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FTX CEO Expected in Court; U.S. Economy Grows in Third Quarter; Migrants Line Up at Border; David Leopold is Interviewed about Immigration; Astronauts on 7-Hour Spacewalk. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 22, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a reckoning today for the founder of crypto trading platform FTX, as well as those connected to the fraud scheme - alleged fraud scheme that led to its epic collapse. Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to be arraigned in a New York court today, this after he was extradited back to the U.S. from the Bahamas overnight.

Plus, and this is key, two of Bankman-Fried's former top lieutenants have now pleaded guilty to multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud and are cooperating with investigators. Investigators say their probe into all of this is ongoing.

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DAMIAN WILLIAMS, U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Let me reiterate a call that I made last week. If you participated in misconduct at FTX or Alameda, now is the time to get ahead of it. We are moving quickly and our patience is not eternal.

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SCIUTTO: CNN's Kara Scannell is outside the U.S. district court for the Southern District of New York.

So, Kara, you know, especially given that two of his close colleagues have now pleaded guilty and are cooperating, what's next for Sam Bankman-Fried?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, that is a significant development that two of those insiders, Gary Wang, who co-founded FTX with Bankman-Fried, and Caroline Ellison, who is the former CEO of Alameda, that hedge fund that prosecutors say is intertwined with this fraud. Now, their cooperation means that they are going to tell prosecutors everything that happened. They'll be the insiders that can explain this alleged fraud to both prosecutors and potentially to a jury. So that really amps up the pressure that Bankman-Fried is under.

He had waived extradition in the Bahamas. And the prosecutors announced the cooperation of those two insiders as he was in the air, flying to the U.S., to face these charges. He landed last night. He is already inside the courthouse behind me. He will appear before a judge this morning.

And there the judge will, you know, he'll face the charges, these eight criminal counts of wire fraud and conspiracy, counts that the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damion Williams, has called one of the biggest financial frauds in American history. Now, before the judge today, he may ask him to enter a plea, arraign him on those charges.

And also they'll discuss bail. Now, sources tell me that prosecutors and Bankman-Fried's attorneys are discussing a package that could allow him to walk out those doors behind me later today.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Kara Scannell, thank you for covering.

Well, amid still rising inflation, as well as still rising interest rates, new numbers show the U.S. economy had an even stronger performance than previously thought in the third quarter.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins me now.

And, Christine, there's always good news and bad news. It's nice to see that the economy is still growing strongly, and even more than we knew in the third quarter.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

SCIUTTO: But then, of course, folks start to think about the next thing. They're like, well, maybe they've got to raise interest rates more.

ROMANS: Well, let's just look at this quarterly picture, Jim, because this is a strong quarter by any measure.

[09:35:00]

Any economy growing 3.2 percent over that three month period, that is a nice performance. And you can see that that is, in the third quarter, decisively shaking off that malaise that we had heard about earlier in the year, those two quarters of slightly negative GDP growth. So this third quarter number first was 2.6 percent, then the government revised it to 2.9 percent. And now, going back and looking at all of the data available, says, no, it was a 3.2 percent growth in the quarter driven by exports and driven by consumer spending.

One economist I follow sending a note out to clients saying, you know, look, if there's a recession - if we're staring down the barrel of a recession, this economy doesn't know it because this is not a recession looking economy by any stretch of the imagination.

The only place you can see all of that Fed - the Fed interest rate hikes affecting our housing, so new housing investment was down in the quarter. That actually held that number back a little bit. And then I hook at initial jobless claims. As you know, these are

numbers we look at every week, tell us how many people for the first time have filed for jobless benefits, still very low. That number, 216,000. For perspective, Jim, in 2019, before the pandemic, the average weekly was 218,000. So, these are pre-pandemic lows, near historic lows for how many people are being laid off. You're hearing a lot about tech layoffs.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: A reminder, tech is like 7 percent or 8 percent of the overall job market.

SCIUTTO: Yes, that's a thing. When you look at the big picture numbers, the job market is still pretty strong. Well, we'll keep on top of it.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: There seems like there's news every day.

Christine Romans, thanks very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, El Paso is now rushing to shelter a surge of migrants at the southern border as legal wrangling creates more uncertainty. Look at all those beds.

And an Arctic blast brings dangerously cold weather to large parts of the country. CNN will be live at the border coming up.

