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Panel Recommends Four Criminal Charges Against Trump; Supreme Court Temporarily Freezes Order to End Title 42; Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of Sex Crimes. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 20, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Bianca is off this week. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): Those in favor, say aye.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We fight like hell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The committee believes that more than sufficient evidence exists for a criminal referral of former President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are in an emergency. We are in the middle of an internal crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of folks on the Mexican side who anticipated crossing in the next couple of days are feeling confusion, frustration, sadness, shock.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He used his Hollywood influence to lure women into private meetings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The women who Harvey Weinstein victimized in Southern California deserved to have their day in court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.

FOSTER: It is Tuesday, December 20th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington. Where for the first time in U.S. history a Congressional committee is recommending formal charges against a former president. In their final public meeting the House panel investigating the January 6th Capitol riot said all roads lead to Donald Trump.

There are four charges, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and aiding or assisting an insurrection. The panel also claims evidence of conspiracy to impede a federal officer and seditious conspiracy. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): The charges relating to the obstruction of a joint session, the interference with a joint session, the conspiracy to defraud the United States, those would be probably top of mind for the Justice Department. But they also need to look at the most serious charge, that is the incitement of insurrection, the aid and committing of people committing an act of rebellion or insurrection. That is, you know, certainly not a charge that's brought very often and never brought before against a former president but nonetheless the facts here are very much on point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Committee members focused on Trump's direct involvement in a scheme to overturn the 2020 election paving the way for the violence at the U.S. Capitol in 2021. Trump's campaign calls the committee's work a partisan witch-hunt.

In the days ahead we will see the transcripts of interviews conducted by the panel including with Cassidy Hutchinson who the committee said was coerced by the Trump team. CNN political correspondent Sara Murray has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The House Select Committee investigating January 6 convening publicly one last time.

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): He lost 2020 election and knew it. In the end, he summoned the mob to Washington and knowingly, they were armed and angry, pointed them to the Capitol and told them to fight like hell.

MURRAY (voice-over): And laying out its case that former President Donald Trump was ultimately responsible for the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office.

MURRAY (voice-over): The committee referring four crimes to the Justice Department that they say the former president committed while trying to stay in the White House.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): We believe that the evidence described by my colleagues today and assembled throughout our hearings warrants a criminal referral of former President Donald J. Trump.

MURRAY (voice-over): Including assessing or aiding an instruction, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to make false statements. It believes there is sufficient evidence for two others, conspiracy to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy. The panel also refereeing attorney and Trump ally John Eastman to DOJ but saying DOJ will have to determine who else should face prosecution.

RASKIN: Now our understanding of the role of many individuals may be incomplete, even today, because they refused to answer our questions. We trust that the Department of Justice would be able to form a far more complete picture.

MURRAY (voice-over): Republican lawmakers who snubbed committee subpoenas referred to the House Ethics Committee.

[04:05:00]

After 17 months of investigating and roughly 1,000 witness interviews, the committee determined that Trump knew the fraud allegations he was pushing referral false but continue to amplify them anyway.

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): The committee has evidence that ex-President Trump planned to declare victory and unlawfully to call for the vote counting to stop, and that he told numerous allies about his intent in the weeks before the election.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: Hope, say a couple of words.

MURRAY (voice-over): Even some of Trump's closest allies like Hope Hicks worry the bogus fraud claims were damaging his legacy, Trump persisted.

HOPE HICKS, FORMER TRUMP AIDE: He said something along the long lines of, you know, nobody will care about my legacy if I lose. So, that won't matter. The only thing that matters is winning.

MURRAY (voice-over): Trump work on a scheme to transmit false Electoral College ballots and replace Department of Justice leadership with one that would do his bidding, even pressuring his own vice president.

REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): President Trump spearheaded an unprecedented campaign to coerce him, to do it anyway, ultimately culminating in a dangerous threat to Mr. Pence's life on January 6th.

MURRAY (voice-over): The committee also highlighting Trump's $250 million fundraising call between the election and January 6th raised primarily off claims of election fraud that did not exist. Questioning whether any of the money was used to pay lawyers who may have tried to obstruct the congressional investigation and evidence from one unnamed witness who was urged to stay loyal to Trump.

LOFGREN: The witness believed this was an effort to affect her testimony and we are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee from finding the truth.

MURRAY: Now Donald Trump's campaign is already pushing back on what the committee had to say in their public meeting on Monday. They called the committee's events show trials by "never Trump partisans" -- even though the committee is made up of both Republicans and Democrats.

We also got a response from an attorney for John Eastman who said in a statement: A criminal referral from a Congressional committee is not binding on the Department of Justice and carries no more legal weight than a referral from any American citizen.

