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White House Faces New Questions Over Additional Docs Found in Biden's Residence; Representative George Santos Defiant as His Voters Speak Out; Interview with Representative Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY) About Fellow Republican George Santos. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 14, 2023 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:04]

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

And we begin this hour with new details about classified documents found inside President Biden's home in Delaware. The White House confirming today that several additional pages of classified material were discovered on Thursday. That's on top of the batch that was found back in November but not publicly announced until this week. Those documents were discovered by Biden's legal team at an office he used after his vice presidency. And in them were top secret files and briefing materials on topics including Ukraine, Iran and the U.K. All of this now at the center of a special counsel investigation.

Let's get right to CNN senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, who is following all of this.

Evan, what more can you tell us about these additional classified documents that were found? Not always a good thing when these kinds of revelations comes out on a Saturday.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Not always when you have to essentially fix a statement that you had just provided a day earlier, Jim. This is partly what the White House is now confronting is that, you know, they have had to now explain multiple times in the past week about the finding of these classified documents. And a lot of it, frankly, they've known about these documents since at least December that there were additional batches of documents btu they chose not to disclose it.

So what we know is that there was an additional five pages of classified documents that they were found in the president's home in Wilmington. That's in addition to one document that they had disclosed just yesterday. And the issue for the White House is that now we're talking about around 20 documents that have been handed over to federal authorities, to the FBI. The U.S. attorney in Chicago, who has been doing a review of this, this all began back in November when they first found the first batch.

And this is now in the hands of a special counsel, Rob Hur, who was appointed by the attorney general just this past week. Now Hur is going to be bringing in a team of prosecutors and lawyers and of course FBI, who are going to try to make sure that everything out there has been found.

And that's part of the issue for the White House, Jim. The issue is, you know, are there still possible other documents out there? Certainly I think that's the concern I've heard from law enforcement officials is that has everything been searched? How do we know that there's not additional documents out there?

I'll read you just a part of what the president's personal attorney, Bob Bower, said to sort of explain why this has come out in drips and drabs. He says, the personal attorneys have attempted to balance the importance of public transparency where appropriate with the established norms and limitations necessary to protect the investigation's integrity.

It should be clear, though, the Justice Department did not tell them not to disclose all of this. As a matter of fact, we learned a lot from the attorney general when he had his press statement on Thursday that the White House had not yet disclosed.

ACOSTA: Interesting. And Evan, has the president's team said whether this is everything? This is it? Or is that kind of hanging out there as a possibility that this may not be it?

PEREZ: Well, that's the issue is that they previously did tell us that they've searched -- they've completed their search. That's the impression we got from that statement was that there is nothing more. It turns out that almost as soon as they said that, they had additional documents that they had not yet accounted for and that had then been turned over to Justice Department officials who accompanied the White House counsel, special counsel, Richard Sauber, who went to Wilmington to hand over these documents.

The issue for the White House is that at some point when Rob Hur has his operation up and running, they're going to want some kind of statement, some kind of attestation that there are no additional documents. This is something that we are seeing play out, by the way, in the parallel and the different separate investigation of former President Trump's handling of classified documents.

They've been trying to get Trump to say for sure that there's no other documents. They want to try to interview the people who did additional searches. And that's been a point of contention in that investigation.

ACOSTA: All right. Evan Perez, thank you very much.

And joining me now, CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe.

Andrew, I guess, first, what's your reaction to this news of additional classified pages found at Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Jim, it's kind of a classic example of the double-edged sword that is transparency. You have to give the Biden team some credit for trying to be transparent with what they're doing with their finding. Clearly they weren't fully transparent at the beginning of this and they're taking some reasonable hits over that. The problem is, every time they turn up another document or someone else turns up another document, that continues to erode their credibility.

[16:05:05]

This is a complicated process of searching every single place the president might have been or his staff might have been or things might have been, you know, delivered or brought to. And they would probably be well-advised to refrain from saying this is it, we've done everything, until they actually have done everything and looked in every cubby hole.

ACOSTA: Right. And one of the things I was asking, I was talking to Bakari Sellers and Joe Walsh about this in the last hour, and one of the two mentioned it probably would be a good idea for the president to come out and talk about this. I suppose that might make good political sense. Does that make good legal sense at this point?

