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Senate Intel Leaders Frustrated Over Lack of Access to Documents Probe; New Questions Arise About Congressman Santos' Campaign Loans; Jurors Hear Opening Statements in Murdaugh's Murder Trial; Kyle Wagner Accused of Stealing Car with Woman Inside. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 26, 2023 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you are just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories.
Officials in Memphis will soon release the police body cam footage of the arrest of Tyre Nichols who died several days after a traffic stop. His family is demanding answers after seeing the footage earlier this week. Preliminary autopsy reports say Nichols allegedly died from excessive bleeding caused by a severe beating.
President Biden has announced plans to send 31 Abram tanks to Ukraine to help defend their territory against Russia's invasion.
Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee say they're frustrated by the lack of access to classified documents found in the possession of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Democratic chairman Mark Warner says all things will be on the table to ensure the committee can carry out its oversight responsibilities, but Republican Tom Cotton took aim directly at the Biden administration.
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SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Congress has an absolute right to review these documents to form our own judgment and to make our own assessment of any potential risk to our national security. No one in Congress has received these documents, and whether it's blocking nominees or withholding budgetary fines, Congress will impose pain on the administration until they provide these documents, and that is -- that is coming from both parties.
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NOBILO: This comes as we're learning the FBI was prepared to seek a warrant to search President Biden's home if he didn't consent. CNN's Paula Reid reports.
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PAULA REID, CNN, SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This was unprecedented. The FBI searching the home of a sitting president. Now Biden's team has stressed that they were cooperative. They wanted the search to happen. We've learned that federal investigators were also prepared to seek a warrant if they did not get consent to search the Wilmington property. And they never had to raise that possibility in these discussions because they came to an agreement. About how the FBI would be allowed to search the house, they were given access and allowed to search the entire premises.
But the Justice Department is aware that they need to treat this same case the same way they treat the Trump investigation. The facts are clearly different at this point, but as we heard the Attorney General say earlier this week, they're going to treat everyone equally.
And look, there have been some officials inside the Justice Department who have been frustrated with certain decisions the Biden team has made weeks after the Justice Department told the Biden team, they would be reviewing this case. The president's team searched the Wilmington home but didn't tell the Justice Department. And only did so once they found classified material. A notification wasn't required but the lack of advance notice irritated some justice officials.
And look, we've also heard concerns how the White House was not fully forthcoming. When the public first learned of the story, they confirmed the discovery of documents at the Penn Biden Center but they failed to mention classified documents had also been found in Wilmington. All of this helped to inform them form the decision to appoint a special counsel. And as we have previously reported, more searches are possible as this investigation continues.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
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NOBILO: A new CNN poll shows a vast majority of Americans support the appointment of a special counsel to investigate President Biden's handling of classified documents. 84 percent say they approve, just 16 percent disapprove.
[04:35:02]
But more people are suspicious of how Donald Trump has handled classified documents. 52 percent say they think he's done something illegal compared to 37 percent for President Biden.
A new day is bringing new scrutiny of Republican Congressman George Santos. We've reported extensively on his false claims about his education, career, heritage, many other topics. Now he's facing new questions about how he financed his campaign. CNN's Eva McKend has the details.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Why did you amend your FEC reports to say $500,000 --
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER (voice-over): New questions surrounding Congressman George Santos's campaign finances. REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): Let's make it very clear: I don't amend anything. I don't touch any of my FEC stuff. So, don't be disingenuous and report that I did because you know that every campaign hires fiduciaries.
MCKEND (voice-over): Santos trying to dodge reporters after his campaign filed updated finance reports with federal regulators late Tuesday.
The New York Republican previously claimed he lent his campaign more than $700,000 from his personal funds. Those revisions would appear to indicate most of that loan didn't come from him after all. But he is still listed as a source of the loans elsewhere in his filings, deepening the confusion about the source of the substantial sum.
RAJU: What was the source of your funds, sir? Why can't you divulge the source of the money?
MCKEND (voice-over): In two of the new filings, one related to that loan of $500,000, and one for $125,000. Boxes previously checked indicated they had come from personal funds, were now left unchecked, confounding campaign finance experts.
JORDAN LIBOWITZ, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, CREW: Either this is incredibly sloppy bookkeeping or he's saying this wasn't really his money. And in that case, there's a legal question of whether this is an illegal pass-through contribution, is this an illegal corporate contribution? There are a number of ways he could have pushed money that was not actually his to his campaign, but they aren't illegal.
MCKEND (voice-over): And while it is not unusual to update a campaign finance report, Santos has routinely amended his filings multiple times.
LIBOWITZ: This week, in one very short period, he amended ten filings from -- I believe they were the last ten filings his campaign made. The filings date back to, I believe, April of 2021. So, something clicked and they went back and read at everything.