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SCIUTTO: At the U.S.-Mexico border right now, migrants are braving not just uncertainty in the long lines but the cold as cities struggle to deal with an influx of people with this massive weather system as well.

This is a look inside a convention center in El Paso where hundreds of Red Cross cots have now been set up to shelter some of those incoming migrants. And while the city works to help take them in, the governor of Texas is touting what he's doing to keep them out. That includes new fencing, which the governor says is part of what will be, quote, a blockade in his words.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in El Paso.

Ed, so, I mean, first, you've got numbers there. You've got lousy weather. You've got uncertainty about what's going to happen to Title 42 and for how long. What's it like for these migrants there but also for the folks responding to this?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a great deal of strain and pressure on all of the people here in El Paso, providing humanitarian relief to the thousands of migrants that have crossed into the United States and have been processed by border patrol agents. As you mentioned there, city officials opening up the convention center. Hundreds of cots inside. But still, despite that, we saw just a -- in the last few hours that there were several dozen migrants still sleeping on the grounds around the bus stations here in downtown El Paso.

There's several reasons for that and a lot of it has to do with -- a lot of times the migrants have been very weary of leaving the bus areas, especially if they're with family units because they've been separated and people get released from border patrol at different times. So these bus stations have really become kind of a congregating point and a reunification point for a lot of these families.

But the city officials here still very concerned about the possibility of Title 42 being lifted and the anticipation of thousands more migrants arriving here in El Paso. City officials say that the humanitarian efforts are ramping up, but that it is really not sustainable for a long period of time.

We were at the border wall yesterday. You talk there in the lead in about the governor of Texas describing the National Guard efforts and the razor wire which is about a mile long there along the border as a blockade. I can tell you that it is far from being anything like a blockade. All of the migrants have done now is moved a little bit further down the river and are now lining up at a gate along the border wall, turning themselves in to Border Patrol. And Border Patrol takes them in, about 15 to 20 at a time, and then they begin the process.

That does not mean that all of these people coming in are staying. In fact, we know that thousands of migrants have been moved to other parts of the border to be processed. In the last week, just from the El Paso area along, Jim, 3,400 migrants have been expelled from the U.S. under Title 42. So, all of that processing continues in anticipation of Title 42 ending.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Ed Lavandera, in El Paso, thanks very much.

We're joined now by David Leopold. He's an immigration law expert, as well as an advocate for reform.

David, good to have you on.

DAVID LEOPOLD, CHAIR OF IMMIGRATION LAW, ULMER & BERNE: Good morning, Jim. How are you?

SCIUTTO: Good.

So, first of all, very basic question. We see these numbers. And this has been going on for years now. What happens to these folks when they apply for asylum? How many come into the country and how long do they typically have to wait? LEOPOLD: Well, look, we have a process. And certainly, Jim, 20,000

people plus at the border waiting to come in and coming in is a problem and it's a problem that's got to be solved.

But, you know, Title 42, which Ed just reported on, and other fixes like that are band-aids. What we need, Jim, is for Congress to sit down and do the hard work of fixing the immigration system. And it's something that the American public is demanding.

SCIUTTO: So, let's talk about those fixes because you don't - you don't really have any political will or sufficient political will, I should say, in either party to do it.

[09:45:08]

What would it take to -- for one, accelerate the time lines, because some of these folks that apply for asylum, and because there are so many of them and not enough judges and courtrooms, right, to adjudicate, they wait months, years to have their cases heard and are waiting in the U.S., in many cases, while - while they're waiting for that decision.

LEOPOLD: Well, look, again, that goes along with fixing the system. And, unfortunately, over the last decade or so there have been - there have been bills in Congress. I think most recently in 2013. And you mentioned the courtrooms and how long it takes to get an asylum hearing.

And what we're looking for, and what - I think what the American people are demanding is an end to the chaos at the border and order and an efficient due process system. So, unfortunately, they're - and I'm just going to call it as I see it, Jim, the Republican Party, for the last decade plus, has blocked creative, intelligence solutions that the American people demand. And I think that's what we've got to get to. You know, all this talk of, you know, we've got serious problems. We've got serious problems at the border. And Americans demand and deserve and we all need border security. But to get there, we need to sit down and do the hard work of fixing a broken and badly outdated system.

