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U.S. Launches Airstrikes After Drone Attack on Troops in Syria; Trump Lawyer Evan Corcoran Arrives for Grand Jury Testimony; Parents of Oxford High School Shooter will Stand Trial. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 24, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman.

We have new developments on the U.S. contractor killed by a drone strike in Syria. We are now seeing video of an Iranian military facility engulfed in flames, this is after President Biden authorized a retaliatory strike, retaliation, from what the U.S. says was this Iranian-backed one-way drone attack, an attack that killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members. President Biden is in Canada this morning. We're waiting to hear from him on all this.

Also at this moment, a top lawyer for Donald Trump, you can see him there, Evan Corcoran, he is inside Washington, D.C. courthouse and there is no attorney-client privilege protection. Corcoran is testifying before a grand jury investigating the former president's handling of classified documents.

First, though, the deadly flare up of hostilities in Syria overnight. CNN's Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon following this for us. New information, Natasha?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, John. So, we are told from a U.S. official that this suspected Iranian drone strike was conducted using a one-way attack drone that intentionally crashed into its target, killing that U.S. contractor and wounding several other U.S. service members as well as an additional U.S. contractor there.

Now, this is not the first time that the U.S. has launched air strikes in retaliation for these kinds of attacks by Iranian proxy groups. The U.S has about 900 troops currently in Syria largely as a part of that anti-ISIS coalition. And according to General Kurilla, who is the commander of U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for this region, U.S. personnel have come under attack by those Iran-backed groups at least 78 times since 2021. And Kurilla did tell lawmakers in testimony recently that the U.S. has made its posture -- has changed its defensive posture in the region essentially to better protect U.S. personnel against these kinds of attacks.

But Kurilla also really in provided some important context for Iran's capabilities in the region and why it is so concerning to U.S. officials that they are able to continue to carry out these kinds of attacks.

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GEN. MICHAEL KURILLA, COMMANDER OF U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Today, Iran possesses the largest and most diverse missile arsenal in the Middle East, thousands of ballistic and cruise missiles, many capable of striking anywhere in the Middle East. Iran also maintains the largest and most capable UAV force in the region.

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BERTAND: So, as you noted, John, the U.S. did retaliate against the strike. They targeted facilities inside Syria that the U.S. believes these Iranian proxy groups were using for munitions and for intelligence. And we should note that all of those U.S. service members, apart from the U.S. contractor, of course, who was killed are currently in stable condition. John?

BERMAN: All right. Natasha Bertrand, keep us posted. Thank you so much.

With me now is retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, great to have you here. I want to take this in parts, if I can. First, this one-way drone strike from Iranian proxies, what does that tell you about their intentions and capabilities?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, John, good morning. First of all, their intentions are definitely to at least harass us forces and to let their presence be known. They want to make sure that the U.S. and allied forces don't forget that they're there, and they also want to make sure that they can, in essence, control certain parts of Syria on behalf of the Syrian government.

Now, as far as their capabilities are concerned, they're pretty considerable. You know, as General Kurillo mentioned in his testimony, the Iranians have a very large the arsenal of UAVs and rockets and missiles. A lot of the proxy forces that Iran it works with, and in some cases, employees in this region and especially in Syria, are known to have some of these capabilities. They're given to them by the Iranians. The Iranians train them on these capabilities, and they make it possible for them to use them fairly effectively in these kinds of operations.

BERMAN: The response, what does the nature of the target, and the U.S. clearly -- Nic Robertson pointed out.

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Clearly, the U.S. seemed to have had a target list here because the response was nearly immediate. What do you make of the target and the level of retaliation the U.S. chose to take here?

LEIGHTON: So, the target appears to have been the basic Hasakah and specifically the dormitory area they're living in here for the U.S. contractors and servicemen. And, you know, when you look at the types of attacks that they've done, they -- you see a wage on in which the actually move forward with these attacks. The U.S. response was clearly calibrated in order to make it known to the Iranians that they had gone too far with the Iranian proxies, that they had gone too far. So, these efforts are very much calibrated and we clearly had planned to do this. When such an attack occurred, we were clearly expecting some of this type.

BERMAN: What's Iran up to? I mean, obviously, they're still operating through proxies in Syria. We know that they provided drones to the Russians to use to attack Ukrainians. What's the bigger picture of the plan here?

