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DA Alvin Bragg Sues GOP Rep For Alleged Interference In Trump Case; Police: Shooter Purchased Gun Legally Just Days Before Attack; Spokesperson For Alexey Navalny: Health Of Russian Opposition Figure Is Deteriorating In Prison; Parent Of 6-Year-Old Accused Of Shooting Teacher Charged With Neglect. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 11, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:19]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. It is the top the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: And I'm Erica Hill.

GOLODRYGA: This just in to CNN, Manhattan District Attorney is suing Republican Congressman, Jim Jordan, over alleged interference in his case against former President Donald Trump. The former president, of course, was indicted last week.

CNN's Kara Scannell and CNN's Manu Raju join us with the latest.

So things are getting more and more acrimonious here. Kara, what is the latest that you're hearing?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes, it certainly is getting more acrimonious, Bianna. We've learned that the Manhattan District Attorney's office has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the subpoena from Jim Jordan's committee, the House Judiciary Committee that they made last week to one of the top prosecutors who worked on this investigation.

Now, Jim Jordan has also reached out to the district attorney's office, Bragg saying they wanted him to come in and testify. But this is a significant step forward to combat this effort. Bragg's lawsuit is alleging that this is an unconstitutional effort by Congress to try to interfere in a state prosecution.

They also say that Congress has no power to supervise or to get involved in state investigations. So they're asking the judge here to block the subpoena for the former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz' testimony. He had a deadline of April 20th, that's next week to report to Congress to give his testimony.

They're also asking the judge to stop any future subpoenas to Bragg or to any current or former prosecutors from that office who have worked on this investigation. I mean, interestingly, in this lawsuit Bragg's office is also alleging that Jim Jordan and other Republican congressmen have been involved in a campaign of intimidation, retaliation and obstruction. And they cite the former President Trump's own threatening statements to Bragg and you'll recall that Bragg's office did receive a letter with suspicious white powder in it. It was deemed to be non-hazardous.

But Bragg's office saying that these threats, these statements of intimidation by Trump were not denounced by these Republican congressmen and instead they said that the House Republicans were participating in these threatening efforts, Bianna? Erica?

HILL: It is really something, guys, as we're just starting to pour through this filing. So what is the reaction at this our, Manu, on Capitol Hill?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, nothing official yet from Congressman Jim Jordan's office. But Jordan is still planning to press ahead with their efforts to probe Alvin Bragg's investigation into Donald Trump as well as to target decisions that Bragg himself has made as a prosecutor in Manhattan.

On Monday, they plan to have a field hearing in Manhattan to spotlight what Republicans say is Bragg's, in their view, lacks of prosecutorial discretion against violent crime in Manhattan. They are making clear that they want to argue that Bragg's decision to go ahead and press ahead with charges for Donald Trump was a political one, in their view, and at the expense of other more serious actions.

So they are using the power of their majority to essentially discredit Alvin Bragg and they have made no secret of their desire to potentially to push ahead with legislation. Legislation that in their view would prevent prosecutors, local prosecutors from potentially charging a presidential candidate and prevent them from doing that in the future. No real language has been drafted on that yet, but that is the idea going forward.

In Bragg's lawsuit itself, it does criticize that effort saying there is no legitimate legislative purpose to go after the investigation suggesting that there's no constitutional authority to investigate a single prosecutors probe. But don't expect Republicans in the House to take this lightly, expect some pushback.

Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House has supported the efforts by Jordan along with two other House committee chairmen to try to target Alvin Bragg. They are on recess right now guys, but expect next week this to be a major focus for the House Republican majority to defend Donald Trump, even as some Republicans including some Senate Republicans want to shift the focus elsewhere, guys.

HILL: Yes. And I wouldn't be surprised if maybe somebody said something prior to that return from recess. Manu, Kara, we really appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, just about two hours from now officials say they will hold another news conference to show body camera footage from the police officers. This, of course, coming from the horrific massacre yesterday at a Louisville bank. GOLODRYGA: One of those police officers still recovering in the hospital. Now, it comes as we learned disturbing details about that attack. The shooter turning on his own co-workers with an AR-15 He bought just days before.

