fell to Australian Ajla Tomljanovic.

CNN's Don Riddle was at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York for this unforgettable match. Don, I am envious because I mean -- I wish I could be there. I was jumping up and down in my living room, you know, rooting on Serena -- sorry, Ajla, but I was. And I mean what a way to go out just fighting all the way to the very end.

[17:30:00]

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Yes, it was extraordinary, Jim. And she really did go out on her shield, playing the longest match she's ever played here in her home open tournament, more than three hours.

And it was just electrifying. And 24,000 people jam packed inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium. People were on their feet for so much of the match. At times, the roars and the cheers were just deafening.

And of course, everybody willing Serena on to win one more point, one more game, be able to play one more match. But in the end, it wasn't to be.

But I think during those three hours we were all reminded of why Serena has been so utterly brilliant. Some of the points were exceptional. There was so much power and aggression, passion and hunger. In the end, she just fell short.

Afterwards, though, it was like, oh, this is it. This means the career is over. The interviewer on the court afterwards didn't even ask her a question. Because it was kind of hard to know what to ask her.

Serena took the microphone and thanked everybody for their support over the years, and especially she thanked her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERENA WILLIAMS, PRO TENNIS PLAYER: It all started with my parents and they deserve everything. So I'm really grateful for them.

(CHEERING)

WILLIAMS: Oh, my god. These are happy tears, I guess. I don't know.

And I wouldn't be -- I wouldn't be Serena if it wasn't for Venus, so thank you, Venus.

(CHEERING)

WILLIAMS: She's the only reason that Serena Williams ever existed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: And 24,000 people had lumps in their throats during that incredibly touching moment, Jim.

And by the way, her sister, Venus, hasn't retired yet. She's 42. She played in both the singles and her doubles this week. No plans to stop playing on behalf of Venus Williams just yet.

ACOSTA: I wish they could both keep playing.

And rising tennis star, 18-year-old Coco Gauff tweeted, "Serena, thank you. It is because of you I believe in this dream. The impact you had on me goes beyond any words that can be put together. And for that, I say thank you, thank you, thank you, GOAT."

Don, Serena's shoes are impossible to fill. But who is poised to pick up where she left off? Is it Coco?

RIDDELL: Yes, I think it is Coco Gauff. I interviewed Coco here on this very spot five years ago when she was just 13 years of age. She just lost the girls' final and she was devastated.

But even then, she was so poised and intelligent and articulate. And we see what an extraordinary young player she has grown up to become, brilliant on the court.

She's so articulate off the court, just like Serena. She's an advocate for social justice.

And she's playing brilliantly. She's into the fourth round here for the first time in her career.

She's been speaking a lot about what an inspiration Serena Williams has been to her, to be able to look at tennis and see someone that looks like her playing tennis was a massive inspiration.

She's also recently revealed that her first paycheck ever was because she was playing Serena Williams in a television commercial. She was obviously acting as a young Serena Williams. And I think she really is poised.

And if she could go on and win this tournament at the age of 18, the same year that Serena retired, what an incredible passing of the torch moment that would be. It could happen -- Jim?

ACOSTA: Yes. Although, I feel like we're never going to see anyone quite like her ever again. What a legend.

Don Riddell, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Jane Fonda is sharing personal medical news that she's been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The Oscar-winning actress posted the news on Instagram disclosing she is undergoing chemotherapy.

CNN's entertainment reporter, Chloe Melas, has more on Jane Fonda's announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Jim, Jane Fonda announced on Friday that she has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

In a very lengthy message, she told her fans not to worry, that although she has six months of chemotherapy ahead of her, that she's actually handling it quite well.

And she also says that "80 percent of people survive, so I feel very lucky."

She also went on to say, quote, "I am also lucky because I have health insurance and access to the best doctors and treatments. I realize, and it's painful, that I am privileged in this."

But she also took this as a moment to talk about politics, to talk about the midterms, to say that this cancer is not going to slow her down from her activism and talking about climate change.

She also is incredibly busy. She just wrapped another season of "Grace and Frankie." And she also has a movie coming out called "Moving On" that's about to premier at the Toronto Film Festival.

Although this is a sad moment, this isn't going to stop her from doing the things that she loves.

Also, many celebrities took to social media. Including her former co- star from the movie "Book Club," Diane Keaton, who wrote in the comment section on Instagram, Jim:

[17:35:07]

"We love you, Jane. You are my hero. You are a warrior. All of my life I've been in awe of all that you do. I will continue to admire the crusader you have always been and always will be."

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: All right, coming up, a tiny piece of plastic can turn almost any firearm into a machine gun. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No shit -- whoa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: More on this very disturbing trend next.

Plus, the unbelievable story of the man who took on Putin and exposed the truth. The Sundance award-winning CNN film, "NAVALNY," airs tomorrow night at 8:00 on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello?

ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN LAWYER (through translation): Vladimir Alexandrovich. It's Alexei Navalny calling and I was hoping you could tell me why you wanted to kill me?

UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Remarkably, Vladimir Putin faces a legitimate opponent, Alexei Navalny.

NAVALNY: I don't want Putin being president.

I will end war.

If I want to be a leader of a country, I have to organize people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kremlin hates Navalny so much that they refused to say his name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passengers heard Navalny cry out in agony.

NAVALNY: Come on, poisoned? Seriously?

We are creating the coalition to fight this regime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are killed, what message do you leave behind for the Russian people?

NAVALNY: It's very simple, never give up.

ANNOUNCER: "NAVALNY" tomorrow at 8:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:52]

ACOSTA: This week, President Biden renewed his calls for an assault weapons ban, saying elected officials who won't support it shouldn't be reelected in the fall.

One troubling trend, the rapid spread of a small inexpensive conversion device capable of transforming semiautomatic weapons into machine guns in just a matter of minutes.

CNN's senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, brings us this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are the size of a Lego, come in colors of the rainbow, and in seconds, can turn America's most popular handgun from firing like this --

(GUNFIRE)

GRIFFIN: -- to this.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No shit -- whoa.

GRIFFIN: This is the gun range of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives where an undercover agent shows how a tiny device called an auto sear can turn almost any gun into a machine gun.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy smokes.

GRIFFIN: This is Houston where a team of police officers tried to serve a warrant, body cameras on.

BILL JEFFREY, HOUSTON POLICE OFFICER SHOT AND KILLED WHILE SERVING AN ARREST WARRANT: Deon, you need to step out. It's Houston police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Deon inside?

GRIFFIN: Thirty years' experience conducting 2,500 previous major offender arrests couldn't help a cop named Bill Jeffrey.

B. JEFFREY: Deon, it's Houston police. Let's do this the easy way.

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get an ambulance! Get an ambulance!

GRIFFIN (on camera): Your father didn't stand a chance?

LACIE JEFFREY, DAUGHTER OF FALLEN HOUSTON POLICE OFFICER: No. He was completely blindsided and there is nothing that any of them could have done to change the outcome. Everything was done the way it was supposed to, but this guy ambushed them.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): What the officers couldn't see was the multi- convicted felon hiding in a dark apartment, holding a pistol that was turned into a weapon of war.

(GUNFIRE)

GRIFFIN: In seconds, he fired 30 rounds. Officer Jeffrey died. A police sergeant, also hit, crawled for safety and survived.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Sarge, you good? You good?

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE SERGEANT: No, I'm hit. I'm hit.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: They're going at Bill. Somebody get Bill.

GRIFFIN (on camera): What was your reaction when you found out what this criminal had in his hands?

L. JEFFREY: Disgust, disbelief, anger. We do not live in a war zone. There is no need for us to have these automatic weapons on the streets of Houston -- anywhere in the United States.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): But there is demand. Cheap, illegal pieces first imported from China were being sold easily over the Internet.

When ATF and Customs cracked down, smuggling began across the southern border.

Now thanks to cheap 3-D printers like this and how-to demonstrations on YouTube, making machine guns is a simple do-it-yourself project, says Earl Griffith of ATF.

EARL GRIFFITH, CHIEF, ATF FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION TECHNOLOGY DIVISION: I am not computer savvy but one of the guys says it's easy. Watch this YouTube. I watched the YouTube and, in a matter of 15 minutes, I was able to do it myself the first time.

GRIFFIN: He's not kidding. We searched YouTube and found this.

AULKII: What's up YouTube? This is Aulkii here.

GRIFFIN: A how-to demonstration --

AULKII: Once you get it 3-D printed --

GRIFFIN: -- that was still up on YouTube's platform --

AULKII: Bada bing, bada boom. That is how you install and remove a Glock auto sear.

GRIFFIN: -- and getting hundreds of thousands of views, even though bada bing, bada boom, as he says.

The guy was arrested by ATF months earlier, charged with possessing, making, and transferring machine guns. He's pleaded not guilty.

YouTube took the videos down right after we asked about them.

Call them auto sears, switches, whatever. They are everywhere and spreading. The ATF seized 1,500 machine gun conversion devices last year. That is five times as many as the year before.

Griffith says police departments across the country have confiscated modified machine guns but many don't even know it.

GRIFFITH: A lot of them have never seen some of these devices, like laying here.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Right.

GRIFFITH: And when we tell them about it, they go back into their evidence vault and they look and check and they find this stuff.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): More and more, this stuff is being found in the slaughter it leaves in its wake.

(SIREN)

[17:45:02] GRIFFIN: This January, three more Houston officers were fired upon -- all three wounded -- when a career criminal opened fire with a machine gun-style pistol.

(GUNFIRE)

GRIFFIN: When they arrested him --

POLICE OFFICER: Hands straight up!

GRIFFIN: -- they found more machine gun parts and 3-D printers.

In Sacramento this April, a massacre on the city's downtown streets. Six dead, a dozen injured. One of the guns in the shootout, according to police, had an auto sear, or switch, to make it fully automatic.

