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CNN Reports, Investigators Focus on Two Possible Domestic Terror Motives; First Episodes of New Harry and Meghan Docu-Series Released; Trump Team Finds Two Documents with Classified Markings at Florida Storage Unit. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 08, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Even though it's been shorter than both Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan, who is still there.

[10:30:07]

But they knew from the beginning that pushing for a swap was the only way that this was going to happen and the kind of swap that they've been pushing for has been one that included Paul. Because right now, I mean, when you look at the facts, a convicted arms trader traded for a WNBA star who was carrying a minuscule amount of CBD oil is not a fair trade. So, Russia really, I think, held out for a very long time. And speaking to people around the Griner family this morning, you know, it's not totally clear what got them to finally say yes to some kind of deal even though it's not obviously the one that everybody wanted.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Right, and it does, it really does make you wonder, it really does.

So, the important thing, right, is that she's coming home but it does make you wonder. Abby Phillip, as Van pointed out, I will second that, it's been incredible reporting for so long on this, Abby, Van, great to have you both here this morning.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Still ahead, a team hired by former President Donald Trump to search his properties for any more classified documents, well, they found some. They found two with classified markings. Where exactly his team tracked them down and what that means for the ongoing Mar-a-Lago investigation, that's coming up.

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[10:35:00]

SCIUTTO: All right. Some good news for residents of Moore County in North Carolina, power restored after several days. Still, though, investigators have not established a motive for the attack on two power substations or on suspects.

That said, the motive could be coming into better focus. Sources tell CNN that investigators are looking into posts on several online forums by domestic extremists targeting critical infrastructure, and they are also looking at the timing of recent disruptions specifically of LGBTQ events across the country.

There is now a $75,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whomever, one or more people, fired a high-powered rifle at the substations.

For more on what lessons we're learning and a possible broader threat to our electrical infrastructure, David Terry joins me now, he's the executive director of the National Association of State Energy Officials. David, thanks for taking time this morning.

DAVID TERRY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE ENERGY OFFICIALS: Good morning, Jim. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: So, first of all, we should note that this is the second attack of this kind we've seen. You had this attack in North Carolina. You had another similar one in 2013 back just south of San Jose. There are thousands of these substations across the country with minimal protection perhaps beyond a chain link fence. Are they under threat now from groups like this?

TERRY: I think the short answer is, yes. And I have to say first, just to the thousands that were impacted in North Carolina, this obviously was a serious, even life-threatening event. I think Governor Cooper has shown great leadership in that situation.

I think the kinds of threats that are out there are related to what you hinted at, which is the electric grid is a massive interconnected, for the most part, machine. It's impossible to protect every node but we have known since that 2013 attack, state, federal, industry leaders have taken steps to protect critical nodes. But there remain substations in particular that we can't protect infinitely, unfortunately.

SCIUTTO: I mean, I remember a similar response both after the Oklahoma City bombing and after 9/11, right, where you had steps taken across the country to secure, say, glass in federal buildings and government buildings and you're talking about thousands of them. It's hard to prioritize when you have thousands of these.

Given your experience and a look at the threat across the country, is this a situation where communities have to secure power stations with, for instance, walls around them that could stop gunfire like this or is that going too far?

TERRY: It's not going too far but we have to be selective about it. There are critical nodes, particular substations, particular power plants, many of those have been identified, if not all, it is challenging to protect them in that fashion. I think in partner with that, there are really two pieces. One is the hardening of infrastructure, and that certainly continues to occur, but the threat increases even more rapidly.

But the second part is to be more resilient. So, you see state energy, governor energy directors around the country working with their utilities in the Department of Energy. I think Deputy Secretary Turk has shown great leadership there as well to work on things like micro grids and backup power for mission critical facilities, like hospitals and nursing homes.

So it's a multi-prong approach. Part of it is that hardening, guns and guards for shorthand. Certainly there's a lot of room for that for improvement. But also the resilient side, really diversifying how we serve those critical needs in every community.

SCIUTTO: There was an FBI/DHS bulletin a couple of weeks before this attack, warning about domestic extremist groups. And we now have investigators speaking of this openly who have spoken about targeting critical infrastructure. Are there particular groups, kinds of groups that you've received warnings about and that authorities should be looking at here?

TERRY: There are. And, certainly, we have discussions with U.S. Department of Energy, Department of Homeland security, governor's offices, utilities and others.

[10:40:06]

We can't really talk about those publicly. But what I would say is that the challenge we have is the physical and cybersecurity infrastructure is constantly changing, the threat to that. And we have elevated the level of alert generally on these substations right now but we've been working that for quite a while. And I think it continues to be that two-prong approach in trying to address the resilience, the recovery when these incidents do happen.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And there are foreign actors who have the cyber capability to take down stations like this. David Terry, good to have you on.

TERRY: Thank you.

