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New Details Emerge on Pence Classified Documents; U.S. Economy Grows; Charges Filed Against Police Officers in Tyre Nichols Case. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 26, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:03]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Fascinating to watch as it plays out.

Again, we cherish the First Amendment. We shall see what happens to it in the months and days ahead.

Thanks for joining us today on INSIDE POLITICS. We will see you tomorrow.

Abby Phillip picks up our coverage right now.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: Hello. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Abby Phillip in Washington.

A major announcement is coming two hours from now in Memphis, Tennessee. The Shelby County district attorney will be giving an update on the Tyre Nichols investigation. Tyre Nichols died three days after a violent confrontation with police. And a source tells CNN that charges will be announced today.

We have now learned at least one of the former officers involved in the Nichols arrest has already been indicted. And that's according to his attorney or, attorney for Emmitt Martin, who says his client has already surrendered. But it is not clear what charges he is facing just yet.

And just in, we have new scanner audio of the incident. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got one male black, running.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Set up a perimeter.

EMERGENCY DISPATCHER: Scorpion car pulled over at the (INAUDIBLE). You have one running on foot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run that tag and see what's the address.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show me (INAUDIBLE)

EMERGENCY DISPATCHER: He's fighting at this time.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIP: By the time that incident ended, Nichols wound up in the hospital in critical condition.

His family has released this disturbing image that you are about to see. And video of that arrest led to this. And we are told it will be released on Friday. The people who have seen the footage describe it as simply horrific.

The Memphis police chief is among them. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CERELYN DAVIS, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, POLICE CHIEF: This is not just a professional failing. This is a failing of basic humanity. This incident was heinous, reckless, and inhumane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So here's what we know.

Five police officers and two members of the city's fire department have been fired since Nichols died. And the attorney for the family is calling for murder charges for those officers.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is leading us off on this really significant story.

Shimon, we are now expecting this video to come tomorrow. But, today, what do you know about this upcoming announcement that's coming in just two hours and the charges that these officers could be facing?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We certainly expect that the charges will be significant against these officers.

We're starting to now get some of the dockets from the -- the documents from the court. So we're still going through that. But it certainly seems that these are going to be very significant charges against the officers.

The officers are now, we believe, behind us at the jail here attached the courthouse behind me. And we're just waiting on word from the court and the jail on their next steps, that they have been released, and what exactly those charges are.

And it does appear that, at this point, they're going to be very significant charges. We expect to hear from the district attorney here in just a few hours, where he's going to update us on the investigation and those charges. It'll be the first time that we really get to hear from investigators here on the evidence in this case, on hopefully what happened, because the investigators just have not said much.

And then, hopefully, we will get some idea of when this video and how it's going to come out. We know that the video is going to come out tomorrow. We have been told that officials here will be releasing it. How they will be re releasing it, we don't know yet.

But these are all very important questions that need to be answered. And, hopefully, we will get those answers later. But this is going to be a very significant day here for the city of Memphis, and certainly for this country, as we see these officers charged following what everyone who has seen the video, has seen what occurred that day has just described inhumane and horrific and just should not obviously have happened, and just how they beat this individual.

And what they did afterwards, significant, in the fact that they failed to render aid. These are the words from officials here. The police chief came out last night and said that she was certainly troubled by what she saw. She used the words inhumane, disturbing.

And so what is happening also here, Abby, is that many of the officials are trying to keep things calm. They are trying as best as they could to keep the community informed about the next steps and about the fact that this video is going to come out and that they should be prepared for, because it is going to be disturbing.

And this is a concern that law enforcement all across the country has, is that a reaction to this video could be violent, and just they're urging people to protest and protest peacefully. And so that's -- these are the next steps.

[13:05:00]

So, we have to significant moments here in this investigation in what happened here. You have the charges that are about to be announced here by the district attorney and then word on when exactly and how this video is going to be released here tomorrow, Abby.

PHILLIP: Yes, Shimon, this will be a really significant day.

But, as you can -- as you have been describing, the wheels of this process are moving very, very quickly. We already have one officer, Emmitt Martin, surrendered on charges that we don't know about yet.

But, Shimon, will get back to you as soon as we get more detail about what those charges are in this case.

