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Inflation Cooled in November; Crypto Founder Arrested; Americans under Winter Weather Alerts; Missing American Student in France; No Suspect Named in Idaho Murders; Special Council Subpoenas Georgia's Secretary of State. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 13, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:39]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Tuesday morning. I'm Erica Hill.

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

This just in to CNN, perhaps some good news, inflation at its lowest level since December of last year. A move in the right direction. Just as the Federal Reserve is poised to bump up interest rates again, though perhaps at a lower clip than they have in recent months. So, is that strategy working? We're going to break down all the numbers just ahead.

HILL: Also ahead, the SEC filing charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder, of course, of that failed crypto giant FTX. The 30-year- old set to make his first court appearance this morning, just hours after he was arrested in the Bahamas.

Also right now we are keeping a very close watch on this massive winter storm slamming states across the U.S. These are pictures of damage from Wayne, Oklahoma, after a suspected tornado touched down there this morning. There have been reports of tornados and dangerous winds also out of Texas. Blizzard conditions and heavy snow, meantime, spreading from the plains into the Midwest. We're going to bring you a live update in just a moment.

SCIUTTO: All right, we begin this hour on the news of the latest inflation numbers. And really the best person to talk about it all, CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans here to break it all down.

Christine, you always say the trend is your friend. So, what does the trend on prices show us?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It shows us that prices are starting to cool. You still have inflation in this economy. It is still too hot. But we are seeing definite signs of cooling. And 7.1 percent, that's the slowest price gain since 2021. And when you look at the trend, you can see, after challenging inflation near 40- year highs, this chart I'm showing you here goes all the way back to the 80s, which was a terrible time for inflation, you can see, we got up to 9 percent and now 7.1 percent is that number.

So, look, it's still -- you can feel it, especially feel it, especially when you're comparing it to last year, November 2021, for example. Compared to last year you got food prices up 10.6 percent. You have gasoline prices up more than 10 percent compared with a year ago. Shelter up 7.1 percent. And we just looked at airfares. Airfares are up 36 percent from a year ago. But think where we were a year ago. You didn't have the exploding consumer demand for services like you do right now. So, you're seeing consumer behavior start to change. You're probably still going to see some inflation in these services sectors. But in the goods producing side of the economy, you're seeing some signs of relief.

I think, you guys, this shows that the Fed's medicine is beginning to work. There is a long way to go. It's too soon to declare victory over inflation. I want to be very clear about that. But the Fed has been jacking up interest rates to try to cool these prices. And 7.1 percent is definitely what Fed watchers wanted to see here today, guys.

HILL: I will happily take a step in the right direction, even if it's a small one.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Christine, stay with us, because I know you're going to help us with this next story that we're following very closely as well.

SCIUTTO: All right, quite a story here. The 30-year-old founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX is expected to appear in a court in the Bahamas this morning. The Bahamas where they set up shop. Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested, this at the request of the U.S. government, which is now expected to request his extradition to here in the U.S.

HILL: Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of FTX last month on the same day the company declared bankruptcy after traders rushed to withdraw some $6 billion from the platform in a period of 72 hours. Well, this morning, the SEC announcing the charges they'd filed against Bankman- Fried, saying, in essence, he'd orchestrated a year's long fraud. They claim he knew exactly what he was doing. Further charges are expected from the Southern District of New York.

Joining us now, Sara Fischer, media report with "Axios" and a CNN media analyst. Christine Romans back with us as well.

Christine, just really quickly on what we saw. This happened so quickly. There was the arrest last night and now we have the charges this morning. This crash happened so quickly as well.

ROMANS: And this was marketed as the entry level way for regular joe and jane investors to get into crypto, to buy, hold and sell these assets. And so you've got a million depositors here who are wondering if they're going to get any of their money back.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: There was something about the character himself, Sam bankman- Fried, that enticed individual investors and also some big institutional names as well. He's a guy who would conduct sort of meetings with analysts while he's playing video games, you know, in a t-shirt and shorts, slept on a sleeping bag in his office, everyone thought he was just such an interesting, brilliant billionaire character and they bought into this image he was selling.

[09:05:09]

There was no CFO. There was no oversight. There was virtually no regulation of this corner of the world. It was just buying into his personality and what he was trying to sell.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: And a lot of people took it hook, line and sinker.

SCIUTTO: Small investors, big investors -

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: And also a lot of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They bought into it. He had a lot of fans up on Capitol Hill.