MCCABE: Not at all. Not at all. This is why, in any normal investigation, an attorney would advise the person who's being investigated, don't say anything. Do not discuss the details of this. Don't make predictions. Don't -- you know, don't give out numbers and things of that nature because you're just kind of setting yourself up to be contradicted by the facts later, which is uncomfortable both legally and from a political side.

So that's a tough decision for, you know, the president of the United States is not your average subject of investigation. He has political obligations and an entire country that's kind of watching and following this thing. I can understand why he'd want to provide them with some reassurance. But it's a razor's edge that he's standing on.

ACOSTA: And, Andrew, some new CNN reporting also gives some more context in how these documents were packed up. Sources described to CNN the chaotic final days for Joe Biden when he was vice president back in 2017. Aides scrambling to pack up his work spaces and residence in what they call a muddled and hurried process that left aides packing boxes of documents and papers late into the night.

How much does that matter as the Justice Department tries to figure this out, as the special counsel tries to figure this out?

MCCABE: It matters enormously. And those are the exact sort of facts that the investigators and Rob Hur are going to try to establish right from the beginning. What was the process? Who was involved? When did they do it? What containers did they put things in? How did they seal up those containers? Where were they sent next? That sort of chain of custody approach to try to figure out how we went from the vice president's office to these two locations.

But I think it's important for folks to remember that there's a very different experience of dealing with classified information at the principal level. So heads of agencies, Cabinet secretaries, certainly the vice president. Folks like that have a -- while they're in office, have a need to have access to top secret, sensitive materials 24 hours a day, every day of the year whether they're home, in the office, traveling domestically or abroad.

So they have staff members and security folks that are constantly following them with classified documents and they need those things to be ready for meetings or briefings, that sort of thing. So the opportunity for making mistakes, for any member of that staff or the principal themselves to set a document back in the wrong folder that leads it to be misidentified later and maybe left some place where it shouldn't stay by itself, those opportunities are literally daily when you're in one of those jobs.

I know that from having served as the acting director and head of security detail. So it's conceivable that places where he was, like his residence, might have ended up with classified documents that were there when he had his clearance and his position and remained after that was no longer the case.

ACOSTA: And, Andrew, how does this impact the investigation into the former president Donald Trump's handling of classified documents? Because obviously you have the Trump people coming out and saying, see? Aha. You know, why are we taking it on the chin over what happened down at Mar-a-Lago? Obviously, there are differences between both cases. That is what they are saying. How does this impact the Trump case?

MCCABE: Well, it shouldn't impact the case at all. And with Jack Smith leading that case, as the special counsel, I doubt that any of this Biden stuff is going to impact either the way he approaches that investigation or what he ultimately concludes based on the facts and the law. They are two entirely different, totally unrelated issues. I know it's hard for folks to see him that way. There's certainly a lot of opportunity for politicians to make hay out of the similarities.

But, Jim, what it comes down to is, right now, at this point, and neither investigation has concluded, so we can't be final about it, but we, on the Biden side of things, have absolutely no indication or evidence at this point that any of this possible mishandling was intentional. On the Trump side, you have a lot of evidence and indicators that it was intentional.

[16:10:02]

The most persuasive being the former president's own statements where he talked about thinking that these were his and he declassified them. And he knew he had them and refused to give them back. So very, very different investigations. And I expect they'll come to totally independent conclusions.

ACOSTA: All right. Andrew McCabe, thank you very much.

And joining me now former Republican congressman and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers.

Mr. Chairman, great to see you, as always. Appreciate the time. As a former intelligence guy yourself, what does it say that we now have two presidents, one current, one former, under investigation by the special counsels for how they handled classified documents? And I guess that you can pick up if you want off of what Andrew McCabe was just saying a few moments ago, which is basically, you know, yes, this doesn't look all that great to have these additional documents surfacing on the Biden side of things but that there are differences between the two cases.

MIKE ROGERS (R), FORMER HOUSE INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: Well, I mean, think of -- this is bad for a whole host of reasons, especially now that you have case officers all over the world telling people, no, we'll keep your secrets safe if you cooperate with us. You have to ask yourself question. This goes all the way back to, remember, the Sandy Berger case where he stole documents and walked out of the National Archives. And you had classification on a server under Hillary Clinton. Then you had Trump problem with classified documents in his home.

