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Michigan Police Find Bodies Of 3 Missing Rappers; Authorities Arrest Man For Stealing Rare Monkeys From Dallas Zoo; Appeals Court Rules People With Domestic Violence Restraining Orders Against Them Can Have Guns; FBI Interviews Veterans Accusing Santos Of Stealing Funds For Sick Dog. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired February 03, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:33:17]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: After days of concern and confusion, police have now made an arrest in connection with those two monkeys stolen from the Dallas Zoo.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: The pair of Emperor Tamarin Monkeys were found in the closet of an abandoned home. Officials say they were unharmed and healthy.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is inside the Dallas Zoo next to some of the enclosures that were cut.

Ed, what have you learned?

BLACKWELL: All right

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BLACKWELL: A bit of an audio issue. We'll get back to Ed as soon as we fix that.

Let's go to Michigan where Michigan state police confirm the bodies of a trio of missing rappers have been found.

BLACKWELL: Artists, Montoya Givens, Dante Wicker and Armani Kelly, were reported missing January 21st, the same night all three were set to perform at a local club.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is here.

Brynn, what have you learned about what happened?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michigan state police giving the update moments ago that these are, in fact, the missing rap artists they've been looking for, for two weeks now.

This will probably provide a lot of closure for some families. It was the mother of Armani Kelly who notified police. Basically, used OnStar to track her son's whereabouts. He basically vanished.

She said she wanted to know what happened. She just wanted some closure.

Again, police identifying those three gentlemen as three individuals found in an abandoned building not too long ago. And there were autopsies conducted. And again, now they have made that identification.

As I said, they went missing about two weeks ago. They were expected to perform at a local venue in Detroit. That event got cancelled.

[14:35:02]

Then, all of a sudden, according to police, their electronics basically just went silent for the three of them.

And there was this really search for them for several weeks, much spearheaded by the family members there.

Again, this is just a sad report to say these are the three gentlemen that -- again, as I said, these family members talking to local affiliates and saying they wanted to know what happened. They want closure and now they can begin the process.

(CROSSTALK)

GINGRAS: It's unclear what happened. They're still trying to figure it out. Details that part of the investigation.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Brynn.

Let's go back now to Ed Lavandera inside the Dallas Zoo. We fixed the audio issue. He's next to some enclosures that were cut.

What do you know about the investigation?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this morning, Dallas police announced that a 24-year-old man by the name of Davion Irvin was arrested in connection and charged with six counts of animal cruelty.

In connection with two tamarin monkeys stolen from the Dallas Zoo earlier this week. They were found safely in an abandoned house south of here.

But this is where the mystery to all of this started several weeks ago. This is the habitat for langers, which are kind of an ape species. You can see them. They were around here a second ago, Victor and Alisyn. There's four of them kind of jumping around the enclosure.

Several weeks ago, zoo officials noticed that this area had been cut. This wire mesh had been cut. The langers did not escape from this facility.

The, you remember several weeks ago you heard the news of the Clouded Leopard that escaped. And that is just a habitat two down from where these langers are. We'll show you that in a second.

This was the area that was cut. And the Clouded Leopard did escape from here. That was back on January 13th.

And it became clear, zoo officials say, this was something that was a deliberate, an intentional act.

And the leopards cannot be seen now. That's the way live television works. But it is cold. They're kind of hiding away.

But that leopard was found later that same day just on the other side of that fence. Didn't actually get far away from all of this.

But then, several weeks later, on the other side of the zoo, there was a rare vulture that died and they found that it was intentionally wounded. Killed essentially.

Then earlier this week, those tamarin monkeys disappeared and they were found just the next day.

So all of this is a mystery that has really worried and troubled zoo officials here. They've tried to figure out exactly why they've been targeted in this way.

And what zoo officials want to know, is this the work of one person or something much more sinister and part of a bigger plot? We don't know the answers right now.

But right now, we do know that one suspect is in custody -- Victor and Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Really mysterious.

Ed Lavandera, thank you.

BLACKWELL: An appeals court has ruled it's unconstitutional to keep guns out of the hands of people who have restraining orders against them for domestic violence. We have details ahead.

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[14:42:21]

CAMEROTA: A conservative-leaning federal appeals court ruled that people who have domestic violence restraining orders against them can still possess gun.