But let's continue the conversation for now with Cheryl Dorsey, a retired sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department.

And, Sergeant Dorsey, I want to start with you about the charges that we could see today. The family attorney for Nichols, the young man who died, says they want a murder charge. Do you believe that those charges are coming for some or even all of these officers, potentially?

CHERYL DORSEY, RETIRED LAPD POLICE SERGEANT: Well, based on what's been reported, not everyone was involved in the actual assault on Mr. Nichols that resulted in his death. Some of the officers stood by, what we call acquiescing misconduct.

They did not intervene, as they're required to do. And now we know that they did not render aid. And so I think we need to expect that this video is very bad, based on the way they're prepping everyone. They have already charged one officer. My guess is that's the one that had hands on Mr. Nichols, and we will have to see what happens with the other four.

PHILLIP: All right, and, Sergeant Dorsey, I want you to listen to this message from the police chief.

Or you -- you heard it as we played it earlier in the show. What did you think about how she directly answered this, really speaking directly to the camera and talking to the community?

DORSEY: Well, I think what she is trying to express is her discomfort, her disgust, if you will, with the way their officers -- her officers conducted and comported themselves in the midst of whatever this was, trying to take Mr. Nichols into custody for, what, fleeing from a reckless driving possible infraction?

It just makes no sense. And I believe that she can relate to that black mother, as I can, being the mother of four black men. And so she did the right thing, and she acted swiftly.

PHILLIP: And I think we have Bernarda Villalona with us, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.

Bernarda, I want to ask you about what these officers could be facing and what the prosecutors are weighing here. On the one hand, there's a lot of public interest in this case. They are bracing, potentially, for really explosive reaction from the community.

What are prosecutors weighing, if you were in their shoes, in terms of how to charge this case?

BERNARDA VILLALONA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Abby, here we go again.

And I think this one is going to be one of the worst cases that we have seen since Rodney King. So, what the state prosecutors are weighing at this time is what type of homicide charge to actually charge these five officers. As you know, there are different counts. It could be murder in first degree, murder in the second degree, or it can be manslaughter.

And when we're thinking about the different levels of those homicides, it's to think, what were in the minds of each of those officers when they decided to use their hands and their feet as weapons and beat down that man?

So, that's what the prosecutor is weighing is which charges, to what degree, to present to arrest these five officers. And that's just preliminary, because it could definitely change later on.

That is separate and apart from any federal charges. But we know that the state prosecutor, the county prosecutor is the one that will move first. PHILLIP: One of the big unanswered questions in this case is what

even really prompted this traffic stop to go from a traffic stop into a violent confrontation.

Sergeant Dorsey, can you just take a listen to this statement from one of the attorneys for the Nichols family describing the role that he understands the officers played in the police department? Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO ROMANUCCI, ATTORNEY FOR TYRE NICHOLS: Let's take a step back and understand who these police officers were. They were all young police officers, relatively inexperienced, two years to about five years of experience each.

They were all part of the Scorpion unit.

What are they trying -- to really trying to do? Well, they're trying to find guns and stolen cars, but they wind up stopping innocent people. And they wind up using brute force to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Now, the police department hasn't said exactly what role these officers played. But when you hear that, what does that trigger in your mind? Does it have any bearing on how this confrontation ended in someone's death?

DORSEY: Absolutely.

Listen, I can tell you what I know, having spent 20 years in an LAPD uniform. This Scorpion team is probably very similar to through a special unit that we would have on the LAPD. These are the officers that I call the elephant hunters. These are the hard-chargers. These are the guys that go out and kick A and take names, the ones who do the pretext stops.

[13:10:13]

And so they probably are unsupervised. We know now that they're young on the job. So they're feeling themselves. And we also know that one of the officers was reportedly having been previously sued for some sort of use of force. And so these young officers and others on departments across these United States need to be looked at carefully to make sure that they're not on these specialized units because they want to inflict pain and punishment on people when and if they catch them.

PHILLIP: And, Bernarda, we're expecting this video.

From what we understand, based on everything that's been said publicly by people who have seen it, the video is incredibly illustrative about what transpired. What are you looking for when this video comes out?