I mean, there's a bit of a culture problem here we're going to have to fix it. You don't have to be a Republican or a Democrat to get to that conclusion. This is bad. And, you know, right now we're relying on the personal lawyers telling us what it is or what it isn't. One document, Jim, this is what's important about this. One document in the hands of an intelligence professional can cost somebody their life.

You can re-engineer the information on that document. That's why they're classified. When you have documents that are talking about foreign nations, I'm sure that was pretty sensitive, matter of fact my understanding is there's some it's called top secret special compartmented information, meaning the top levels security and concern for those documents. So the first thing we ought to be doing candidly is going and figuring out how much damage was done.

We don't know who had access to these documents. And, you know, people would probably be better off just to stop talking, let this thing play out, get the special counsel. I believe if you did a raid on Mar-a- Lago to look for documents, you're probably going to have to have agents looking for documents in the president's places. They found documents in his library, the Penn Library, which a lot of people had access to that.

So those are the kinds of things we need to get right first. And then we need to kind of reinstate this culture of a secret is a secret for a reason. And you don't have the right to take documents out. There's no library card for that in classified space. I mean, you're not permitted to take that information out of its appropriate area.

ACOSTA: And so if I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying that, you believe that the special counsel handling the Biden case should initiate some kind of search.

ROGERS: Well, here's the problem. Perception is reality in law enforcement. So you have a search going on where his personal lawyers are finding documents and saying no, we found another one. You know, I get a little concerned about the perception of that. It wouldn't take much for them to say, yes, come on in, FBI, you can do this with us. I would be for that. And there really isn't a reason they shouldn't be for that.

I think the president would be bold in coming out and saying they could go in, this was -- nothing was intentional, have at it. Let's secure those documents. If you don't, think about what -- and Jim, listen, the FBI has been under just a massive attack for the perception of them not being -- having their thumb not on the scale of Lady Justice. And my argument is, we've got to get that part right. The public needs to feel that people aren't being treated differently by who is in power. That's been hard to say in these high-profile political investigations in the last few years.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you, Mr. Chairman. When you were the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did this type of situation arise when you were the chair? And what is it -- what is your sense as to why people would want to take classified documents or this kind of top secret documents back to their homes and offices and so on? Is it just a matter of wanting to have a personal keepsake? You know, something that might have a sentimental attachment to it, a particular issue that they worked on, that sort of thing? What do you think?

ROGERS: Yes, I mean, I think it's all of that, Jim. So we had cases where somebody went in and downloaded -- not in the committee but in the community, in the intelligence community. Downloaded a whole bunch of stuff on a thumb drive and snuck it out of this particular facility. And when this was discovered and caught -- and by the way, he's in jail, the answer was, I just wanted a kind of safety valve if somebody accused me of something at work, I had this stash of material.

[16:15:04]

I saw people accidentally walk off the door with things. We were able to retrieve it and get it back and get it fixed, or they accidentally they brought in electronic device into a space which you're not allowed to do. You know, those kinds of things happen but there is malicious intent sometimes. They want to take it out because they want to prove a point, a political point or other. We've seen that. And so when you start putting it all together you don't know until you get there. Sometimes it is. I just want a keepsake. I'm going to stuff it in my shirt.

The Sandy Berger case was he wanted to keep certain bits of information away from investigators that were doing the 9/11 investigation after 2001. And so everybody had their own motive for how they got here or -- and candidly, it is plausible that staff was in the middle of the night throwing stuff in boxes, shouldn't have had access to it at the time either, but they didn't know any better, threw it in boxes, stuffed it up and sent it off somewhere. That is also plausible. But you don't really know until you get to the bottom of it. And somebody is going to have to go through all of that. That's what the special counsel will do.

ACOSTA: All right. Former Congressman Mike Rogers, good to see you again, sir. Thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

ROGERS: Thanks, Jim. ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, what George Santos' own campaign knew

about his deceptions from a study they themselves commissioned. Plus, what the people who voted him into office think of the lies he told to go to Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was fooled by him.