Sara Murray, CNN, on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: It's now up to Attorney General Merrick Garland if the Justice Department will file charges. Special counsel Jack Smith is coordinating all federal the investigations into Trump. And it can be major boost if January 6 committee releases transcripts of all their interviews. CNN's Evan Perez explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: They've been asking for these transcripts of these thousands of pages of interviews, hundreds of witnesses who come in and, you know, a lot of these witnesses, some of them sat for 11, 12 hours of testimony. This is extremely valuable to prosecutors. It will supplement to the things that they've already gathered.

Some cases though some of these witnesses have not yet spoken to the FBI. So, you know, for the people who have, they want to see whether their answers are different from what they've provided to the FBI and if not, you know, they can try and use that to gather up additional information.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell reacted to the criminal referrals from the January 6 committee with a short somewhat cryptic statement. He says the entire nation knows who's responsible for that day.

Before Monday's hearing former Vice President Mike Pence said he hopes the Justice Department will not charge Trump. He says the former's president's actions were reckless but it's not a crime to take bad advice from lawyers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I must say from very early on I've been disappointed in the partisan nature of the Select Committee on Capitol Hill. I mean, to have a committee that was literally appointed in its entirety by the Democrat Speaker of the House really violates the history and tradition of the Congress of the United States. This Select Committee from the very beginning has represented a kind of a partisan taint that I think is one of the reasons why so few Americans are paying much attention to what will happen today or to the results or recommendations of this committee.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: So, what exactly would it take for the Justice Department to

bring criminal charges against Trump. We asked our legal analyst Elliott Williams and conservative attorney George Conway.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELLIOTT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Your feelings do not matter. If you think someone committed a crime, you might know it in your heart, is irrelevant. What matters is can you count to four and identify each of the four elements of an offense and can you meet those things? Right, no matter what you believe or think. And what the committee did quite meticulously over about 20 or 30 pages toward the end of the report, is lay out for each of the offenses number one, number two, number three, number four. And this is what prosecutors have to establish.

GEORGE CONWAY, CONSERVATIVE LAWYER: The prosecutors has to believe that he's -- or he or she is able to prove something to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt and have that conviction withstand an appeal.

[04:10:00]

And that's a higher standard. So, we're not going to see the Justice Department probably charge everything that's listed here. But there are, you know, there are essential threads here and there are very actually relatively simple offenses here. The first two that they emphasized which is what the judge out in California found was likely committed by Trump and by Eastman, the conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of a Congressional proceeding.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: U.S. lawmakers in Washington unveiled a $1.7 trillion spending bill a short while ago in an effort to avert a government shutdown. It's a product of lengthy negotiations between top congressional Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers have until Friday at midnight to approve the bill and get President Joe Biden to sign it. If they can't agree on a deal, federal funds for key government agencies and programs will expire.

The Biden administration is preparing for the end of Title 42 despite the announcement that the Trump era immigration policy will stay in place for now. A Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily blocked a lower court order that would have end the it on Wednesday. More than a dozen Republican led states have fought the White House to keep Title 42 intact. Now in the policy has allowed border officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants to slow the spread of COVID-19. But while they're thankful for the respite, they're still preparing as if the policy will ultimately be lifted. We'll get to the growing humanitarian crisis at the border in just a moment. But first, CNN's Jessica Schneider reports from Washington on the Supreme Court decision.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Jessica Schneider, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Chief Justice John Roberts stepping in to temporarily keep Title 42 in place. That's all because the full Supreme Court will decide whether these Republican- led states can actually mount their challenge against the controversial program. So, the bottom line is Title 42 likely will not end as was originally anticipated Tuesday into Wednesday at the strike of midnight.

So, Title 42 it has been in place since early days of the pandemic in 2020. It allows officials to bypass the normal course and expeditiously expel migrants at U.S. borders. Now border states because of that were bracing for an influx of migrants when Title 42 expired, but now those states will likely have at least a few more days before that actually happens.

So, here's how it will unfold. The Chief Justice is asking for more briefing from the Biden administration and the ACLU on this case by Tuesday at 5 p.m. And that means the court will likely decide pretty quickly about whether to officially let these Republican-led states step into this case and mount their fight to keep Title 42. That's something that has the lower courts have not allowed. Which is why we all thought that Title 42 would in fact end on Wednesday. But now the Supreme Court is essentially extending the time line. Now to be clear here, the decision does not mean that the court is siding with these Republican-led states on the merits, they're just doing it to procedurally to let everyone in this case have a little bit more time, effectively keeping title 42 in place likely a bit beyond and may be far beyond Wednesday.

Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, border cities like El Paso, Texas are preparing for a search of migrants if Title 42 is lifted. Officials say an emergency operations center has been activated to coordinate response efforts to ensure the community remains safe. This video was filmed by a Republican Congressman and shared with CNN. It reveals poor conditions and overcrowded rooms of migrants on the floor on mattresses wearing my space blankets at their processing center in El Paso. One local official says her city is historically a migrant town but more needs to be done to help the migrant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAUDIA RODRIGUEZ, EL PASO CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE: I have been sounding the alarm on this whole situation since May. We are in emergency. We are in the middle of a humanitarian crisis. And the only that way we can solve this at this point, is bringing our administration, our federal government. You know, they were ill prepared for this. They brought this upon us and had they, you know, they needed to come in. I really wish they would have done more and not put El Paso in the middle of this.

People Juarez come into El Paso, they go back home to Juarez. We go visit Juarez and come back home to El Paso. We're not used to people jumping into our backyard. We're not used to people sleeping in our backyards. We do have laws and they need to be implemented. Our border patrol agents have the ability and authority to do things the right way. But what's happening right now is completely different and we -- because we are welcoming and loving community, we will not allow these people to be sleeping out on the streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's David Culver has more from the other side of the border in Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Generally quiet here at the U.S./Mexico border in the early morning hours. But you can see actually just over my shoulder this couple having just crossed over the river.

[04:15:00]

They're now walking up to the U.S. side where we're starting to see some border patrol officials head over to meet them.

And generally, it's a steady flow throughout the day and certainly they're expecting it to be a potential surge as we get closer to Wednesday when Title 42 is expected to officially end. And the preparation here is that there could be hundreds if not thousands that attempt to cross over and you can even see what's relatively new in recent weeks, this chain link fence along the U.S. side of the border seems to be an effort to then funnel some of the migrants to a certain points to then be processed.

Interesting to know what we saw here arriving over the weekend. And I arrived on that side, the U.S. side, El Paso, before driving here to Ciudad Juarez. Let me show you what's inside the airports in the early morning hours of Sunday, late Saturday just passing the night into Sunday. Dozens of migrants camped out on the floor.

And I talked to one of the security guards there. They seem unphased. They say this is something they have seen in recent weeks. And a lot of folks have started in places like Venezuela, making their way up. And many of them position themselves here on this side where I'm standing for several weeks, if not months, in preparation to cross over.

And it's interesting to see what was here when we were here just about a month ago. And we can show you from above, hundreds of camps. They were set up, tents. This is where a massive encampment where aid workers estimated some 300,000 people at one point were basically living in preparation to cross over.

Now fast forward to what we saw over the weekend along this same spot. That same vantage point from above. You can see it was cleared out. And we can show you in late November the clash with police as Mexican officials decided to clear out that camp evicting the migrants who were here and tearing down the tents and having them move along.

We talked to the mayor in Ciudad Juarez. Wanted to get a sense of what kind of coordination he has with his counterparts in the U.S. I asked him if he's regularly talking with them.

CRUZ PEREZ CUELLAR, CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO MAYOR: We have a lot of communications. We work together.

CULVER: What is your biggest concern when it comes to Wednesday and what could happen with the lifting of Title 42?

CUELLAR: The real concern, you know, the real problem -- we can help and we have talked with American authorities. They have to try to process them quickly.

CULVER: His biggest concern now is that U.S. officials may not process the migrants quickly enough. But it's interesting to note, of course, he doesn't want a backlog on his side, his side, the Mexican side. And he's hoping the U.S. officials are able to get the migrants through quickly. Of course, the strain on resources is obvious. On the U.S. side and right here on the Mexican side.

David Culver, CNN, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Increased demand is forcing to major retail chains in the U.S. to limit purchases of children's pain relief medicine. CVS is restricting both in person and online purchases to just two products at a time. And Walgreens has limited online purchases to six over-the- counter fever reducers per visit. It does not have an in store purchase cap there though. The move comes amid a brutal respiratory virus season that's straining pediatric hospitals.

The former head of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to extradition from the Bahamas to the U.S. He and his lawyers are expected to be back in court in the coming hours to complete that process. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas last week accused of defrauding investors in his company was once valued at more than $30 billion. He faces an eight count federal indictment in New York, which includes fraud and conspiracy charges.

Argentina has rolled out the red carpet for its football team after winning its third World Cup.

The players returned home just a few hours ago, lifting the trophy as they got off the plane. There's the man himself. They were welcomed by a crowd of supporters with cheers, chants and music.

From there the celebration got even bigger after this bus the player drove to their training center. And along the way they were greeted by thousands of people who lined the streets like a parade route. Keep in mind, this still isn't the main event. In the day ahead the team will hold an even larger celebration in downtown Buenos Aris.

Still ahead, we'll have details of what may be the coldest Christmas in nearly 40 years for millions of Americans.