VILLALONA: Abby, I'm getting goose bumps just even thinking about imagining what could be in those videos. And the reason I say that is because you haven't seen in the past a

sergeant, a chief come out before the release of a video and calling it heinous. So, that just goes to show you the degree of how violently this man was beaten.

What I'm looking for, I'm looking to see, first off, the faces of the different officers and what each one of them were doing. We know for sure that the person was not -- was unarmed. We know he wasn't fighting back. We know he wasn't a threat. So what other excuse is there?

I think what needs to be happening and I hope what's happening, in order to drive some kind of peace to get through this, is that the prosecutor is starting off with, we have arrested these five former police officers and are charging them with these charges, and here's the video and this is why, and we're looking for accountability to try to bring some kind of peace or calm to this country once this video is released.

PHILLIP: Sergeant Dorsey, there's been a lot of conversation about the race of the officers, as well as the race of the victim. Five of the officers involved here were black.

As you think about the -- let me just pause here for just one second because we are getting some new reporting out of Memphis.

I'm going to go straight to Shimon Prokupecz, who's on the ground there.

Shimon, what can you tell us?

PROKUPECZ: Right.

So, Abby, we're getting our first window into the charges against these offices. We have charges for at least two of the officers. We know five have been charged. They are in the county jail here behind us as they await to be released on bond, but very significant charges on at least two of these officers, officer -- the former Officer Demetrius Haley and Tadarrius Bean.

And they are facing -- at least these two officers are both facing murder charges, similar charges for both, I should say the same, actually, second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping. There are two counts of aggravated kidnapping. And there are at least two counts of official misconduct, so six counts in all for these two officers.

But it is significant, because what they are now facing are second- degree murder charges, the aggravated assault, but also the aggravated kidnapping charges. So these are obviously some very serious charges. As we have been reporting, we're waiting to hear from the district attorney.

But, right now, from everything we are seeing, at least two officers who are charged with murder. This is what the families had asked for. They wanted these officers charged with murder. And it certainly seems that, at the moment, they are getting what they want. We are waiting, obviously, to hear more from officials.

But this is very significant, nonetheless, of course, to see these officers now face these kinds of charges after what occurred here some 20 days ago. And, of course, we're waiting to see that video that has been just described to us as horrific.

And based on how officials have described this video, based on how they have come out really from the beginning, telling us how disturbed they have been by what they have seen, I don't think it should be that surprising or shocking to people that authorities here have decided to pursue these murder charges.

But it is significant any time police officers face these kinds of charges. And it just tells you also how seriously the district attorney here and the authorities here are taking this case.

PHILLIP: All right, the headline here from Shimon -- Shimon, thank you for that report -- is that two of the officers, Demetrius Haley and Tadarrius Bean, charged with a series of charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping and official misconduct.

I want to get some reaction now from Bernarda Villalona.

Bernarda, what do you make of these charges that Shimon just outlined?

[13:15:00]

VILLALONA: Well, when we're talking about murder in the second degree in the state of Tennessee, we're talking about that these two officers, they normally killed another individual.

So, that goes to the mind-set that, when they were acting, they knew exactly what they were doing and they knew that their actions can cause the death of this man. So that's why, preliminarily, they're being charged with murder to second degree.

I believe that we will see an upgrade as to these charges. I think you have to give the prosecutor some more time to do some more investigation, and also got to see, which one of these five officers are going to flip? And that's if the prosecutor wants any of them to flip, because, if there is sufficient evidence, in terms of video, then we don't need the cooperation from any of the five.

PHILLIP: And, Sergeant Dorsey, your reaction to these murder charges, kidnapping charges, aggravated assault charges as well, coming for these officers?

DORSEY: It clearly speaks to the violence that we're going to see when this video is ultimately released on tomorrow.

And I think it also speaks to what I like to refer to as the wolf pack mentality. When you have five officers and, of those five, not one of them had the presence of mind to manage that use of force until the other stop, that's enough.

PHILLIP: And as we have -- we're going to go now back to Shimon, more information coming in from Memphis.

Shimon, what is the latest there?

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

So, now we have a third officer, Desmond Mills, also charged with murder, second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, two counts, official misconduct, official misconduct, and official oppression.

So, we're seeing now three of the five officers who have been charged now being docketed. This is on the court record, being charged with murder, second-degree murder, and also the aggravated assault and the kidnapping charges.

