Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Former NY Attorney: Many "Pieces Of Evidence" Exist To Charge Trump; Ukrainian Troops Begin Training On Leopard Tanks; GOP Rep. Santos Accused Of Sexual Harassment; Pentagon: Delay In Shooting Down Balloon Will Be "Well Worth Its Value" In Intelligence Collected Against China; Beyonce Wins Most Grammy Awards Of Any Artist In History. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired February 06, 2023 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: He doesn't really talk about Cyrus Vance, the former district attorney, who had the case going back to 2019.
If there was such a groundswell of support for charging it, why didn't they do it back then? So there's a lot of blame to go around here.
Two, a really important point here is that, if you read the book, there wasn't clear consensus, I believe, in the office as to whether to charge. Certainly Pomerantz and one of his colleagues felt strongly the charges should have proceeded but there were others in the office who didn't.
So, you know, I don't think it's a difference of two people's opinion. I think it was a complicated decision that this office was grappling with and that one of the very senior and, frankly, very accomplished attorneys just doesn't agree with the decision that got made.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: Yes. It does seem like the bar in order to obtain a conviction of a former president needs to be ironclad evidence.
But the current Manhattan D.A., at the moment, seems to be much more focused and interested in Trump's alleged role in these hush money payments that were made to Stormy Daniels.
Now, I guess the question is, could that just be an easier case to prove and, if it is, why?
WILLIAMS: Yes, and no. To some extent it's an easier case to prove. Because you have more witnesses. Number one, you have Stormy Daniels, who would likely come forward to testify.
Number two, Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer and former fixer. The challenge with Michael Cohen, he has a perjury conviction and he's sort of a, for lack of a better term, "dirty witness," and he would get beaten up.
What you have in the Stormy Daniels case is a number of checks that were signed, hush payments, I believe with the former president himself. You have some evidence tying him to the actual crime that might have been more complicated in a vast real estate valuation scheme.
But it's hard to know if none of us have seen sort of the case files that all these prosecutors have. It's hard to know exactly why one case is -- seems to be moving forward and one isn't.
PHILLIP: It's a fascinating dispute playing out in public. Not very typical to see something like that happen.
Elliot Williams, thank you.
WILLIAMS: Thank you.
PHILLIP: Still to come, Ukrainian soldiers start to train on German- made Leopard tanks and CNN gets a closeup look at what those weapons can do. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:36:58]
PHILLIP: Ukraine's defense minister says training has begun on those German-made Leopard tanks we've been telling you about. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy spent months trying to wrangle this military equipment from Western allies.
And it could be an important step for Ukrainian troops as officials warn that Russia is likely preparing a major offensive.
CNN's Nic Robertson is near the army base in Estonia where this training is taking place.
Nic, how soon could the tanks make their way to the front lines? How long will the training take?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I think the training is going to be shortened as much as possible because the Ukrainians are desperate to get them to the front lines.
But I've been speaking with the tank crews from the Danish Leopard II tanks. The Danish government hasn't decided if it's going to send Leopard II tanks, along with the Germans doing it, the Portuguese and others. The Polish as well. But they all train very much in a similar way.
And what this tank commander was telling us is, it takes about two weeks to get a crew ready to move the vehicle around. It takes about two months to get them sort of familiar enough to really use it effectively in battle, not get it blown up quickly.
But to actually use it with other tanks on an operation with infantry, which is what the Ukrainians want to do, punch through the Russian lines, seize territory. That's going to take a lot longer. I think, realistically, by mid-
summer, you can expect to see these tanks being used somewhat effectively by the Ukrainian forces.
Perhaps by the -- by fall, being able to put together big attacks. That's a bit of a stretch from where we stand at the moment.
But they know when they get these tanks in their hands, they have greater maneuverability, fire capability. They fire further, fire faster, which means they're more destructive.
And they can maneuver on the battlefield better and fight at night and shoot at one target while hunting another target. All of these things make them more effective.
And from what we've seen here in the forests here, these huge beasts, 60 tons, move with really lightning speed, racing around the forest here.
Right now, I can tell you, they're hiding in the forest because part of the military exercise tonight is that the French commandos are going to try to find the Danish Leopard II tanks.
And that's another skill set that the Ukrainians will learn, how to hide these huge pieces of military equipment in the forest so they can't be spotted by drones or thermal imaging.
A lot to learn. They're big pieces of kit, high tech, but a lot of important things they need to understand about them.
PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, so much political effort globally expended on getting those tanks to the Ukrainians because of how important it is, they believe, for them to make an effort, an offensive effort, in the coming months.
Nic Robertson, thank you so much, in Estonia for us.
[13:39:58]
And it's only Monday but there is already fresh controversy brewing about Congressman George Santos. This one could involve a police report and a House complaint.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: New week, new controversy for Republican Congressman George Santos. A man who tried to get a job in Santos' office claims the freshman lawmaker made an unwanted sexual advance last month.
Santos denies the claim, but his accuser says he's filed a police report and a House ethics complaint.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is joining me on this.