SCIUTTO: Now, I know that there aren't the Republican votes, for instance, in the Senate, the ten you would need to get - to get to 60. But the fact is, Democrats have both chambers. They have the White House. They've had opportunities at least to get to the negotiating table. Is there a tradeoff here where, for instance, you could get more resources, more judges to hear these cases, process more quickly, but also more security at the border, which is a priority for Republicans, but also, frankly, Democrats who live in those border states?

LEOPOLD: Absolutely. I don't know anybody on any side of this issue that isn't absolutely concerned about border security and about the sovereignty of our country. This issue can be solved. You know, America -- America does great things, right? We - we rebuilt Europe after World War II. We've sent people to the moon. We just do great things around the world. We can solve this problem. We're not talking - you know, I heard - I was so moved by President -

Ukraine President Zelenskyy last night.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

LEOPOLD: And je talked in very, very potent terms about what an invasion really is. And I hope the Republicans in Congress were listening because when they use that term and they use other incendiary, hateful terms like invasion, they're not getting to the answer. And the answer is hard work and creating a system that is orderly, that is fair, and that respects due process. We can do this. We can - we can hear asylum claims, we can be fair, but we can protect American jobs and American workers.

SCIUTTO: Final question. The Supreme Court now injected itself into this. What is the potential outcome from that on Title 42 specifically? Can the Supreme Court extend that, in effect overrule the president?

LEOPOLD: Well, they can certainly - they can certainly keep the stay. Meaning, they can certainly keep Title 42. That's the health statute that's been cynically used to keep out any - to keep out asylum seekers. They can keep that in place temporarily. But, ultimately, no matter what the Supreme Court does, Jim, we need Congress to come back and fix this because ultimately Title 42 is not an immigration statute.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

LEOPOLD: Steve Miller and Donald Trump used it in a way that blocks immigration. It's a health statute.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

LEOPOLD: So we need Congress to give us a real immigration policy that we can work with going forward into the 21st century.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll see if there's political will.

David Leopold, thanks so much for coming on.

LEOPOLD: Thanks, Jim. Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, a normal day at the office looks a little different for these two NASA astronauts. They're on a space walk right now. The danger though that caused a delay and the job they've got to do out there. Man, that's the earth floating beneath them. The job they have to do out there, next.

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SCIUTTO: All right, so, right now, miles above us, this is live, two NASA astronauts are on a seven hour spacewalk at the International Space Station. That's the earth floating down there below them. They're installing a solar array to increase the station's electrical power.

CNN's Kristin Fisher with us now.

So, Kristin, it was actually supposed to happen yesterday, but there was some danger. What was the danger?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so there was a piece of debris from an old Russian rocket body that was getting way too close to the Space Station for comfort.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

FISHER: And, you know, it sounds really dangerous, and it is. This piece of debris was going to be getting about less than a quarter of a mile away from the Space Station. But it has happened repeatedly this year, especially after that Russian test of an anti-satellite weapon back in November of 2021. So, NASA postponed the spacewalk that you're seeing now until today and successfully maneuvered that Space Station away from that debris.

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But just look at these live images. Just crystal clear and sharp. And what you're seeing are NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Josh Cassada installing a roll out solar array, which is going to provide some more power to the International Space Station. So, we're getting a treat with all these live images this morning.

SCIUTTO: Yes, you don't want to forget the right wrench when you're out there in those.

FISHER: Right.

SCIUTTO: You're like, damn it.

All right, so another mission is the inside lander on the surface of Mars. I was watching its Twitter feed saying, hey, my battery's going low.

FISHER: I know.

SCIUTTO: It's going - it's like you're saying good-bye to an old friend that's been up there a long time.

FISHER: People really mourning the loss of this little rover.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

FISHER: It's been up there for more than four years. But don't feel too bad for this rover because he or she or I guess I should say it has -- was only supposed to be up there for two years. I made it four years. It made some incredible scientific discoveries. Measured the first earthquakes on Mars. And it just hit the end of its lifespan. So, it did a great job. It did what it was sent up there to do. But that martin dust just proved to be too powerful for it and its batteries shut off. So, good-bye, and thank you for a job well done. SCIUTTO: A job well done. Exactly.

Kristin Fisher, thanks so much.

Still ahead, it is forecast to be a once in a generation winter storm bringing life-threatening low temperatures to areas across the U.S. Holiday flights already being upended. Which areas are being hit hardest today. You'll need to know. That's coming up next.

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