So, again, we're seeing some very significant charges here now at least for three of the five officers. And now we're waiting to get word, Abby, on the other two officers. But this is certainly developing into a very significant, significant day here in Memphis and for law enforcement all across the country that has been waiting for this, waiting for the decision from the district attorney as we wait for tomorrow for this video to come in.

But I don't think we can understate how significant these charges are against these officers and just how seriously this district attorney has been taking this case and what this really means for law enforcement all across the country and this case, and just how serious these charges are.

And, really, what we're seeing here is, as a result of this description that we have been getting from people who have seen this video, just how horrific it is, the actions, the allegations here against these officers, very, very serious. And e will be hearing more here soon, Abby.

PHILLIP: All right, Shimon Prokupecz, thank you for all of that reporting.

Three officers now, we have the charges against them, including second-degree murder for three of the five officers arrested in this case in Memphis.

We will have much more on this breaking news when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:22:25]

PHILLIP: In just minutes from now, President Biden is hitting the road to deliver a speech on the economy. And he's armed with a new measure of the U.S. economy that is stronger than expected.

Matt Egan is joining us now to break down this morning's report.

Matt, yet another number seeming to point to a very resilient economy. What do these numbers tell us? MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Abby, these numbers do point to a

resilient American economy, surprisingly resilient, 2.9 percent annual growth in the fourth quarter for GDP. That is pretty solid, especially given all the gloom and doom out there.

It is a nice rebound from that negative growth that started the year. Digging into the report, we can see that consumer spending, business spending, that slowed down, but it remained positive. Government spending helped out too. The big negative here, of course, was housing. But that is no surprise. That is a reflection of the spike in mortgage rates.

Other numbers out today talk to the strength of the jobs market. Initial jobless claims unexpectedly dropped to the lowest level since April. This is a proxy for layoffs. And this shows that, despite all of these job cuts that we keep hearing about, the jobs market remains pretty strong.

Now, none of this means that risk of a recession is out of the woods. That does still remain a risk. But there is still a good chance of a soft landing. I have talked to the top economist at Goldman Sachs, and he told me that he thinks that a soft landing is not just possible, but it is likely.

But, Abby, here's the one thing. He said all bets are off if Washington ends up really messing up the debt ceiling fight, because if there is a default or a near default, he said that that could actually cause a recession in the economy. So we do need to keep an eye on what's happening with the debt ceiling negotiations.

PHILLIP: Yes, that is a huge if that is looming over Washington right now.

Thank you, Matt Egan, for all of that reporting.

And we also have new exclusive reporting and new details about the contents of the classified documents that were found at Mike Pence's Indiana home. Multiple sources telling CNN that the roughly 12 classified materials found at the former vice president's residence included background materials, briefing memos for his foreign trips.

CNN's Paula Reid is tracking all of this.

So, Paula, this fills in a bit of a gap in the details about what these documents really were. What else do we know?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It's some great reporting, Abby, from our colleague Jamie Gangel, who has learned that threat classified materials are likely part of background briefing materials that the vice president had received in preparation for foreign trips.

Now, as you know, when you go on these trips, you often get materials that include stuff like basic biographical information about the people you're meeting with, but they can also include more sensitive information. And it appears that's what happened here, though there's no indication that any of these materials had the highest levels of classification.

[13:25:18]

And we have also learned that these materials were tucked in a binder. And unless someone went through this binder page by page, it's unlikely that they would have been able to identify this material.

But, Abby, of course, all of this speaks to the larger questions about the handling and inadvertent retention of classified information. I know even former President Trump's lawyers have suggested, look, part of his issue, part of the larger issue is what happens at the end of an administration.

A lot of people have left for new jobs, and the packing process can be a little haphazard.

PHILLIP: Yes, there's clearly something wrong, something broken in how these documents are being tracked and kept out of the reach of people who shouldn't see them.

Paula Reid, thank you for that update.

And we are staying on top of all of the developments out of Memphis, Tennessee. So far, three officers have been charged in the death of Tyre Nichols.

Plus, we have a dramatic scene unfolding in court, as accused killer Alex Murdaugh breaks down in tears during testimony from the prosecution's first witness.

We will take you outside of that courthouse as well.

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