LEIGHTON: So, it appears that the bigger picture, John, is that the Iranians want to establish themselves as, at the very least, a regional power. And you see the rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the one that was brokered just a week or so ago by the Chinese.

What you're looking at is Iran has become powerful enough that other countries, like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others in the Gulf, are looking at Iran as, you know, only a threat but a threat that they have to live with. So, instead of relying on just U.S. forces to protect them, the Saudis and others are basically looking at the Iranians as somebody that we have to accommodate themselves to that they have to accommodate themselves to.

And then when you look at you know the forces around the Middle East, such as the Syrian Democratic Forces, forces like that, they are clearly up against a very tough competitor because the Iranians, for a very long time, have been supporting the Syrian regime of Bashar al- Assad, even when the Syrian civil war started.

So, you see all these factors coming into play here and the Iranians definitely want to establish themselves as a regional (INAUDIBLE) and that hegemonic policy that they have also allows it to work with the Russians and that becomes to their existence.

BERMAN: The Russians and apparently the Chinese in some cases as well. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much.

So, at this moment, Donald Trump's attorney, Evan Corcoran, is inside Washington D.C. courthouse. We saw arriving this morning. You see the back of him arriving this morning. He is testifying before a grand jury, and he is expected to be asked about Donald Trump without the protections of attorney-client privilege, and he has to hand over documents and notes related to his legal work with the former president. This has to do with the federal probe into the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz live outside the courthouse in Washington, D.C. I guess one hour of testimony and counting so far, Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: One hour, yes. Evan Corcoran, this primary defense attorney for Donald Trump, who was responding on his behalf to the federal investigation into classified records at Mar-a-Lago after the presidency, he's been inside this courthouse for a literal over an hour, and we do believe he's been with the grand jury for about an hour now. His attorney is here as well.

No sign yet that he is finished. And, really, at this point, we don't know what he's going to say, and it's very likely the prosecutors right now do not know what he is likely telling the grand jury or will tell the grand jury. What we know is what they've been investigating, which is the potential mishandling of classified records at Mar-a- Lago, and then even more crucially possible obstruction of justice after the federal government demanded that those records be turned back over to them, and they were not.

Corcoran was a key person involved in that response, drafting a statement, being privy to the searches, even receiving Justice Department officials when they went down to Mar-a-Lago and tried to get back records. And we also know what the prosecutors want to ask him. That's based on reporting that a whole team of us have been doing this week.

We know that they want to know about that statement that he provided last June that he drafted and was given to the Justice Department, saying that they had found or looked for classified records and turned over any and all that they had found. And also they want to ask him about a colleague had directly with Donald Trump last June at the time that there was a subpoena for surveillance footage that would show people moving boxes at Mar-a-Lago.

So, a really crucial day for the special counsel investigation, we don't know how to turn out or how long this testimony may go on.

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John?

BERMAN: All right. Katelyn Polantz, keep us posted, please.

I'm joined now by John Dean. He served as White House counsel for President Nixon. John, it's always great to see you.

It occurs to me, and I know the circumstances are different, way different, but they're on a lot of lawyers who know what it's like to be asked questions about their client under oath. You happen to be one of them in a certain way. What's it going to be like for Evan Corcoran to be, you know, testifying today?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm sure he's not happy where he is. He's a very seasoned lawyer. He's a government lawyer for much of his career. He's 58 years of age. He doesn't want to go to jail for Mr. Trump. I can assure you that. So, I think he's a careful lawyer. I think he had -- we know he has notes and records of some of the exchanges he had with Mr. Trump, so he's going to be a very powerful witness as well. But I think this is one place he doesn't want to be this morning.

BERMAN: Is it the type of thing where he can literally be asked, what did Donald Trump tell you about the documents?

DEAN: Yes, he can because he was in the direct chain. We gather probably from other witnesses as to how the letter was written what instructions he may have gotten and onto how to frame the letter, what kind of investigation was, in fact, actually done, did he have any resistance. There was another lawyer who's now been compelled to testify, Jennifer Little in this recent breaking of the attorney- client privilege. So, this is -- there are a lot of pieces that the government knows about and he can help put it all together and thread it and it could be devastating for Trump.

BERMAN: And there are documents as well, which I imagine, John, is important because there's evidence, not just testimony, which means Corcoran, not only would he have to be careful, but it's something else for the prosecutors to use.