BLACKWELL: The court agreed with the challenge that the federal law banning that group of people from owning weapons is unconstitutional.

CNN Supreme Court reporter, Ariane De Vogue, is here to break down the ruling.

Explain this for us.

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: First of all, that is a very conservative federal appeals court and it's made more conservative because of former President Trump's nominees.

As you said, what the court did is it validated this law that blocked a person under a restraining order for domestic violence from possessing a handgun.

But here's what was really critical. They based their entire opinion on a landmark opinion that we had at the Supreme Court last term.

Ad in that opinion, the justices basically told lower courts they had to change the framework about how they evaluate gun regulations. They said, going forward, they had to look toward America's history and American tradition when seeing if a law passes muster.

So this federal appeals court looked at this law and said the government hasn't shown that it's based in history and tradition and they invalidated it.

And Attorney General Merrick Garland was quick to react to this. He issued statement and he said he was going to appeal.

And he said, "Nearly 30 years ago, Congress determined that a person who is subject to a court order restraining him or her from threatening and intimating partner or child cannot lawfully possess a firearm."

"Whether analyzed through the lens on the Supreme Court precedent or the tradition of the 2nd Amendment, that statute is constitutional."

Now he's got to appeal. And he has a couple of choices. Either he goes back to a bigger number of judges on this very conservative federal appeals court, or he might have better luck going straight to the Supreme Court.

And that's a quandary for this court. They recently visited the 2nd Amendment. They usually like to have things percolate. And now they might be drawn in again sooner than they may have liked.

CAMEROTA: Really interesting.

Ariane De Vogue, thank you.

[14:44:36]

BLACKWELL: The Pentagon is tracking a Chinese spy balloon flying in U.S. Air space. This is further straining tensions between the two nations and has prompted Secretary of State Tony Blinken to postpone his trip to Beijing.

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CAMEROTA: Federal investigators are looking into whether Congressman George Santos stole money that was supposed to pay for a veteran's sick dog to get surgery. The FBI has spoken to that veteran, Richard Osthoff.

This is just one of multiple investigation into the truth-challenged New York lawmaker. Santos claims he's not worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you concerned about the FBI investigation?

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

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you spoken to the FBI?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. Santos, you're facing a federal investigation. This is very serious. Can you explain to your voters and your constituents what happened with this veteran, the conversations that you had with him?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:50:01]

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is that veteran, Rich Osthoff, and the president of the New Jersey Veteran's Network, Michael Boll, who tried to help get the money back for Rich's dog, Sapphire.

Gentlemen, it's great to have you on. I've watched every one of your appearances.

I know, Rich, you don't love speaking out like this, on TV. It's not what you were ever looking for. But you have gotten results.

How satisfying is it that the FBI is on this case?

RICHARD OSTHOFF, VETERAN: It feels much better. When this first started and the argument first went down with George Santos, he tried to gaslight me and said he wasn't provided the funds for my dog because of my attitude. He tried to make me feel like I was at fault.

For a long time, especially when I was watching the dog die, I thought I should have treated him with kid gloves a little better.

I didn't think it was prosecutable until I heard from the FBI. Now that they're looking into it and they're willing to do something, it made me feel better. Pulled me out of a hole I've been in for six years.

CAMEROTA: I'm so happy to hear that.

When you hear that moment where our correspondent, Manu Raju, has the microphone and is saying, what happened with you and that veteran, and George Santos can't answer. Why is that? Why can't he give a response?

OSTHOFF: Because he knows he's guilty. He might feel ashamed. If I felt ashamed about something, I wouldn't want to talk to anybody about it.

CAMEROTA: He set up this GoFundMe in 2016. He had this charity called Friends of Pets United. Do you know if he's suspected of doing this to anybody else?

OSTHOFF: Not 100% sure, but I would put money on that he has. It seemed too well scripted and rehearsed, what he did to me. Obviously, to me, he did it before.

CAMEROTA: Can you give us an example, Rich, of that? What did he say to you?

OSTHOFF: He was very convincing. I didn't even notice -- I never talked to him in person until the money had already been raised. We went through a third person. That was his way of keeping me at arm's length.

I just lost it. I'm sorry.

CAMEROTA: That's all right. I wanted to know how smooth he was. You said he sounded rehearsed.

