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CNN International: South Florida Hit with Up to 20 Inches of Rain; Louisville Holds Vigil to Honor Bank Attack Victims; Judge Sanctions Fox for Lying, Withholding Evidence; Trump Sues Cohen for $500 Million Alleging Breach of Contract; Toxic Fire Burning Indiana; Ukraine Investigating Videos of Apparent Beheadings. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 13, 2023 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo live from London. Max Foster has the day off today, but he'll be back tomorrow. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the worst I've ever seen. This is an unbelievable amount of rain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to just pull on the side. Streets were flooded everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have the threat for flooding, as well as the threat for severe weather and record warmth on top of it all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This person murdered my friend. But still, I can't imagine how his parents must be feeling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amazing grace. How sweet the sound.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will get through this together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you can see the smoke, you're in the smoke. Get out of the smoke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This person has been negligent and irresponsible and it's led to putting a lot of people in danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
NOBILO: It is Thursday, April 13th 9:00 a.m. here in London, and 4:00 a.m. in south Florida, where historic amounts of rainfall have caused what one city's mayor describes as the most severe flooding he's ever seen. Up to 20 inches of rain have inundated that part of the state since yesterday, turning roads into rivers and forcing drivers to go through extremely high water. One local reporter sums it up this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON BEYER, REPORTER, 7 NEWS MIAMI: 12 years doing these type flooding stories in south Florida. This is the worst I've ever seen. This is an unbelievable amount of rain, and it rained for a couple of days leading up to today's event that left just nowhere all this water that has fallen the past four or five hours to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: The water blocked this road in Ft. Lauderdale. You can even see one person swimming in floodwaters. Broward County schools will be closed today and Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport will not be up and running until at least noon, and you can see the reason right here, flooding in parking garages and access roads and the terminal, which left passengers in need deep water. We get more now from CNN affiliate WSBN.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN AFFILIATE WSBN (voice-over): I've seen it flood, but it's never been this bad. Bad enough that an elderly man had to be pulled from his flooded car outside Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. His rescuers struggling to walk in waist deep water. Water pouring onto the north bound federal highway entrance to the airport, paralyzing traffic going in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was supposed to leave. It was 7:25 but then I got a message about an hour ago, seeding at an hour later.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN AFFILIATE WSBN (voice-over): And not an inch of movement going out. Around 5:40 the airport shut down. Officials asking people not to come to the airport or to leave. Water flooding the tarmac.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And everybody's phones was blaring off and I'm from Ireland. I've never seen a tornado before and have never experienced that. So, I was probably getting I wasn't afraid that the plane would blow away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN AFFILIATE WSBN (voice-over): But off the plane it wasn't any better. In fact, it was likely worse. The rain, relentless. Flooding lower levels of a parking garage.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really scary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN AFFILIATE WSBN (voice-over): And the flooding on surrounding roadways and on airport property led to hours long gridlock, trapping drivers in their cars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were no public announcements, so that's the thing that's frustrating. Would have just stayed in the terminal if we'd known.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to just pull over to the side. Streets were flooded everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN AFFILIATE WSBN (voice-over): Mark Barber was trying to get to a friend's mother in her flooded home.
MARK BARBER: Everywhere was flooded out every which way. They go down 84. So, I thought I could swing through the airport, but I'm stuck here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, CNN AFFILIATE WSBN (voice-over): Inside the terminal and outside in traffic. It's just a waiting game. Waiting for the rain to end.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to be here for two weeks, so I will have time to enjoy my family.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: For the latest, let's go now to meteorologist Britley Ritz, who is at the CNN Weather Center for us. Britley, are south Floridians going to get any respite?
BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, a little bit. Things have finally died down a bit, Bianca, thankfully.
[04:05:00]
But over the last 24 hours, many of us across Broward County's coastline have picked up a ridiculous amount of rain. 10 to 20 inches in that area highlighted in purple. You'll see that up to 20 inches have been verified. But in some cases, 22 1/2inches. Now that's estimated. But if it's the case, then we wound up with that one in 1,000 to one in 5,000-year event. Which is pretty substantial. Now, 22 1/2 inches in Ft. Lauderdale, again estimated. If that's the case, too, that's more rain than what they typically get in a seven-month average period of time from November to May. Now, May starts the rainy season and I think we're getting started early here.
Scattered showers still a possibility, riding up the treasure coast into the space coast, but again nothing like we saw over the last few hours. Most of the rain now concentrated around the center of that area of low pressure that's still brought that rain across the East Coast of Florida.