HILL: Still to come, the first episodes of a candid docu-series featuring Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan now out. What they reveal about their life as a royal couple, next.

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HILL: Some new details this morning in the new docu-series featuring the duke and duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, released overnight on Netflix. In this series, they talk about their love story, their lives as royals, Harry also describes the challenges of navigating their relationship with the media and how he felt it was different from what others in the royal family had faced.

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PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: As far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through, they've been put through as well. So, it was almost like a rite of passage. And some of the members of the family were like, right, but my wife had to go through that so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected? And I said the difference here is the race element.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me to discuss Royal Watcher, Host of the When Marry Met Meghan podcast Kristen Meinzer. Kristen, good to have you with us this morning.

Picking up on that sound bite that we just played there from Prince Harry, he was noting that what was different in terms of what Meghan Markle had to go through in those moments when it was revealed that they were dating was her race and how that became such a focus, especially when it came to tabloid media in the U.K. What did you learn that's new here in this documentary? What do you think people will take away from it as they try to understand that moment?

KRISTEN MEINZER, ROYAL WATCHER: Well, I think that, first of all, I have to commend everybody involved with this documentary that they do not shy away from talking about race, not just there with Prince Harry, but Prince Harry admitting that he has implicit bias, Harry saying that he's very proud of the fact he has mixed race children and the fact that the documentary talks frankly about colonialism, about racism, about how the British Isles have profited off and oppressed brown people around the world and how when abolition happened in the U.K. The people who were paid off were not the former enslaved people, it was the slave owners who were paid off.

So, I think a lot of people are going to be surprised how head-on this documentary really approaches racism, but I think they're also going to be delighted with some of the details of what Harry and Meghan, what their life is like as a couple, how they first met. You saw an Instagram post of hers with a Snapchat filter on where she actually just looked like a dog, and he said, that's the girl for me. I need to meet her. And so there are delightful moments like that.

There are people we're hearing from really for the first time, Doria, Meghan's mother, is just wonderful in this documentary. She's so regal. She's so classy. She's so kind and so composed. And she talks frankly about the fact that she wishes she would have talked more openly with Meghan about racism at a younger age. So, I mean, we have people like that showing up on screen. We have important issues being discussed. It has a lot of things that I think people are going to want.

HILL: Buckingham Palace says it will not comment. This is the first three episodes. The second three, the final episodes will drop next week. Do you anticipate that anything in those episodes would change the decision from the palace, to speak out?

MEINZER: I'm curious about the next set of episodes. Because in this set of episodes, for the most part, no specific family members on Harry's side are really called out for being complicit in any of the wrongdoings. We hear a lot about how Meghan's father, Meghan's older half-sister, Samantha, how they, you know, curried favor with the press, accepted money to essentially say bad things about Meghan. We so far have not really heard about any specific family members on Harry's side and what they may or may not have done wrong.

And so I think a lot of people in the next set of episodes are going to be looking to see are names going to be named? Is there going to be another moment, like in the Oprah interview, where Meghan says Kate made her cry.

HILL: Yes. Kristen Meinzer, I appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you.

MEINZER: Thanks for having me.

HILL: And we'll be right back.

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[10:50:00]

HILL: CNN has learned two indictments with classified markings were found in a Florida storage unit during a search by a team hired by former President Donald Trump's lawyers.

SCIUTTO: CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez is covering. So, Evan, here is a legal team that has denied anything, delayed everything, said none of this is real, now they're actively searching and finding documents? Why?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Under pressure from a judge. I mean, the judge is the one who signed off obviously on the original subpoena, which was earlier in the summer, ordering the former president to produce every item that was marked as classified.

Of course, we know that they turned over first a folder with some documents and then the FBI believed that there were additional documents, so they went and it did a search in August and found a lot more documents. So, clearly, the former president was not complying with the original subpoena and that really put him in legal jeopardy.

[10:55:06]

And so you see a legal team right here trying to make sure -- they are trying to figure out how to save this president from legal jeopardy, right?

SCIUTTO: That is legal jeopardy for not complying with the subpoena.

PEREZ: For not complying with the subpoena.

SCIUTTO: So, he still, of course, faces legal jeopardy for having the documents in the first place?

PEREZ: Exactly. But what the legal team is doing here is trying to make sure that this judge doesn't throw the book at the former president simply because he clearly was in violation of a subpoena, something the Justice Department has repeatedly told them, which was we know that there are additional documents that are missing and essentially putting the onus on the former president's legal team to figure out where they are and to produce them to the FBI, which they've now done with these two documents that they've found.

SCIUTTO: Evan Perez, thanks so much.

HILL: And thanks to all of you for joining us today, a big breaking news day. I'm Erica Hill.

SCIUTTO: It is happy for the Griner family. I'm Jim Sciutto.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts right after a short break.

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