Sara Fischer, you've been following this story. What's interesting about this is, he's already spoken a lot in public, right? He's answered questions in a number of public interviews in recent days with a lot of questions wondering whether he spoke to his lawyer before he answered those questions, right, you know, denying this was a fraud. But what kinds of things has he said and how might that impact what is now a criminal investigation?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, you make a good point, Jim. He's spoken about this in media interviews, but he is not sworn or spoken under oath, which would have been a much different scenario. And that's what lawmakers were hoping to do today. Of course, his imminent arrest and these new charges from the SEC means that he's not going to appear today according from Representative Waters who put out a statement last night.

But what they were looking to hear is real, concrete proof that this was not a deliberate fraud. Now Sam Bankman-Fried says that he has, you know, had some judgment errors, but he says that it was not intentional that money was funneled from his crypto trading platform FTX into his research and venture firm Alameda Research.

And to Christine's point, the reason that matters is that billions of dollars of customer funds have been misused for research and even lavish personal expenses, like apartments in the Bahamas from Alameda. That's what the SEC is going to be looking into. That's what the Southern District of New York, Jim, that's expected to bring criminal charges for today -- later today is going to be looking into as well.

SCIUTTO: And there's this other question, this allegation that he was using customer funds from the exchange to back up this separate entity, which was in effect an investment bank. And, you know, there are legal problems with that as well.

Christine Romans, Sara Fischer, thanks so much to both of you.

FISCHER: Thank you.

HILL: Well, this major winter storm impacting states across the country is making its way east at this hour.

SCIUTTO: Man, it's a big one. CNN's Derek Van Dam is in Shreveport, Louisiana, where there is a significant threat from strong tornadoes. We've got meteorologist Chad Myers also tracking every angle of this from the weather center.

Derek, I wonder what you're seeing there. Have tornadoes already begun to touch down?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, but they are just to our west. As the crow flies, about 250 miles to our west.

We are in that ground zero area, but we're bracing for impact for later this afternoon because we're gauging of what's happening in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and just outside of Oklahoma City where tornados have left a path of damage already. There was reports of damage in Decatur, Texas, which is just to the north and west of Dallas-Fort Worth.

And then let me take you to Wayne, Oklahoma. This is just south of Oklahoma City. And you'll see what happened overnight. Some of the damage from a tornado, unconfirmed tornado, out of that particular region, but buildings wiped off of their foundation, trees snapped over like twigs. This is what we are bracing ourselves across the northern Louisiana area because it is trekking eastward.

All the ingredients are coming together. You see mother nature doesn't care that it's the middle of December or that it's approaching the first days of winter. It's like she's baking a cake. If the ingredients are there, the cake will rise. And all night the winds have been coming out of the southeast, our temperatures are warming up significantly and very quickly, the humidity is here from the Gulf of Mexico and the wind is picking up as well. So, basically, the ingredients are there, now all we need is a cold front to slice the cake and we will get our thunderstorms and our tornadoes.

The threat here is a level three of five. That's been enhancement from the Storm Prediction Center. They've been tracking this for six days out. Well advertised. People from the National Weather Service here in Shreveport say you need to be prepared to leave your home -- if you're in a mobile home - at a moment's notice as these tornadoes come through.

Back to you.

HILL: Wow, and really bracing for, as you laid out so perfectly there, what could be coming in the hours ahead. Chad Myers there in the CNN Weather Center for us.

As we look at the broader impact from this storm in the coming hours, not just obviously Louisiana that's bracing, what else are we looking at?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Blizzard conditions on the north side and tornadoes that have been on the ground on the warm side of the storm, as Derek said.

My main concern with the tornadoes is going to be after dark. We have very short days this time of year. So 5:00 or 6:00, it's going to be dark out there. Spotters aren't as accurate when it's dark. Tornado warnings are a little bit slow. If you're sleeping, you may not get them. So, that's the real danger with this storm, at least at this point.

A lot of things going on here. Big storms heading toward Dallas and Fort Worth right now.

[09:10:02]

A few of the tornadoes were on the ground to the southwest of Dallas. Right now we're seeing some rotation, but nothing really that I believe that's on the ground right now. But they were just like 15 minutes ago. Tornado watch, obviously, in effect for that entire area.

It is going to slide to the east. It is going to slide toward Derek. Derek in Shreveport. And then up on the north side, that's where the blizzard warnings are right now. Look at the winds, Sydney, Nebraska, 53 miles per hour. And then you add in the snow, visibility is a quarter mile. That is the definition of a blizzard. It just has to last for three or more hours.