MCKEND (voice-over): Other pressing questions remain about the dozens of disbursements just under $200, one penny below the threshold above which campaigns are required to retain receipts. And just how Santos acquired so much wealth in such a short amount of time remains a mystery. And something Santos has declined to answer.
REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): It's the equity of my hardworking self that I've invested inside of me.
MCKEND (voice-over): Federal officials have launched an investigation into his findings.
LIBOWITZ: If there's anyone's whose books need to be audited, it's probably George Santos.
MCKEND: In new filings campaign officials listed Thomas Datwyler as the treasurer of several of Santos' committees. But Datwyler's lawyer tell CNN he declined that role and did not authorize the filings made by Santos' team. So, this treasurer they listed on documents says he isn't the treasurer.
Eva McKend, CNN, Washington.
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NOBILO: Gruesome details are recounted in open court as the murder trial of prominent former attorney Alex Murdaugh gets underway. You'll hear some of the opening statements just ahead.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can this Congress do anything?
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: They don't. They absolutely can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think can accomplish --
HARRIS: They have the power to. Can they do something? Yes. Should they do something? Yes. Will they do something? That is where we all must speak up and speak to our elected representatives about what we have a right to expect that they will do for the -- in the interest of the safety, the security and the well-being of people like those whose lives were ended here and people around our country.
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NOBILO: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris chairs there calling on Congress to do more about gun safety to protect all-Americans. She was in California on Wednesday to lay flowers at the site of last weekend's mass shootings in Monterey Park.
FOSTER: Police say they've been unable to find a connection between the suspects and victims. 11 people were killed and 9 more wounded after the suspected gunman opened fire at a dance studio. Police say he wasn't romantically tied to any of the victims and hadn't been to the dance studio for at least five years.
Meanwhile, the suspected gunman accused of a shooting rampage further north in Half Moon Bay, has been charged with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. The 66-year-old suspect Chunli Zhao appeared in court on Wednesday. But his arraignment was postponed until February 16th.
FOSTER: Zhao was expected to enter his plea at that time. Despite happening just days after the massacre in Monterey Park, the district attorney is confidence that the shootings t were not copycat events.
In the first witnesses are expected to testify today in the murder trial of disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh. The high-profile case got underway in South Carolina yesterday with opening statements by both sides. CNN's Randi Kaye has the details.
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CREIGHTON WATERS, PROSECUTOR: The evidence is going to show that neither Paul nor Maggie had any defensive wounds. Neither one of them had any defensive wounds, as if they didn't see a threat coming from their attacker.
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That attacker, says prosecutor Creighton Waters, was Alex Murdaugh as he laid out what he says are the facts of the case in his opening statement. He described the brutal slaying of both Paul and Maggie Murdaugh on the night of June 7, 2021.
WATERS: Picked up that 300-blackout rifle and opened fire on his wife Maggie. Pow, pow. Two shots, abdomen in the leg, and took her down. And after that, there were additional shots, including two shots to the head that again, did catastrophic damage and killed her instant.
KAYE (voice-over): The prosecutor also makes an attempt early on to convince the jury Alex was at the scene when Paul and Maggie were killed, despite him saying he wasn't.
WATERS: At 8:44 and 55 seconds Paul recorded a video.
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And you'll see that video, you'll hear from witnesses that identify Paul's voice, Maggie's voice and Alex's voice. He told anyone who would listen he was never there. At 8:44 and 55 seconds, there's a video. The evidence will show that he was there.
KAYE (voice-over): Murdaugh's defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian opened with this.
DICK HARPOOTLIAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Alex stand up. This is Alex Murdaugh. And Alex was the loving father of Paul and the loving husband of Maggie.
KAYE (voice-over): Then he moved to describe in gruesome terms how Paul Murdaugh died.
HARPOOTLIAN: Literally exploded his head like a watermelon hit with a sledgehammer. All that was left was the front of his face. Everything else was gone. His brain exploded out of his head, hit the ceiling in the shed and dropped to his feet. Horrendous. Horrible.
KAYE (voice-over): The defense said an hour before Paul was killed, he was on the property together. He told the jury, it doesn't make sense that Alex killed his son. He also pointed out that whoever shot Paul would have been covered in blood, given the violent nature of the shooting. Alex Murdaugh was not.
HARPOOTLIAN: His head exploded. You would be covered in blood from head to foot. KAYE (voice-over): Still, the prosecutor did his best to try to place the murder weapon in Alex Murdaugh's hand. He says Maggie was killed with a shotgun Alex had purchased -- a gun that has gone missing.
WATERS: You're going to hear forensic evidence that the cases that were found in that flower bed and the cases that were found across the street at that range were ejected out of the same weapon that fired all the cases that were around Maggie's dead body that killed her. It was a family weapon that killed Maggie Murdaugh.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Walterboro, South Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now a dash cam was rolling during a high-speed chase with the stolen cars owner's wife trapped in a vehicle and got her out safely.