CHARLES STUDNESS, SANTOS VOTER: All these people accusing him, their politicians. They're lying. They're all liars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:55]

ACOSTA: There are new developments involving George Santos, the embattled New York Republican, who says he's lived an honest life despite having lied about nearly every piece of it. The "New York Times" is reporting that back in 2021 as he prepared to make a second run for Congress, Santos gave permission for his campaign to commission a routine background study on him. According to "The Times," some of Mr. Santos' own vendors were so alarmed after seeing the study in late November 2021 that they urged him to drop out of the race and warned that he could risk public humiliation by continuing.

Already at least eight House Republicans in total are now saying Santos must go after he admitted to multiple lies as a candidate, like where he went to school, his work and his religion. He is also under scrutiny for other claims like founding a nonprofit pet charity and having family members who fled the Holocaust.

What do the voters who elected Santos think? CNN's Miguel Marquez went to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Members of your own party are calling for your resignation.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): George Santos, a congressman less than a week, under increasing pressure to step down.

REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): I will not resign.

MARQUEZ: Santos defiant, but the lies, revelations, and questions growing. Many of those who voted for him feel betrayed and want him to go.

TOM GARVEY, SANTOS VOTER: I don't feel that I can trust him to represent myself, my interests, or the Third District.

TOM MAIMONE, SANTOS VOTER: I'm more concerned about him representing to people that of his accomplishments and really not having accomplished or achieved anything that he said he did.

MARQUEZ: The latest concern for his constituents, his campaign money. He poured over $700,000 into his campaign, but there is little indication of where the money came from and concerns as to how it was spent.

SANTOS: I've lived an honest life. I've never been accused of any bad doing.

MARQUEZ: Santos being interviewed today by fellow Republican Matt Gaetz on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast, suggesting he gave his own campaign the money.

SANTOS: It's the equity of my hardworking self and I've invested inside of me.

MARQUEZ: Republican town supervisor Jennifer DeSena endorsed Santos and trusted him. She says he needs to step down.

JENNIFER DESENA, NORTH HEMPSTEAD TOWN SUPERVISOR: I thought that he had -- I thought he had the qualifications, and he seemed so ambitious and successful that I was fooled by him.

MARQUEZ (on-camera): And to know that's all a fabrication?

DESENA: It's shocking. It's shocking. I was hopeful that there would be some explanation, but there was none.

SANTOS: Thank you for having me.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Questions of campaign financing aside, the scope of Santos' lies seemed to touch every part of his existence. Among other things, he lied about being Jewish and that his grandparents survived the Holocaust. He lied about working at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. He even lied about being on a championship volleyball team.

JOSEPH CAIRO JR., CHAIRMAN, NASSAU COUNTY REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE: I'm calling for his immediate resignation.

MARQUEZ: The Nassau County Republican Committee says Santos should resign and that he outright lied to them when he presented his credentials.

CAIRO: We have a standard process that we followed. We trusted people. And we are now going to change our process. Shame on me for being -- for believing people.

MARQUEZ: Despite the lies, some of his supporters say they'd vote for him again.

(On-camera): You voted for George Santos.

STUDNESS: I did.

MARQUEZ: You'd vote for him again?

STUDNESS: I would.

MARQUEZ: Why, after everything you've heard?

STUDNESS: OK, he's bad. But he has admitted that he's lied. And all these people are accusing him, they're politicians. They're lying. They're all liars.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): For those who didn't vote for Santos, deep frustration and resignation that this is the new norm in American politics.

PEGGY WINKELMAN, DID NOT VOTE FOR SANTOS: Very discouraging but not surprising ever since the election of Donald Trump. It's been a total swamp.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Our thanks to Miguel Marquez for that story.

And joining me now, Republican New York Congressman Anthony D'Esposito, who is the first sitting House Republican to call on Santos to resign. His district also neighbors Mr. Santos' district.

[16:25:01]

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it. Let me ask you this. I want to get your reaction to this "New York Times" story that Santos allowed his campaign to do a background check on him. They had all these red flags saying that, you know, he should drop out of the race. He kept going. What was your reaction to that? And, you know, had you heard any of these rumblings that there was all of this checkered stuff in his background?

REP. ANTHONY D'ESPOSITO (R-NY): I didn't. And I know that I have spoken to party leadership here in Nassau County. And we didn't hear about any of those rumblings either.