The atrocity live streamed on his social media.

[15:05:00]

Police say in the video he shoots one employee in the back and then targets others gathered for a staff meeting. The ambush lasting just one minute. The shooter then waited around for police to arrive. New audio today of a dispatcher sending officers to that scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-five-year-old white male, Connor Sturgeon, 6'4". He's texted a friend, called a friend, left a voicemail he's going to kill everyone at the bank. Feeling suicidal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Five victims are dead in the wake of that shooting. Another eight people were wounded, four are still being treated today at the hospital. And at a press conference earlier, the doctor, the Chief Medical Officer at that hospital, described how the consistent gun violence is taking its toll.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JASON SMITH, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE HEALTH: I'm weary. I've been in Louisville for 15 years, all of it at university hospital. For 15 years, I've cared for victims of violence and gunshot wounds. And people say I'm tired, but I'll be - answer, it's more than tired. I'm weary.

There's only so many times you can walk into a room and tell someone they're not coming home tomorrow. And it just breaks your heart when you hear someone screaming mommy or daddy. It just becomes too hard day in and day out to be able to do that.

Now, my team is fantastic. They're absolute professionals and they're wonderful. But sooner or later, it catches up to everybody. You just can't keep doing what we're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And it's understandable. CNN's Omar Jimenez is live in Louisville this hour. You heard the frustration, the emotion in the voice there of the doctor. We also had an update from several local officials. What more do we learn?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So in a press conference this afternoon, we heard a lot of frustrations. We also got some indications of what's to come. We expect body camera video to be released this afternoon of what officers encountered when they arrived to the scene. And we're told it's going to focus on the interactions between the shooter and police.

We also got more specifics on the timeline of this day that it was nine minutes total from when he first fired his shot to when police eventually killed this gunman as they have described the gun was purchased legally last week in the Louisville area as well.

But then the other key part of this is we heard the frustrations from public officials. You heard from the hospital official, they're saying he's not just tired, he's weary, and that reflected everyone's thoughts here that it's not just the acute incidents like mass shootings that what happened in the bank behind me, but every day gun violence that they see here in Louisville.

And the Mayor for one, he's someone who survived an attempted shooting of his own, said that he now had to announce the deaths of people he knew at a separate workplace shooting. Again, the one that happened here and it's why he says there needs to be state action to change the laws here and quickly because lives are on the line, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR GRAIG GREENEBERG, (D) LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: This isn't about partisan politics. This is about life and death. This is about preventing tragedies. You may think this will never happen to you. Never happened to any of your friends or loved ones. I used to think that. The sad truth is that now no one in our city, no one in our state, no one in our country has that luxury anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And these words come as people are still recovering in the hospital from this shooting. Four have been discharged, three are in stable and fair condition, one is still in critical condition believed to be the officer who was shot in his - during his response to the shooting after just being on the force graduating from police academy just at the end of March.

We do expect a vigil tomorrow as well to give a chance for the community not just heal from this, but to find a way to move forward.

HILL: Omar Jimenez with the latest for us from Louisville. Omar, appreciate it. Thank you.

Also joining us this hour, CNN National Security Analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, look, we always appreciate your insight. But none of us wants to continue talking about another shooting and yet here we are. We're waiting on this body camera video which as we just learned should focus on the interactions with the shooter.

What else is interesting is that we know about this live stream video. John Miller on the air earlier was saying this is a way for shooters to really choreograph that narrative, to choreograph their story and even rewrite it. And what struck me was - we also heard from Charles Ramsey who said releasing this video is really dangerous. How concerned are you about copycats and what is the value if any in looking at that video on a broader public sense?

[15:10:04]

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. It - I think there is a value to releasing that if only - to not sanitize what is going on in America, we can put context around what we're about to see. But I am the new school I think I would argue which if we don't see it, we tend to sanitize it. We talk about gun shootings or deaths.

And one way to recognize the harm that this particular weapon does, the AR-15 is to understand what we are putting our police departments in, in terms of the threat that they are facing. I don't pretend that getting this kind of gun off the street or making it unlawful is going to solve all problems.