Sunlen, first came Santos' lies and more lies and more lies and now this. What can you tell us about this accusation? [13:45:04]
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, these accusations, Abby, come from a man named Derek Myers. And he said this took place last month on January 25th. He said he was alone with the congressman in his congressional office.
And he says, at one point, the congressman came over to him, put his hand on his leg, put his hand on his groin, and then invited him over to his house that evening. And that's when Myers says he pushed the congressman's hand back and left the office.
Now, at the time, Myers was not an official employee in Santos' office. He says he was working in a volunteer capacity, he was waiting for formal paperwork to go through, finalizing a formal job from the office.
Now notably five days after the incident, Myers says that he received a call from Santos' office questioning him more about his background, specifically his time as a journalist.
And then it was then, a few days later, Myers said his job offer was rescinded by the congressman's office.
Up on Capitol Hill a few hours ago, the congressman, for the first time, responded to claims of these allegations, and he said to CNN that these allegations are 100 percent false.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you talk to me about Derek Myers and his alleging you made unwanted sexual --
REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): It's comical.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you deny the claim against you?
SANTOS: Of course, I deny the claim against me.
(CROSSSTALK)
SANTOS: Let me make it clear.
(CROSSTALK)
SANTOS: If there was remote, any part of that that were true, he should have led with that and not begged for a job we decided to pull from him for being accused of doing exactly what he did to us.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just a follow-up, so you categorically deny --
(CROSSTALK)
SANTOS: One hundred percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SERFATY: And Santos there seems to be referring to a time where Myers last year was charged with wiretapping when he published audio from a source in a courtroom.
And as far as this allegation, Abby, as you said, he has filed a House ethics complaint and a formal police report.
PHILLIP: Sunlen Serfaty, thank you for that.
SERFATY: Sure.
PHILLIP: And just into CNN, the Pentagon is sharing some brand-new information about that suspected Chinese spy balloon as the Navy continues searching for debris in the Atlantic Ocean.
CNN's Natasha Bertrand is here for us.
Natasha, we're learning a little bit more about just how valuable that debris could be. What are you hearing?
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's exactly right, Abby. So the commander of NORTHCOM briefed reporters, saying the delay in shooting down the balloon allowed the U.S. to collect very significant intelligence about what was actually inside of it.
And the reason they were able to do that, actually, is because they were granted -- the military was granted specific authorizations by the U.S. government to collect intelligence on this object.
Which is not something they would normally be able to do on something within the United States. So they were granted very specific and special authorizations to do so.
In that kind of two-day, three-day delay, as it transited over the continental U.S., they say they were able to collect important information about how this balloon works.
Interestingly, we're also learning more about what the debris field actually looks like from this balloon that was shot down on Saturday.
And we are told that "USS Pathfinder," a survey ship, is on-site and mapping that out right now. The debris field is about the size of 15 football fields by 15 football fields. So it's pretty large, about one square mile.
They're still going through this recovery operation. And they have not given us any details yet on what they have actually been able to recover intact from this balloon.
Of course, that is going to be really key in terms of what they are able to recover and then send to a lab to analyze and what they can find out anything more about China's surveillance program here -- Abby?
PHILLIP: Yes. This is a huge piece of that puzzle. Now that it's down, what information can we learn about what China's intent was? Natasha Bertrand, thank you for that update.
[13:49:03]
And coming up next for us, Stevie, Quincy and her husband, Jay-Z, they have a lot of them, but Beyonce has more than all of them. Coming up next, Queen Bey's history making night at the Grammys and the one big prize that's still missing from her trophy case.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because we are witnessing history tonight --
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- breaking the record for the most Grammy wins of all time --
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- be upstanding and show your respects.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's "Renaissance," Beyonce.
(CHEERING)
BEYONCE, SINGER: Thank you so much.
(CHEERING)
BEYONCE: I'm trying not to be too emotional. And I'm trying to just receive this night.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
BEYONCE: I want to thank God for protecting me.
(CHEERING0
BEYONCE: Thank you, God.
I'd like to thank the Queer community for your love --
(CHEERING)
BEYONCE: -- and for inventing the genre.
God bless you.
Thank you so much to the Grammys. (CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Beyonce breaks a record and makes Grammy History. The Queen Bey officially became the very first artist with the most Grammy wins in history, 32 of those things.
[13:54:57]
The achievement got her a standing ovation last night. And she thanked her fans, her family, as well as members of the LGBTQ community for inspiring her hit album, "Renaissance."
And despite her 32 Grammy wins, she has a record 88 Grammy nominations, but still hasn't won the one prize, best album, and didn't last night.
Finally today, before Tyre Nichols was fatally beaten in Memphis, the 29-year-old was known as a talented skateboarder. And now, arguably, one of the greatest skateboarders ever is giving back.
Tony Hawk is selling limited edition autographs and he says the proceeds will go to the Tyre Nichols Memorial Fund, which hopes to build a public skate park in Tyre's honor. Nice way for a sports great to give back.
But that does it for me. CNN's NEWSROOM continues right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