You know, listen, George has come out again and again and said that, you know, there were things that were made up. He uses the term embellishment. Listen, I was born and raised here on the south shore of Long Island. Embellishment is talking about, you know, going fishing and how big -- making sure that you talk about that your fish is a little bigger. That's an embellishment.

Talking about that your grandparents survived the Holocaust, claiming that you're Jewish, talking about schools that you went to that you never attended, referencing that you had a parent who I think survived 9/11, I mean, these are things that we just can't look past. And I really think that it's created this whirlwind around him that like I've said in previous interviews, it just doesn't seem that he has the ability to move forward and govern.

ACOSTA: But, I mean, how do you force him to resign? He is saying he won't resign. Are you stuck with him?

D'ESPOSITO: Well, I don't know. I guess we'll see how things play out. I think that it's important to know that, you know, here in Nassau County, we came together and we were unified. Every elected official in Nassau County, the county that, you know, he ran from this time in 2022 has said that he should resign. He had run in 2020, when the district was a little different. He came from Queens. Ran again in 2022. And you know, he came to this county and claimed so many things.

And like was referenced in the story before, you know, there were other elected officials that welcomed him with open arms. Communities that we represent. Community leaders, you know, people, rabbis that welcome with open arms because they believed that the fabrications and the lies that he stated. And, you know, they really feel that they've been had. And he's lost and violated the trust of not only the people that voted for him because they voted for a George Santos that is not the real George Santos. So I think that's the issue that we're facing here.

ACOSTA: And let's play a little bit of what Congressman Santos has said about these calls for him to resign. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTOS: I wish well all of their opinions. But I was elected by 142,000 people. Until those same 142,000 people tell me they don't want me, we'll find out in two years. I've worked my entire life. I've lived an honest life. I've never been accused of any bad doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I mean, the part where he says I've lived an honest life, I mean, it sounds like he's incapable of telling the truth. Maybe there's something pathological going on here with the congressman. But, you know, one of the issues at this point, Congressman, is that the new speaker, Kevin McCarthy, is standing by Santos. Do you think it's time to perhaps meet with the speaker? Have you thought about talking to the speaker and saying, something more needs to be done?

D'ESPOSITO: Well, I think that as the time unfolds and investigations unfold, and you know, perhaps the Ethics Committee comes together, you know, all of us, in the Long Island delegation, many of the New York delegation and now, I think as of yesterday, we had calls for resignation from one of our colleagues from Ohio. So the calls for resignation are coming from different parts. Not only New York.

I know that the speaker is doing his best with what he has to deal with right now. And I think that we will get together after next week when we get back to the Hill. I think that we will all get together and we'll figure this out.

ACOSTA: And, Congressman D'Esposito, let me ask you about a different topic, and that is the debt ceiling. The Treasury Department warned in just the last couple of days that the U.S. could call on its debt as soon as June. And, you know, there are some House Republicans in your conference who were talking about perhaps using this as leverage to get some kind of concession or list of concessions out of the White House on spending and so on. What's your thinking on this? And do you have any stomach for the U.S. crashing through the debt ceiling? D'ESPOSITO: No. And I think that, you know, our speaker and our leader

has done just that. He's been leading over the last couple of weeks and he's talked to us individually. He's talked to us as a group.

[16:30:00]

And I know that he's referenced recently, when he had a conversation with the president, about a deal that former Speaker Pelosi and former President Trump had struck two years ago.

So, I think that he's looking to negotiate. I think there's room for compromise. Some of my colleagues don't want to hear that.

If Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump could strike a deal, I think we'll be able to do what's best for the American people and come to an agreement so we don't have our economy crash.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Anthony D'Esposito, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

D'ESPOSITO: Thank you. Stay warm.

ACOSTA: All right. You, as well.

Coming up, new information about a missing mother of three and a chilling death threat she got years ago. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:57]

ACOSTA: Germany is demanded that Russian authorities provide urgent medical attention to jailed Putin critic, Alexei Navalny.

He is said to be in declining health, being held in one of Russia's harshest prisons, being cycled in and out of solitary confinement, and denied medical treatment, according to his wife and attorney.

CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke to his daughter, Dasha, about what he is going through and his refusal to be silenced.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: To another repressive regime now, Russia. Germany today demanded that Russian authorities provide urgent medical attention, in their words, to dissident, Alexei Navalny.