DEAN: Yes. Documents do not carry a Fifth Amendment or any other kind of privilege. They can be work product of a lawyer, but they have been turned over to the government as well. And documents don't lie. They sometimes need explanation. But these are apparently records, contemporaneous records he made when having his exchanges with Mr. Trump and this is powerful evidence if it goes in front of the jury, ever.

BERMAN: Here in Manhattan, the grand jury that has been hearing from witnesses about the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels in the connected laws related there is not meeting today, as far as we know, to hear about the Donald Trump case, but could meet again on Monday to take evidence there. John, what do you take from the pace of these grand jury hearings?

DEAN: The on and off nature of the Manhattan grand jury doesn't, to me, suggest that D.A. Bragg has suddenly discovered he's got a weak case. I think he's got a grand jury who might not want more witnesses. And, you know, there's a remote possibility, John, that some of the prosecutor contacted him said, do you really have to go first? He knows his isn't the strongest most presidential-type case that is going to be presented against Trump, he might have been asked to delay and drag his feet a little while because some of these other cases might be ripe for action.

I don't know that as a fact it just. It just occurred to me the way this grand jury has been on again, off again, and prosecutors do have that kind of -- it wouldn't have to if he didn't want to, but they do have those kind of off the record conversations. I know a lot of former prosecutors. So, the grand jury is plowing ahead and they -- I think they will probably take some action next week one way or the other.

BERMAN: The former president overnight issuing what seemed to be some veiled threats against Alvin Bragg in away, saying that there will be death and destruction if Bragg presses charges. What kind of situation do you think that creates?

DEAN: I think it creates a very troubling situation for Mr. Trump when he goes in, if he is arraigned, and the judge is going to be made very aware of these statements. Recall that Roger Stone, the acolyte of Mr. Trump, was indicted and started putting the judge in crosshairs at one point on his line -- on his online postings.

This could be the same sort of thing where a judge has total power to say listen, no more of that. You do that, you're in contempt of court. They could shut down with a gag order, Trump, and stop this nonsense and these attacks, and might well do so because they're already -- another -- there's another case, a civil case, the E. Jean Carroll case, is about to go to trial and the judges decided he will keep the jury anonymous in that case because of the MAGA and Trump attacks.

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So, Trump Comes with a reputation and it's not a good one.

BERMAN: John Dean, thank you, as always.

DEAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: So, this morning, I want to tell you about a new sentence handed down for a Capitol rioter. 24-year-old Riley Williams barged into then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and later claimed online to have stolen her hard drive. A federal judge gave Williams three years in prison and ridiculed the defense that she was too young to know what she was doing. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said, quote, I'm sorry, Riley June Williams was old enough and tall enough on January 6th into the extent that she comes off as fragile or weak, that all goes away when she opens her mouth.

Williams was a follower of a white nationalist alt-right figure at the time of the riot. Prosecutors say she directed members of the mob during the attack before being sentenced. Williams apologized for her role.

So, happening now, 30 million people from Texas to Ohio are under the threat of severe storms. We have the latest in the forecast and where we could see a tornado outbreak today.

The parents of the Oxford High School shooter will stand trial for the deaths their son caused in 2021. How the case could set a precedent and holding parents accountable.

And we visit Ukraine orphanage near the frontlines that sits empty after Russian forces allegedly deported the children to Russian territory. The heroic actions of the Ukrainian nurses who tried to stop it.

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BERMAN: This morning, much of the United States bracing for severe storms, the south could see a tornado outbreak while other states could be hit by dangerous flooding.

Meteorologist Jennifer Gray in the Weather Center watching all of this, tell us what we should look for.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, this could be a significant day. The Storm Prediction Center is forecasting strong tornadoes, EF-3 or greater in strength and also long-track tornadoes, tornadoes are going to stay on the ground for a long period of time.

We already have storms firing up from Texas all the way through the mid-Atlantic. We had a lot of gulf moisture that's basically feeding these storms. And so throughout the day, you're going to have the daytime heating interacting with these storms.

And so, really, by late this evening into the early overnight hours is when we're really going to see these storms peak. We're talking about strong tornadoes, damaging winds, large hail and this area with the black lines. That's going to be our greatest risk for a strong tornado, and it's going to be basically between 6:00 tonight through midnight Eastern Time, and so putting these storms into motion.

Any of these storms ahead of these by this evening could produce a weak tornado or two, but the strongest ones really will be around the area across the Ark-La-Tex or the Mississippi Valley and then on into this portions of the southeast. That's 8:00 tonight. And then by 11:00 tonight, you can see the storm's starting to leave that area. They will lose intensity slightly during the overnight hours, but they could still remain strong all the way through the overnight, John.