It's moving in now to parts of Mobile, some of the heaviest of the rain this morning continuing on. Then it pushes inland and right up the East Coast again as we roll into Friday, very scattered. But still, if we get one lone storm to sit, it's not a good situation as we saw.
Rainfall totals anywhere between one and two inches along the East Coast that includes Miami up into parts of Melbourne, which would be the Space Coast. Mobile right up into parts of Mississippi, expect most of the rain with that area of low pressure through Friday, picking up an additional 2 to 4 inches of rain on top of what we've already picked up. And that severe weather threat holds too across the southeast. Isolated tornadoes, a possibility as well with the spin of that low.
And on the ridge from the East Coast back into the plains, a fire risk and with that comes the heat. 65 possible record highs are possible all the way through the rest of this week. And temperatures we're talking about almost 15 to 20 degrees above their normal. 64 is our typical high in Philadelphia. On Thursday, we'll hit a high of 87 degrees. We'll eventually get a cold front to move through and cool down for the weekend -- Bianca.
NOBILO: Meteorologist Britley Ritz, thank you so much.
An appeals court issued a ruling a short time ago on the fate of a key medication abortion drug in the U.S. It decided to partially grant the Justice Department's request to freeze the judge's ruling that invalidated the FDA approval of mifepristone. But it left in part -- it left parts in place of the order that halted changes to make the abortion pill more easily accessible. That effectively will make the drug harder to obtain as the legal process plays out. The case could ultimately end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
And we're learning new details about who might be behind the leak of highly classified documents from the Pentagon. "The Washington Post" reports that they were posted in a chat room by someone who worked at an unidentified military base. The Post describes him as a lonely young man and a gun enthusiast who went by the nickname OG. The documents were shared with about two dozen people on social media platform Discord, which is popular with video gamers.
The Post cites an interview with a friend of the alleged leaker, who was also you member of that chat group.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The documents were often listed as Ukraine versus Russia at first. However, it's slowly spiraled into just intelligence about everything. But when I first found out that these were public -- made public, it felt like my heart was beaten out of its chest and my legs were buckling and I could not believe that this was happening. We didn't realize the sheer, just immense nature of these leaks until a bit later.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: CNN can't independently verify "The Washington Post" report. The source refused to name the alleged leaker. Documents posted online reveals U.S. efforts to spy on a number of its closest allies.
Louisville, Kentucky is coming together in the wake of Monday's deadly mass shooting at a downtown bank. Hundreds gathered at a vigil Wednesday evening to honor and remember the five people killed when a bank employee opened fire. The state's governor lost a close friend in the attack and is now advocating for stricter gun laws. He read a list of the victims at the gathering.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDY BESHEAR (D) KENTUCKY GOVERNOR: Tommy, Josh, Juliana, Jim, Deana. Fathers, mothers, grandparents, children, friends. Each one a child of God. These are irreplaceable Kentuckians taken far too soon by a senseless act of violence that is certainly making me feel heartbroken.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Police have now released 911 calls detailing the panic and fear during the shooting, including one from the gunman's mother.
[04:10:00]
Shimon Prokupecz, reports on what we're learning and a warning that you might find some of the video disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHOOTER'S MOTHER: I don't know what to do. I need your help.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A mom calls 9-1-1 after she was told her son had a gun and was headed to the Louisville bank where he worked.
SHOOTER'S MOTHER: My son might be (redacted) have a gun and he is heading toward the Old National.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): But she said she didn't believe her 25-year- old son was a threat.
SHOOTER'S MOTHER: And please, he's not violent. He's never done anything. Please, he's --
DISPATCHER: OK, and you don't believe he owns guns?
SHOOTER'S MOTHER: I know he doesn't own any gun.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): But she would wind up being wrong, and the call came too late.
CALLER: Oh my God, there's an active shooter there.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): Her son was already inside the bank where he worked, shooting.
CALLER: Maybe he had a rifle, a gun.
DISPATCHER: Has anybody been shot?
CALLER: Yes.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): One 9-1-1 caller hiding from the gunman.
CALLER: I'm in the closet with one person. I hear, I hear, I hear gunshots.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): And bank employees watching the attack unfold on a video conference meeting.
CALLER: We heard multiple shots and everybody started --
DISPATCHER: OK.
CALLER: -- saying oh my God, and then he came into the boardroom.