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NOBILO: A woman in Wisconsin who fell asleep in the family car wound up on a very scary ride when her husband stopped at a gas station and stepped out of the vehicle. Another man jumped in and drove off before realizing he was not alone. Michelle Baik from our affiliate WMTV shows us how the police chase and rescue unfolded.
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MICHELLE BAIK, REPORTER, WMTV (voice-over): Shown from three different cameras, this is the 4:00 a.m. chase to find a driver later identified as Kyle Wagner. He's accused of driving away on January 14th in someone else's car. In the back seat was a woman who woke up to the high-speed drive.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Columbia County 911.
BAIK (voice-over): This is her call for help.
VICTIM (voice-over): Hello, I was in a gas station. My husband just get out from the car.
BAIK (voice-over): The victim told the dispatch that she does not know where she is, then he heard her talking with Wagner.
VICTIM: No, no, I'm not trying to do anything because I'm really scared. You know, you should get back.
KYLE WAGNER, SUSPECT: I will.
VICTIM: Please, now.
WAGNER: I will. OK, I'm going back.
VICTIM: No, you are not.
WAGNER: I turned around.
VICTIM: No, no, you are not turning around.
BAIK (voice-over): According to a criminal complaint, the victim said Wagner told her he was a truck driver and there was a conspiracy people wanted to kill them so he was saving her.
VICTIM: Why you take the car from the gas station?
WAGNER: Because they're following us.
VICTIM: Who is following us?
WAGNER: Your husband.
VICTIM: My husband. Of course, it's my car.
BAIK (voice-over): The deputy behind this squad car footage cited in court documents. He details how Wagner drove at about 90 miles an hour and on the wrong side of traffic. That is until a state patrol car used a chase tactic to cause the car to crash into a guardrail. Watch as the car lifted into the air and airbags exploded. The victim came out first from the backseat, crying.
VICTIM: I am scared. I don't know who's this guy. Who is this guy?
BAIK (voice-over): Officers then took the 51-year-old man from New York into custody after admitting he used fentanyl and meth within 24 hours. Wagner now faces multiple felony charges.
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FOSTER: CNN's national security analyst weighed in on the attempted stolen car. She says crimes like this are becoming more common and precaution should be taken.
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JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: We're home more and a lot of these people don't want to encounter people, they just want the property to resell or find out what's in the car. And so, car jackings are increasing and this fluke or coincidence that she's actually in the car, she did exactly -- she kept her calm relatively. She called for help and tried to get out of that situation in the best way she could. So, this is actually a national phenomenon with a twist that we're showing here, which is, of course, someone was in the car.
It is a reminder that when we look at this kind of crime, locked doors, windows up and not leaving people in cars. It's like so fundamentally obvious but nonetheless something that should be reminded.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Well, scientists say the inner core of our planet, meanwhile, could be shifting into reverse, so to speak. The core is a massive rotating ball of iron and nickel.
NOBILO: But researchers in China say it's rotation has almost stopped in recent years and may actually switch directions. They believe that's something that happens once every several decades. But some independent scientists say whatever is happening, no calamity is in the making. Nice to say that sometimes on the news.
FOSTER: We don't stop going the other way around.
NOBILO: Yes, but we won't feel it.
FOSTER: OK. A Japanese telescope capturing something strange in the skies over Hawaii. If you look closely to the left of your screen, you see what appears to be a spinning blue spiral. A number of experts have weighed in saying it's actually the product of a SpaceX launch.
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NOBILO: It can happen when part of a satellite dumps fuel, it generates a trail of exhaust while it's rotating. Similar events have been spotted after other SpaceX launches.
FOSTER: Doesn't look real, does it?
NOBILO: No, it doesn't.
FOSTER: In the NBA the Milwaukee Bucks held off the Denver Nuggets to win on Wednesday night. Milwaukee superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 33 points and 14 rebounds, while Jrue Holiday scored 20 points. The Nuggets were shorthanded opting to rest four of their starters. Final score, Milwaukee 107, Denver 99.
The Golden State Warriors came out on top against the Memphis Grizzlies winning by just two points after Steph Curry was ejected. The score was tied at 120 with just two seconds left in the fourth quarter when Jordan Poole converted an inbound pass into a lay-up leading the Warriors to a victory. The Grizzlies lost their fourth straight game.
NOBILO: It's a good team name, the Grizzlies.
FOSTER: Brilliant.
NOBILO: In the NFL, Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes was listed as a full participant at Wednesday's practice after being side lined last week with an ankle injury. It's the latest sign he will be playing in Sunday's AFC championship game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The winner will play either Philadelphia or San Francisco in next month's Super Bowl. The bangles have won their last three matchups against the Chiefs.
FOSTER: Thank you for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.
NOBILO: I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" is up next right here on CNN.
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