Here's where the storm goes later on today. Dallas, right here. Right through the cold front. Derek talked about the cold front As soon as it gets closer to Shreveport, that's when your storms are going to fire.

Also, not even just along the cold front, there may be a few storms that can rotate ahead of it in that warm air that Derek was talking about. Those could put down some tornadoes as well.

Moving you ahead to tomorrow and then even on into almost the weekend, yes, there's even a little bit of snow headed to the northeast and New England. An that's pretty close to New York City. Certainly, the northwest suburbs and as we move you ahead a little bit farther, we will definitely see some snow when you get upstate and even into parts of New England.

Maybe you can go skiing in it up there. But that back there, that's dangerous. This down here, this is also dangerous.

Guys.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. So much of the country affected. That's remarkable. MYERS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Derek Van Dam and Chad Myers, thanks so much.

Coming up next, an American college student studying abroad in France has not been seen or heard from for more than two weeks now. His parents, they're understandably worried. They're speaking out. What they told CNN this morning.

Plus, I'm going to speak live to Congressman Seth Moulton. He just returned from a trip to Ukraine. What he says the top priority should be for the U.S. in terms of help on the front lines.

HILL: And a little bit later, Border Patrol officials say they saw a major surge in people crossing illegally into the U.S. over the weekend, more than 2,400 a day. What is fueling this rise and how is the Biden administration responding?

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[09:16:04]

SCIUTTO: French authorities have now launched an investigation into the disappearance of an American college student who went missing while studying in the south of France.

HILL: The parents of Kenny DeLand Jr. say they haven't heard from him in more than two weeks and they say it's been difficult so far to get any information from authorities. DeLand is a college senior at John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, and was studying abroad at the University of Grenoble Alpes.

CNN's Melissa Bell joining us now from Paris with more of these details.

Parents speaking out. They're really having a hard time, Melissa, they say, getting any information.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And it seems to be much more than just a language or a distance barrier actually, Erica. First of all, what we've been hearing from French authorities who have now opened a missing persons investigation here in France is a statement from the prosecutor near where Kenny disappeared, the place where he had been studying at, saying that they believed or they had no reason to suspect that he hadn't left voluntarily. He had essentially been telling people around him that he'd been struggling to fit in, to make friends. That he was planning to travel to Marseille.

And then, of course, there is that CCTV footage that places Kenny on the 3rd of December, so several days after he stopped giving any contact to his parents, at a sports store just to the south of that city where he was studying, looking well, under no apparent duress. And I think that is prosecutors here in France are looking at the possibility that maybe he just went on a trip.

Now, Kenny's parents getting more and more distraught. They say it is completely uncharacteristic. And, again, spoke to "CNN THIS MORNING." Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH DELAND, SON DISAPPEARED WHILE STUDYING IN FRANCE: I'd say it's just our normal back and forth. He's asking me how I'm doing. I'm asking him how he's doing, how he's, you know, enjoying his studies and if he had traveled to any, you know, spot because he had -- he had - and really enjoying the trip and taking pictures.

We were in constant contact. If it wasn't every day, it was every other day. So, this isn't typical for him. It doesn't feel characteristic of Kenny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: That was November 27th, the last time his parents heard from him. But, again, there is the language barrier, but also the fact that here in Europe the laws mean that if you're a grown-up and you decide to disappear, you're entitled to do that, even against the wishes or without the oversight of your loved ones. And I think that is part of where the frustration of the DeLands, what they've been coming up against and the frustration that they've been feeling.

Erica and Jim.

SCIUTTO: Oh, goodness, I hope his parents do find something out.

Melissa Bell, thanks so much for covering.

HILL: Today marks one month since four University of Idaho students were killed inside their off campus house despite numerous tips. Officials have yet to identify any suspects. Police in Moscow, working alongside Idaho State Police and the FBI, they say they remain committed to solving the crime.

SCIUTTO: CNN correspondent Veronica Miracle is in Moscow, Idaho, this morning.

Veronica, it's a month later. Still very few details. One of the family members - well, family members of one of the victims had been saying some things publicly, but have we learned anything in the last week or two about the investigation and what do folks there in Moscow feel about their own safety?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica and Jim, certainly that's been the frustrating part for not only the families, but for the community, is that very little information has come out, if anything. Really just kind of a drip drop of facts here and there. Maybe that car last week that we heard about, the Hyundai Elantra that was in the area around the time of the murders. Police saying this person, whoever was driving it, may have some information. We want to speak to them. But beyond that, there have been no developments in this case one month later.