DISPATCHER: OK --
PROKUPECZ (voice over): The gunman livestreamed the attack on Instagram. It was just one minute before he sat down and waited for police to arrive.
DEPUTY CHIEF PAUL HUMPHREY, LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE: He went to the front lobby after assaulting the victims in the office area, and he could see out where no one could see in.
CALLER: Please get people there fast, please.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): The shooter used an AR-15 style rifle he had legally bought six days before the attack according to police.
OFFICER: On Central and Baker on scene. We do have shots fired.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): Body camera video shows Louisville Metro Police officers responding.
OFFICER: We are making an entry from the -- from the east side at Preston and Main.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): And heading toward the gunfire.
(GUNSHOTS)
PROKUPECZ (voice over): Twenty-six-year-old officer, Nickolas Wilt is shot in the head and critically injured.
DISPATCHER: And we have a gunshot wound of an officer.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): His training officer Cory Galloway takes cover but is also shot before he returns fire and kills the gunman.
INTERIM CHIEF JACQUELYN GWINN-VILLAROEL, LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Timing as we all know is everything but not having officers to hesitate, but actually really go in and say, I need to stop this threat.
PROKUPECZ (voice over): No words can express our sorrow, anguish and horror at the unthinkable harm, a statement from the family's lawyers said. But they also said that he struggled with depression.
While the shooter, like many of his contemporaries, had mental health challenges, which we, as a family were actively addressing, there were never any warning signs or indications he was capable of this shocking act.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: A Democratic lawmaker kicked out of the Tennessee state government for demanding stricter gun laws after a deadly school shooting has got his job back. The Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted on Wednesday to send Justin Pearson back to the Tennessee House. The Republican supermajority had expelled Pearson last week. He and two other Democrats were accused of intentionally causing disorder and dishonor after they held a loud protest in the chamber. But Pearson made it clear he's back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON PEARSON, TENNESSEE HOUSE DEMOCRAT: They tried to kill democracy. They tried to expel the people's choice and the people's vote. And they are awakened by a sleeping giant. Gloria Johnson And Justin Jones and me on trial. But they ended up putting themselves on track.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: And those other two lawmakers, Pearson mentioned, who joined him in that initial protests were in Memphis on Wednesday to support him.
Jury selection begins today in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and things are already off to a rocky start with the judge. He wants an investigation of whether the network lied to the court and withheld evidence, CNN's Brian Todd reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Stinging setbacks for Fox News in the defamation case against the network by Dominion Voting Systems. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis says he plans to appoint an outside attorney, a so-called special master, to investigate whether Fox News lied to the court and withheld key evidence in the case.
Dressing down Fox's, attorneys from the bench, Judge Davis said, quote, I am very concerned that there have been misrepresentations to the court. This is very serious.
RONNELL ANDERSEN JONES, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH COLLEGE OF LAW: No one wants to head into a trial, particularly a trial where $1.6 billion is on the line with the judge upset with them. You especially don't want to head into a trial that is about knowing falsity with the judge thinking that you have engaged in misrepresentations.
[04:15:00]
TODD (voice-over): Judge Davis also today imposed a sanction on Fox over that same matter. The judge has expressed frustration over Fox not being forthcoming over Chairman Rupert Murdoch's role at the company. Fox lawyers had long claimed Murdoch doesn't have an official role at Fox News, that he was only an officer at Fox Corporation. It was only clarified recently that Murdoch is also an officer at Fox News. ANDERSEN JONES: Dominion is quite upset to be learning at the last minute that that role might be different than it was told. You can see that the judge here agrees.
TODD (voice-over): Fox denies wrongdoing and says it properly disclosed Murdoch's roles.
Also, this week, another reveal of the enormous scope of internal debates at Fox News that Dominion has been able to uncover in this case. Dominion played previously undisclosed audio, not on air, of Fox News Host Maria Bartiromo interacting with former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell in November 2020.
In one clip, Bartiromo asked Giuliani if then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was tied to Dominion. Giuliani replied, quote, I can't prove that yet. In another clip, Sidney Powell asked Bartiromo if Fox could steer viewers to Powell's legal defense fund. Bartiromo seemingly agreed to do it, but her producers rejected the idea.
Bartiromo was being deferential to Sidney Powell at around the same time that court papers say other Fox hosts were slamming Powell and Giuliani privately.
Laura Ingraham texting Tucker Carlson saying, quote, Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.
Fox News is being sued for $1.6 billion for allegedly promoting false claims about Dominion machines rigging the 2020 presidential election.