[04:20:00] Plus, a disgraced former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein could be facing even more years behind bars. We'll tell you about the convictions handed down in a California courtroom this time.

And later, the closest allies. Russian President Vladimir Putin touts his ties with the Belarusian leader. As Ukraine worries that this could mean -- what this could mean actually for the ongoing war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: An arctic blast is expected to bring the coldest Christmas in nearly 40 years for millions of Americans. The big winter storm expected to take shape later today. It could bring heavy snow and strong winds. Both of which could lead to blizzard conditions. Parts of Minnesota are expected to see, quote, life threatening travel conditions. Further west Denver is opening a 24 hour warm warming center in advance of dangerously cold weather. The storm is set to move further east and south and even the sunshine state of Florida could feel the chill.

[04:25:00]

A Los Angeles jury meanwhile has found disgraced former movie producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of three sexual assault charges including rape. But he was acquitted of another charge and the jury couldn't reach a verdict on three others. There were four accusers in all including the wife of California's governor. CNN's Natasha Chen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The jury found Weinstein guilty of the three counts that were related to the first jane doe accuser. Now this case involved four women accusing him of rape and sexual assault charges for a total of seven counts to which he pleaded not guilty. But, again, the jury only found him guilty on those three counts related to the same accuser.

For the second accuser and the fourth accuser, the jury could not come to a decision and those were declared a mistrial. For the third accuser the jury found him not guilty on that sexual assault charge.

Now the fourth accuser over the course of the trial was identified as a Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. The attorney for Jennifer Siebel Newsom released a statement saying in part: While we would have preferred that those jurors found him guilty on all counts, we understand that it was a complex trial made more difficult by the defense team's argument that a woman who was assaulted must forego her chosen career or be accused of consent after the fact.

That attorney also said that you never know how politics may play into things regarding her clients marriage to the California governor.

The attorney for Harvey Weinstein also released a statement specifically referring to this first accuser where he was found guilty on the three counts.

The attorney said: Harvey is obviously disappointed, however hopefully because with this particular accuser there is good ground to appeal based on time and location of alleged events. He's grateful the jury took their time to deliberate on the other counts and he is prepared to continue fighting for his innocence.

Now this Los Angeles jury deliberated for 41 hours. That is far longer than the jury deliberated in New York. In his New York trial where he was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He is appealing that case. And so, what happens in this case becomes very interesting now with these three guilty counts. He could be facing up to 24 years in prison from this trial and the jury is supposed to reconvene tomorrow to hear more arguments about the sentencing and guidelines. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Amber Heard has settled the defamation lawsuit with her ex- husband and fellow actor Johnny Depp. That's according to a statement on her Instagram account. Earlier this year a jury mostly sided with Depp finding that Heard defamed him in an op-ed she wrote for "The Washington Post." She filed an appeal on the case earlier this year -- this month rather -- but in Monday's statement she said they made this decision to settle since she has lost faith in the American legal system. She said her settlement was not an act of concession or admission of guilt. CNN has reached out to representatives for Heard and Depp for comments

Police in New York have arrested a woman they say was caught stealing presents from under Robert De Niro's Christmas tree. She allegedly broke into the actor's home early on Monday whilst he was there with his daughter though they never encountered the alleged thief. A law enforcement source tells CNN the attempted burglary is a consequence of New York's recent bail reforms which is putting many low level offenders back on the streets pretty quickly.

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JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So, it's 2:45 in the morning. This is when I would usually be on the way home. The 19th precinct specialty anticrime unit, the public safety unit is driving around and they seem a woman who seems to be checking the doors of commercial places and they say, is that Shanice?

Because she's supposed to be in jail. She's a known burglar in the precinct. They keep her under surveillance and she goes down some stairs into kind of a townhouse and doesn't come out. When they follow up and look down the stairs, they see there's a forced entry. The window is broken, the door is open.

And there, amidst all the presents and an iPad and other things, is one of the most prolific burglar in the precinct who has broken in, so they take her into custody.

Robert de Niro is upstairs, he's asleep. He doesn't know anything about this till the police wake him up and he hears all this activity. There's other people at home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The 69-year-old De Niro just for classic films like "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," "Meet the Parent," was OK after the incident.

Now nothing but silence so far from Elon Musk after Twitter users voted to oust him as head of the social media platform. The chief twit -- as he calls himself -- said he'd abide by the poll he created asking if he should step down. With more than 17 million votes cast, 57 percent said, yes, he should. 43 percent said no.

Now less than two months as Twitter's boss Musk has brought controversy with every single move it seems, including mass layoffs, botched feature rollouts, silencing journalists and reinstating previously banned accounts. His antics have even affected his other company Tesla which had its stock downgraded on Monday.

Still to come, falling prices at the fuel pump.

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