So, we're looking at also a flooding potential. We could see 2 to 4 inches of rain across portions of the Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley. So, flashflood watches and warnings are in effect anywhere from, say, Oklahoma all the way through the Ohio Valley. So, we do have a moderate risk of excessive rainfall through this region. That's a level three out of four. So, significant flooding is possible as well, John.

BERMAN: Some pretty concerning maps there. Jennifer Gray, I appreciate it. I do hope those people stay safe overnight in the tornado zone.

The parents of the Oxford High School shooter will have to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter for the four deaths their son caused. Jennifer and James Crumbley are accused of failing to secure a gun and ignoring the mental health needs of their son. A Michigan appeals court has ruled that prosecutors have presented enough evidence to take the case to trial. Their son has pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder charges, and could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Attorney Areva Martin joins me now. Areva, great to see you. So, what kind of precedent? I mean, how novel is this for parents to face trial for crimes committed by their child?

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY: Thank you, John. We know that, typically, courts don't like to hold parents responsible for the intentional actions of their children. All those states around the country have been enacting laws, particularly those related to the access to weapons and guns like this case where there're allegations that these parents not only bought the gun that was used in the school shooting but also left that gun in an unlocked box.

And you can tell by this court's decision that it is very aware of setting a precedent that could in some ways hold parents responsible for poor parenting. They give lots of examples in this case of the man who shot the kids at the school of reaching out to the parents, asking for help, talking about his mental health issues, and in some cases, the parents actually ignoring the cries for help.

So, this could be a precedent-setting case. We've seen lots of cases where kids go into schools and shoot and kill other students. And the question is, are parents going to be held accountable in all of those cases?

BERMAN: What is or are there any things that are unique about this case that make it the type of things where the parents can be held accountable?

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MARTIN: Yes. In this case, John, what the courts really laying in on is the issue of foreseeability. They're saying, look, you have a teenager who's troubled. He's telling you that he's troubled. He's asking for help. You're ignoring his cries for help. He's telling you that he's prone to danger, that he may harm others. And then with all of that information, you go and buy a gun and you put that gun in a place that is unsecure.

So, I think that's the issue that is really driving this decision, is the knowledge about the mental health issues, the purchase of the gun and the fact that the gun was in a place that was not secured by these parents.

BERMAN: What do you think the standard for guilt will have to be here? The jury will have to decide what for a guilty verdict?

MARTIN: Yes. I think that's going to be concerning in this case because, again, you don't want to hold parents accountable for poor parenting. You know, parents have different ways that they approach their children. In this case, maybe they didn't believe their son. Maybe he had a history of not being truthful, truthful with respect to certain issues.

So, the issue is really going to come down to how serious were these calls for help by the son, what the actions were of the parents with respect to how they handle the information that was coming to them. And I think the real issue here, though, John, is going to be the gun. Why in the face of this information with parents buy a gun? And if they did buy a gun legally, why wouldn't they take greater efforts to secure that gun?

And we know in this case something else very unusual happened. The parents were called to the school. They were told that the son was making drawings about harming people, and they refused to remove him from that school campus. I think that's also going to be really important to jurors as they assess this case. BERMAN: Very quickly, Areva. I know this will be appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court. Do you think an appeal has any likelihood of success?

MARTIN: I don't think so, because the courts in Michigan have been pretty consistent in the way they have handled this case, and they have been consistently saying that these parents are responsible or potentially could be responsible when this case goes to a jury. And it is going to be precedent-setting, but I think, of course, want to send a message to parent you have to take greater care, particularly when you have information that suggests that your child could be a danger to others.

BERMAN: Areva. Martin, great to have you on thank you.

MARTIN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Well. Alex Murdaugh serves two life sentences for killing his wife, Maggie, and his son, Paul. Hundreds of items from their estate are on the auction block. People lined up for six hours to bid on items taken from the hunting property known as Moselle, the same property where Paul and Maggie were murdered. Some of the items up for sale include pictures that once hung on the walls, a large rack of hunting equipment, furniture, dishes and other things. The item that sold for the most was this furniture set, which was $30,000.

The U.S. strikes back after a suspected Iranian-affiliate drone killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members in Northern Syria. We do have some new information, next.

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