But as we've seen time and time again, there is almost no capacity to respond to a weapon that not only kills this not only shoots this quickly and this - and with such damage, but really leaves no room for recovery or for the ability to - for police to come in, so I am for this.

I want to say another reason why it's important to push back or to create a new narrative around these videos, one of the things about the AR-15, we see it with politician as well - politicians as well. It's become a performative weapon, so think about what we see online with politicians or people running for office with their little kids, with these guns.

It's become a sort of cultural phenomenon as much as it is a weapon. And I think these videos become performative for the people who are doing them and it's a way of sort of showing off what they're doing. And we have to push back on that narrative whether we see it online with allegedly political people who are who are putting their kids with AR-15 to - or killers themselves who are using it in this kind of theatrical way.

We got to make it real for people. Real people are dying. I mean, let's - we don't need to be - we don't need to sanitize it anymore.

GOLODRYGA: Juliette, can I just get you to weigh in on that press conference that we heard, because it was quite powerful.

KAYYEM: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, we got the details and we got specifics on how the victims are doing and more information on the shooter and what have you. But then we heard officials from the Mayor to a local representative there to the medical official really get personal and say enough is enough and call for action and call on state officials to change the gun laws.

We know that there are very lax gun laws in Kentucky as a whole. But I was floored when I heard the mayor said that it is legal for that gun that was used by the gunman to now be auctioned and sold ...

KAYYEM: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: ... and go right back onto the streets of that city.

KAYYEM: Yes. You would think at the very least there could be a carve out that you don't put the weapon that kills five or six people back on the street, but the way that the laws have been written in support of gun ownership is that those can be recycled. They're in police ownership now. That is just a grotesque, I mean, let's just be - no country needs to do that. We have enough guns. They don't have to be recycled.

The second law that we should consider and we're - is this fight between localities and states. We know guns transfer between, say, Louisville and the rest of Kentucky. But if a community wants to make a statement about what can be sold in its jurisdiction, that's being taken away by the courts.

And so what Louisville is asking for is more authority from the state to be able to essentially raise the floor in terms of gun laws. I will say everything I heard from them is exactly right, 40 deaths in Louisville since the beginning of the year of gun violence outside of mass shootings.

But the one piece that was sort of jaw dropping for me was the deputy police chief Humphrey says, the reality that we know now we used to tell communities and people to run, then hide and then only fight if you have to. And I think there's a growing recognition, as he said, that if you think you have the capacity to stop this, do it.

That is the police that essentially say no matter how good we are, we're not good enough against this weapon and I think that should cause us all pause.

GOLODRYGA: And that's what the police are responding incredibly in just three minutes time, of course, we're thinking of all the victims ...

KAYYEM: Incredibly, yes.

GOLODRYGA: ... who are recovering in the hospital, including that 26- year-old police officer who was so new and fresh to the job.

Juliette Kayyem, thank you. Well, this just in, five Louisiana law enforcement officers charged in the May 2019 violent arrests of black motorist, Ronald Greene, pled not guilty at their arraignment today.

HILL: Greene later died from his injuries. Police claimed he resisted arrest and struggled with officers. His family says they were initially told Greene died in a car crash after a police chase.

[15:15:00]

Video of the incident released two years later showed officers kicking, punching and using a taser on Greene before he died in their custody. The charges the officers face range from negligent homicide to obstruction of justice.

GOLODRYGA: And still to come for us, new details on the health of Alexey Navalny. We will have a live report from Moscow next.

HILL: Plus, a setback for Dominion. Why the judge says the company cannot bring up the January 6 insurrection during its trial against Fox.

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[15:19:35]

GOLODRYGA: We have an update to bring you on the health of jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny. A spokesperson for Navalny says that his health is deteriorating.

HILL: CNN's Matthew Chance is live for us now in Moscow. When we hear it's deteriorating. What more do we know about that condition?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it doesn't look good.

[15:20:00]

In fact, the information we've got comes to us from Alexey Navalny's spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, who has been sort of posting her concerns on social media. She's saying that the jailed Russian opposition figure, Navalny, has been experiencing severe stomach pain over the course of the past couple of weeks.