OSTHOFF: He did.

CAMEROTA: When you finally talked to him, what was the bill of goods he was selling?

OSTHOFF: He was really, really, really upbeat about everything, almost too nice. And he didn't seem like he was that interested in what I was saying.

He didn't want to answer any questions or respond to anything I said to him. He had a script and he was sticking to it.

I remember specifically one part of that script he said something along the lines of I've saved cats, dogs, horses. I had seven baby cut jumping goats in my car at one time.

I saw him the other day when I was on CNN saying the exact same thing on a taped interview. It was word for word what he said to me six years ago.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting.

Here's what he tweeted about this. He says:

"The reports I would let a dog die is shocking and insane. My work in animal advocacy was the labor of love and hard work. Over the last 24 hours, I've received pictures of dogs I helped rescue throughout the years along with supportive messages. These distractions won't stop me."

That's the most recent thing he said on twitter on January 19th.

What's your response to that, Rich?

OSTHOFF: January 19th was the day my story broke. That was the last time he said anything about people sending him pictures of dogs and things like that. I haven't seen a single picture of him with dogs posted or anything. He's -- he's being deceptive again. He's making things up. It's par

for the course for a lifetime liar.

CAMEROTA: Michael, at one time, you tried to intervene when you knew that Sapphire wasn't getting the money. Sapphire is Rich's dog. That Sapphire needed surgery and wasn't getting the money.

You tried to intervene and you spoke to George Santos. What was the conversation like from one charity head to another?

MICHAEL BOLL, PRESIDENT, NEW JERSEY VETERAN'S NETWORK: I honestly thought it was a minor mishap. I was expecting to get some closure immediately. I've never thought a charity would try to deceive a veteran or a person with a dog that needed medical care.

I called him saying, hey, this is probably a mistake. Let's work this out.

I was shocked. I couldn't believe that this man did not want to help a veteran with a dying dog. It was disgusting. It was hurtful.

I had to call Richard back and tell him. It hurt me to do that since I've been with Richard for such a long period of time.

CAMEROTA: Rich, you've been so candid during all this about the emotional depth you sank to after this. Your dog died sadly. You felt as though you were ripped off by George Santos.

[14:55:08]

And you were homeless at the time. I think living in a tent. How are you now?

OSTHOFF: I'm doing much better. I have a really, really good close friend who -- I'm living in his house, a rental property of his. He also employs me. I've been in that place for almost five years now.

I currently have two dogs. Another dog was given to me three weeks after Sapphire died because I was in such dire straits. A former Naval buddy of mine. And he knew I needed a dog in my life.

That rescue was in Virginia Beach. I'm in New Jersey. Within three weeks, they had a ride for the dog to come with me.

I had her maybe two years. I noticed, when I left her alone to go to work, she had bad separation anxiety. She would chew on my doorknobs. I had to get another dog to keep her company when I wasn't home.

I got another dog. She wasn't from a shelter. She was from a family that had to give their dog up because of rules of where they lived. I intervened and took her before she wound up in a shelter.

The funny thing is, the first pit pull I had was Emerald. The second was Sapphire. These two were named Ruby and Diamond before I adopted them.

CAMEROTA: OK, that is a sign.

I'm so glad to hear that, Rich. People have been concerned about you. We know, this story is not over. In some ways, it's just starting.

We'll speak to you again.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Yes.

OSTOHOFF: I'm sorry. Howard Stern mentioned me on the air and Howard's wife is very involved with animal rescue. She set something up with North Shore Animal League to get me another dog I can have trained as a service dog.

When I called them, they were going to waive adoption fees and pay for lifetime veterinary care and give me a reduced veterinary care for my two dogs. These are getting good.

My heart is exploding with the love everyone is sending me.

CAMEROTA: I'm so happy to hear that, Rich. I'm so happy, as is everybody watching will be as well.

We'll talk to you again.

Michael, Richard, thank you both for talking to us.

BOLL: Thank you.

OSTHOFF: Thanks for having us.

BOLL: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: At one point, he had lost his faith in humanity. And now it's being revealed.

CAMEROTA: I'm so happy.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

Millions of people across the northeast are bracing for life- threatening cold temperatures. Some places could see windchills 40 degrees below zero. Find out if you are going to need to bundle up this weekend.

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