He's said to be in declining, being held in one of Rusia's harshest prisons, being cycled in and out of solitary confinement, and denied medical treatment, according to his wife and attorney.

For more now on what he is going through and his refusal to be silenced, we have his daughter, Dasha.

Dasha, thank you so much for being with us.

First of all, do you know right now what your father's condition is?

DASHA NAVALNAYA, DAUGHTER OF ALEXEI NAVALNY: First of all, I want to say thank you so much, Anderson, for having me. It's a huge honor. Thank you so much for letting the light on the situation that's happening.

My -- I know what's happening and my biggest concern with my dad's situation is his physical health right now.

We know that Russian prisons aren't well equipped for the cold winters. And my father caught the flu. His condition is not good, I will be honest. He has a cough and a fever and he's expectedly to be very exhausted.

They purposefully placed a mentally unstable person in a cell next to him, who screams at night. So, my father isn't even able to get any sleep at night.

The prison officials are refusing to treat him. When my father requested to be placed in a prison hospital, they said it was full of people that might get him infected, however, agreed to take cell mate into the prison hospital, essentially spreading the virus to my dad.

Even before the flu, he had some back problems and he requested to have a move for many times for a long time. Eventually, the doctors saw him once. They supplied him injections of an unknown name and no diagnosis.

We are trying to get him all of the help we can get. And we got a lot of Russian doctors to sign my mother's plea and support the plea for medical care for my dad.

But, yes, his health is my primary concern.

COOPER: In the past, your father has been able to communicate limitedly, through letters or through his attorneys. Has that become more difficult? When were you last able to communicate with him?

NAVALNAYA: The last time I saw him in person was a year and a half ago, for my birthday, September 2021. We talked over the small phone that's in prisons, and the whole movie scene where we leaned our palms against the mirror -- against the glass that separated us.

It looked like we were holding hands. It was very sweet. Of course, not the same as being really in person.

In December, I sent him a letter, talking about my fall quarter and what courses I'm taking in this quarter, winter. I got a reply a couple of days ago. Yes, it's nothing super interesting.

COOPER: What do you think about -- your father went back to Russia knowing -- after he was poisoned and recovered, he went back to Russia, flying in, knowing what he was going back to.

As his daughter -- it's incredibly heroic. It's extraordinary. As his daughter, it's -- what is it like to know that your father, you know, put his life -- has repeatedly put his life on the line for something larger than him or the family, you know, for so many other people?

NAVALNAYA: Right. I'm not going to say that it hasn't been difficult.

I really miss him. I have always been a father's daughter. You know, before -- before this, he would get arrested but no longer for a couple of days or a week.

And this is definitely -- especially when he was first arrested for the first year, it was hard for me to understand that I can't just text or call my dad when I wanted to.

[16:40:01]

But, you know, it's hard, but someone has to do the work that he does. And I'm proud of him for doing it. It makes supporting him that much easier.

COOPER: Dasha, thank you so much. I wish you the best.

NAVALNAYA: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Her father's story has been made into a Sundance award-winning documentary. You can watch "NAVALNY" tonight at 9:00 right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: As the search for a missing Massachusetts woman continues, a newly revealed police report from 2014 shows Ana Walshe told police someone had threatened to kill her and her friend.

Police confirmed Brian Walshe was the person named in the report. It was filed in Washington before the two were married. The case was dropped when Ana Walshe refused to cooperate with prosecutors.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino joins me now.

Gloria, what more are we learning from their past?

[16:45:02]

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, we have been looking at these troubling reports that have emerged over the last few days, as Ana Walshe continues to be missing.

We are gathering more and more evidence, according to law enforcement sources, that are looking into exactly what went on here.

I want to start with just what we know about the case. We know that Ana Walshe was last seen in the early morning hours of January 1st, following a New Year's Eve celebration.

We also know that on the following day, on January 2nd, her husband, Brian Walshe, was seen at a Home Depot buying several hundred-dollars- worth of cleaning supplies.

She was eventually reported missing and police have called off the search.

Now, as we are trying to learn more about the case, I was trying to learn more about Ana Walshe and trying to understand what her disappearance has meant to her community and those who knew her.