Here in the community of Moscow, people are trying to move forward.

[09:20:02]

You see signs of the holidays, Christmas. At the University of Idaho, just across the way here, it's finals week, so students are studying and then they're heading home for the semester and they won't be coming back until next year.

Yet everywhere you look there are reminders that this horrible tragedy happened one month ago. You see signs all over the community, like this one that you're seeing, at the front of every restaurant. You go inside, and there are people asking for tips and information. And police say that they have gotten tips by the thousands. And, in fact, they say that those tips have led to strong leads, they just can't share that information with the families or with the community at this time.

And they - in fact, I asked last week, you know, why haven't you created a reward for -- possibly get more tips, and they say the leads have been so strong they don't want to dilute those leads and create an incentive at this time. They feel that they don't need to do so. The police chief says they are working hard.

Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER ROGER LANIER, OPERATIONS CAPTAIN, MOSCOW POLICE DEPARTMENT: We're not releasing specific details because we do not want to compromise this investigation. It's what we must do. We owe that to the families and we owe that to the victims. We want more than just an arrest, we want a conviction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIRACLE: Jim and Erica, the question is, when students come back next year, for the next semester, will there have been any developments while they've been gone?

Jim and Erica.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. It's a good point.

Veronica, appreciate you being there and continuing to follow this for us. Thank you.

Still to come here, another significant subpoena by the special counsel now investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Why he wants to hear from Georgia's secretary of state, next.

SCIUTTO: And we're just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street where U.S. stock futures are up a heck of a lot this morning, close to 3 percent for the S&P. Investors reacting to November's inflation report. The Consumer Price Index showing some slowing of inflation. Of course, they're interpreting that as a sign that the Fed perhaps won't raise interest rates as much as they have in the past. We'll be following the market and what the Fed does later this week. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:16]

HILL: Newly appointed special counsel Jack Smith continuing to move quickly, issuing a subpoena for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as part of the DOJ's investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Raffensperger, a Republican, resisted, you may recall, then President Trump's efforts to pressure him to find the votes necessary for Trump to win Georgia. That, of course, came in an infamous January 2021 phone call. Raffensperger's subpoena follows a host of others recently issued to state and local officials in battleground states where Trump tried to overturn his loss.

Joining me to discuss, Elie Honig, former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

So, Elie, as we look at this, Raffensperger really hasn't shied away from talking about that call. He's talked about it publicly in a number of interviews. We know that there's been sworn testimony. He's spoken to the House committee. He's spoken to the grand jury in Georgia. So, it seems that the DOJ must know pretty well what they're going to get from him. You say that's not ideal. Why?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Erica, well, first of all, whenever you have a key witness, like Brad Raffensperger, and obviously he's incredibly important. As you said, he's the person who Donald Trump asked to find the 11,780 alleged votes. When you have a key witness like that, you want to be a little bit greedy. You want to keep that witness to yourself. You don't want that witness out there testifying in other formats. You don't want him writing books and doing media because the more he says publicly, the more there will be available to attack his credibility, to try to cross-examine him down the line.

And there's been a notable change in pace here. That tape of that phone call that you talked about, that became public on January 5, 2021, the day before January 6th. We all saw it and heard it then. Yet in the 20 or so months since then, Merrick Garland never subpoenaed Brad Raffensperger. Now we have Jack Smith in charge. He's been there about three weeks an he went and fired off this subpoena. So I think we're seeing a different pace now.

HILL: What do you think is behind the pace? Is it simply that he operates differently? I'm just curious. I mean I know it's hard to know if you're not there in the room, but it is remarkable, Elie.

HONIG: So, I can tell you this, just like people run at different speeds, you have some people who are sprinters, some people who run slow. Same thing with prosecutors. I mean I worked in a large -- several large prosecutor's offices. I've had hundreds of colleagues. Some of them tended to get cases charged really quickly. I tended to be on the quicker side, you might imagine. But others really like to take their time and be deliberate. And Merrick Garland, whether one is a proponent of Merrick Garland's or not, the universal consensus is that he is deliberate. He moves in a judicial pace. Remember, he was a judge for a long time. So, I think we're just seeing different people in charge here.

HILL: OK, so I won't read too much into it except that noted Elie Honig is a sprinter.

So, separately, opening arguments began yesterday in the second seditious conspiracy trial.