GRIFFIN: All of these in the last 24 hours --

TOM CHITTUM, VICE PRESIDENT OF ANALYTICS, SHOTSPOTTER: Four rounds, nine rounds, 10 rounds, 18 rounds, 27 rounds.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Tom, that's like Tuesday.

CHITTUM: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Tuesday in America we're having this?

CHITTUM: You should come here on the weekend.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): This is ShotSpotter. It locates gunfire for police by listening to a network of microphones across American cities. And more and more of those microphones are picking up automatic fire.

CHITTUM: The rate of fire, the number of rounds being fired in only a few seconds is very serious. Innocent bystanders are being hit by rounds that weren't intended for them.

GRIFFIN: Since 2019, the incidents of automatic gunfire picked up by ShotSpotter had increased from roughly 400 to 5,600 just last year.

Just spend a few moments at Caitlin Parker's (ph) monitoring station and you can hear the havoc.

CAITLIN PARKER (ph), WORKS AT SHOTSPOTTER MONITORING STATION: So, all of these ones that I'm showing you here are full automatic incidents starting from the release of three rounds going all the way up into 30 rounds.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Thirty rounds!

PARKER (ph): Thirty rounds came from Baltimore, Maryland.

GRIFFIN: In Baltimore. This was sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday?

PARKER (ph): Yes, sir, this was 4:00 p.m. yesterday. GRIFFIN: When you sit here and listen to this and realize what's going on out on the streets, what are you thinking?

PARKER (ph): You don't believe it until you hear it. And it's just sad. Unfortunately, with a lot of these shootings, there was a victim behind these.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): In fact, those sounds you heard from Baltimore were bullets hitting two people, including a 14-year-old boy.

Back in Texas, Lacie Jeffrey is trying to do something in her father's memory.

L. JEFFREY: So, we are just trying to get lawmakers to look into this and just change 10 words to make it to where these switches fall under a felony offense.

GRIFFIN: She wants Texas to treat possession of these modified weapons like the federal government does, as a felony.

GRIFFIN (on camera): What's the reception been?

L. JEFFREY: Nothing.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): She hasn't heard back from a single lawmaker.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Why do you think that is?

L. JEFFEREY: I think that, especially in Texas, with the Second Amendment, people are scared to touch upon it. I don't understand why this isn't important enough.

We have lost so many officers. So many civilians are even being caught in the crossfire. How many people have to be affected by these before you realize that a change needs to happen?

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Drew Griffin, CNN, Smithville, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And now a programming note after that excellent report from Drew. America's mass shooting epidemic, can it be stopped. CNN's Fareed Zakaria shares idea from around the world. "GLOBAL LESSONS ON GUNS," a "FAREED ZAKARIA, GPS" special starts tomorrow morning at 10:00.

Coming up, mystery in Memphis. A schoolteacher abducted while jogging and now police say they've detained a man in connection with the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:52:52]

ACOSTA: Just into CNN, police in Memphis say they've detained a man in connection to the case of a missing teacher abducted while she was jogging. They've also located a vehicle of interest. This is just coming in, in the last several minutes.

Eliza Fletcher never returned home from her run yesterday. Police say the kindergarten teacher and mother of two was last seen jogging near the University of Memphis campus when someone approached her and forced her into a vehicle.

Her smashed phone was found nearby. Her family has offered a $50,000 reward to help find her.

Of course, with this new information, we'll stay on top of it and bring it to you as it comes in.

In Russia, hundreds of citizens joined ambassadors from the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, and Spain to remember the life of former Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.

The public farewell ceremony taking place at the same site as the funerals of Josef Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very solemn ceremony that's taking place here in the House of Unions in Moscow, a very famous building right next to the Russian parliament, right across from the Kremlin as well.

As you can see, a lot of ordinary Russians are coming here and paying their respects to one of the great leaders of the 21st century.

One of those who is notably missing is Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin saying beforehand that the Russian president will not have time to attend the ceremony because his schedule is so jampacked.

That's reflective not just of the way that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government see the legacy of Gorbachev, but, of course, also the way many Russians view that legacy as well.

While Gorbachev is celebrated in the West, credited with being pivotal in bringing down the Iron Curtain and also doing it in a peaceful way while hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers were still stationed in Eastern Europe.

Here in Russia, the legacy is viewed somewhat differently. There's a lot of people who felt there was a lot of uncertainty after the Soviet Union fell apart.

And quite frankly, a lot of people who believed that Russia was humiliated on the international stage for a number of years. So certainly more of a controversial figure here in Russia than in many Western nations.

After the ceremony, Mikhail Gorbachev will be laid to rest at the famous cemetery here in Moscow and he will be laid to rest next to his wife, who he loved very much until he passed away in 1999. [17:55:09]

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And we should note while Putin did attend -- did not attend today's ceremony, he did pay his respects to Gorbachev earlier this week, laying flowers by his coffin at a hospital.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. See you back here tomorrow at a special time, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We got an extra holiday weekend hour together. Good for you.

But first, Jessica Dean takes over the CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break.

Have a good night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)