I spoke to a former co-worker of hers who said she was a vibrant, ambitious businesswoman who deeply cared about her family and her children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BARDHI, COLLEAGUE OF ANA WALSHE: Radiant, beautiful light in the room. You know those people that walk into the room and you feel their energy, whole-heartedly. That's her in a nutshell, you know. Whatever room she was in, she was lighting it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, Brian Walshe has not been charged with any specifically relation to the disappearance of his wife. But he is in police custody because he misled investigators in reference to this -- his wife going missing following those days when she was last seen.

It's a slow very, very process here. Investigators are gathering the evidence.

We are hoping to get a clearer picture in the next few days about what happened here and whether or not Brian Walshe will be charged with any other crimes.

ACOSTA: What more are investigators finding? What can you tell us?

PAZMINO: Over the last several days, we heard from law enforcement sources they have found evidence at three, key sites.

Including what you are seeing there, the Peabody, Massachusetts, location, a transfer station, where law enforcement sources say they were able to recover a hacksaw, some clothing material, and some blood-stained fabric, as well.

There was also some evidence recovered from the Walshes' home. You are seeing video of the pool is being drained. At the home, they found bloodstains in addition to a broken knife in the basement of that house.

And at Brian Walshe's mother's home, what you're seeing there is the dumpster area. That is also another area where law enforcement investigators are focused. So, how all of this evidence is tied together and whether there is any

DNA link that may possibly connect all of this together is going to be likely determined over the next few days -- Jim?

ACOSTA: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you for staying on top of it. We appreciate it.

Coming up, the outcry over a video of a San Francisco shop owner spraying a homeless woman and telling her to move.

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[16:52:49]

ACOSTA: Frustration with San Francisco's homeless, who are taking up residence on the sidewalks in front of businesses, is boiling over in some parts of that city, with some businesses and those owners taking matters into their own hands.

One was recently filmed spraying a homeless woman with water from a hose.

CNN's Nick Watt reports the video is sparking anger.

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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The person on the sidewalk is homeless, goes by the name Q (ph).

The guy with the garden hose is Collier Gwin, owner of an upscale art and antiques gallery.

COLLIER GWIN, FOSTER-GWIN GALLERY: I find it hard to apologize when we've had no help on this situation.

We called the police. There must be 25 calls on record.

TRENA HAMIDI, CO-OWNER, BARBAROSSA LOUNGE: I was outraged when I saw the video.

WATT: Trena Hamidi co-owns the lounge bar next door. Says this of Q (ph).

HAMIDI: She has caused some trouble. She is mentally ill. And she screams obscenities.

The city needs to take action and do something to give these people support and help that they need, not move them a few blocks away. That's not the solution.

WATT: More than 4,000 people live on San Francisco streets, by latest count, in part, because renting an average one bedroom in this fashionable city now costs $3,000 a month, second only to New York City.

KRISTIE FAIRCHILD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORTH BEACH CITIZENS: The reality is San Francisco is only seven-by-seven, seven miles by seven miles. So there's a need for more housing, and more affordable housing.

WATT: And nearly half of unhoused women in San Francisco experience violence, according to a 2020 study.

FAIRCHILD: I don't think that this is a San Francisco problem. We're seeing this nationally. I think that the passerby that was filming it was bringing to light what's happening every day.

WATT: In this City, businesses have used planters on the sidewalk to keep homeless away.

Neighbors on this street cobbled together over $2,000 through a Facebook group to buy boulders to deter drug dealers and the homeless. The City did take them away.

Even Saint Mary's Cathedral, a house of God, installed sprinklers back in 2015 to prevent the needy from sleeping in her shadow.

Gwin, who right now has this Baroque Italian cabinet on sale for 55 grand in his gallery, also resorting to soaking the inconvenient unhoused.

[16:55:06]

MAYOR LONDON BREED (D-SAN FRANCISCO): As far as I'm concerned, it's assault. And there should be consequences.

We know that people are very frustrated. But this is not the solution.

GWIN: I totally understand what an awful thing that is to do. But I also understand what an awful thing it is to leave her on the street.

WATT: Housing, not hosing, the homeless, just might be a better solution.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Well said, Nick Watt. Thank you so much for that report.

Still ahead, bad news continuing for the Biden administration over the handling of classified documents. The White House revealing more pages, more documents were found today at the president's home in Delaware. The latest next.

You're live on the CNN NEWSROOM.

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