And in fact he's lost a lot of weight. She's saying it's eight kilograms, that 17 and a half pounds in the past 15 days. He's in an isolated prison cell. And Yarmysh says that an ambulance on Friday night was called to attend to Alexey Navalny, but they've not been told and he hasn't been told what the diagnosis has been by the prison authorities.

This is the most worrying bit though, because Kira Yarmysh, the spokesperson of Alexey Navalny saying we don't rule out that all this time in prison, he could have been poisoned with something to make his health deteriorate slowly but steadily.

Now, of course, know that that might seem fantastical but not when you put it in the context of what Alexey Navalny has been through. He was believed to have been poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent back in 2020 with the German authorities identified as Novichok. He was medevac from Russia, as you may well remember, and taken to Germany where he was rehabilitated - where he rehabilitated and recovered.

He then came back to Russia in January of the following year and was immediately detained and has been in prison ever since. It's not the first time there have been health scares about Alexey Navalny since he was in prison.

Just in January, 500 Russian doctors signed an open letter, basically calling for more medical attention to be given to Alexey Navalny, who they believed was being mistreated on the medical front inside his penal colony.

GOLODRYGA: Of course, we'll continue to keep covering this story and following it all. Matthew Chance, thank you.

HILL: New today, a setback for Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News. A Delaware judge ruling Dominion cannot bring up the January 6 attack on the Capitol during that trial, which begins tomorrow and also warned Fox lawyers not to undermine his rulings in front of the jury.

GOLODRYGA: The voting technology company is suing Fox News for repeatedly broadcasting false claims that Dominion voting machines rigged the 2020 election.

CNN Senior Media Reporter, Oliver Darcy, joins us now with the latest.

Oliver, so how did the judge explain his rulings?

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: A series of rulings today about what can be mentioned at the trial which will begin in about a week and what can and can't be mentioned. And the judge says that January 6, that cannot be mentioned, that will not be mentioned, when this case does go to trial.

He says there may be another courts at another time, but it's not for this court at this time. And so that's a legal victory for Fox which wanted to bar references to the Capitol attack when this goes to trial. That said, the judge did rule in favor of some of Dominion's motions as well. And these are pre trial motions. They're very common before a case goes to trial.

He said that the Dominion Voting Systems can bring up financial information related to the case. He said economics are very important. And he talked about how Fox News cannot show broadcast where they did fact check some of Trump's election lies. He says that just because some broadcast did that that doesn't excuse the broadcast that did spread those lies.

And like I said, this trial is supposed to start very shortly. We have jury selection set to begin on Thursday. And then if both sides cannot reach a settlement, this will go to trial on Monday with opening arguments in a Wilmington court.

HILL: So we'll be watching for that. Meantime, Fox did just settle a defamation case with the Venezuelan businessmen. The network link to - who the network, I should say, linked to voting system fraud in the 2020 elections. What does this tell us about what can happen here with Dominion?

DARCY: Well, it's possible they could figure out a settlement with demand as well. I mean, they have settled cases in the past and most legal experts are pretty surprised that this has gone this far in the court system without a settlement being struck.

With that said, there are no indication so far that we're going to see a settlement, of course, people say that there are no indications of a settlement until a settlement is announced. But right now, it's looking like this is going to trial and jury selection again is slated to start on Thursday.

HILL: Oliver Darcy, appreciate it as always, thank you.

Still to come, charged with child neglect, the mother of six-year-old students who shot his first grade teacher indicted. Those details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:29:35]

HILL: The mother of a six-year-old Virginia boy who shot his first grade teacher has been indicted.

GOLODRYGA: Prosecutors say the woman's son shot Richneck Elementary School teacher, Abigail Zwerner, in her hand and chest last January. He will not be charged.

CNN's Brian Todd is here with specifics on this indictment. So Brian, what are the charges and how soon before she surrenders to authorities?

[15:29:59]

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna and Erica, Deja Taylor, the mother of the six-year-old has been charged with felony child neglect and with recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child.