JANE HALL, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION: There's probably going to be a lot of fallout from this no matter what. They can't put this back in the bottle and say, we didn't tell you a lie. They did.
TODD: Overall Fox says it didn't defame anyone and shouldn't be held liable for the assertions of hosts and guests on its air. Fox says the Dominion lawsuit is a violation of its First Amendment rights and an attempt to, quote, publicly smear Fox for covering Trump's election claims. The trial is expected to last about six weeks.
Brian Todd, CNN Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Donald Trump is back in New York today to face another legal battle. Sources tell CNN that he may be deposed in a civil lawsuit filed by the state Attorney General. Trump three of his adult children and the Trump Organization are accused of a decades long scheme to enrich themselves by providing false financial statements to lenders and others. The Trump's deny any wrongdoing.
Lawyers for the former president have asked a judge to delay the start of a sexual assault and defamation trial following Trump's historic indictment earlier this month. His legal team is seeking to push back the trial by one month -- that would be too late May. They claim potential jurors will have the criminal charges top of mind and that could taint the jury pool.
Former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll opposes the delay request with her lawyer, calling it meritless. Carroll alleges that Trump raped her in the mid 1990s and defamed her while he was president. And he said that she made up the claim to boost sales of her book. Trump denies the accusations.
Meanwhile, Michael Cohen's attorney says his client will not be deterred or intimidated by a new lawsuit brought by former President Trump. Trump is seeking 50 -- $500 million in federal court, accusing his former attorney and fixer of breaching his contract. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has the details from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Donald Trump is suing his former attorney, Michael Cohen, related to everything that Cohen is saying publicly now about Trump, especially around his charges in New York and the hush money payments that Cohen was funneling to Stormy Daniels before Trump's 2016 election to keep her quiet.
Now, this is a new lawsuit that Trump is filing in his now favorite venue, the federal court in Florida, and he's asking for $500 million in damages. Basically, saying that Cohen was spreading false information about him and also may have breached contracts by talking about his work for Donald Trump his client, so, attorney client relationship. And also talking about his time as an employee of the Trump Organization.
Now when Cohen was talking publicly, much of it has been done in the course of criminal investigations, at least to prosecutors, who are building the case around him as a key witness. But he's also been out there on podcasts, in a book tour, doing many media interviews about Donald Trump. And so, Trump is taking issue with that.
We do know previously; Cohen has actually tried to sue Trump himself to pay for his legal fees whenever he was participating in a federal investigation around this. And in that separate federal investigation long ago that this investigation in New York that brought the charges against Donald Trump grew out of, we know that there was a finding Cohen was actually doing very little legal work for Donald Trump at that time.
[04:20:00]
But Donald Trump still wants to protect all of this interaction he may have had with Michael Cohen. But prosecutors say was ultimately illegal behavior.
Katelyn Polantz, CNN Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Still to come, new details on a laundry list of issues at an Indiana recycling plant where a massive toxic fire could burn for days.
Plus, finally some relief for shoppers in the U.S. food prices have dipped for the first time in 2.5 years.
And gruesome reports from the battlefield in Ukraine. Video of Russian fighters apparently beheading Ukrainian soldiers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: A toxic recycling plant fire in the state of Indiana has forced thousands of people from their homes with no idea when they might be able to return. Residents have been advised to stay indoors, conserve energy, limit engines in their vehicles and not burn anything that could add more harmful smoke to the region. As questions grow about what caused the incident, CNN's Omar Jimenez reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE MCCRACKEN, RICHMOND, INDIANA RESIDENT: Well, I've always said that place is going to go up in flames one day and it sure did.
[04:25:00]
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This massive fire at a large recycling plant, putting out toxic smoke could burn for days. Officials say 14 acres of plastics stored on the property, but with this site, especially, it wasn't a matter of if, but when, with city officials aware the operations were a fire hazard.
CHIEF TIM BROWN, RICHMOND FIRE DEPARTMENT: Issue was an unsafe building and unsafe grounds.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): And putting the blame squarely on the owner of the recycling plan.
DAVE SNOW, RICHMOND, INDIANA MAYOR: That business owner is fully responsible for all of this. We have the unsafe building order and the recorded court documents. And everything that's ensued here -- the fire, the damages, the risk that our first responders have taken, and the risk these citizens are under are the responsibility of that negligent business owner.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): An evacuation order is in place for a half mile radius. Around 2,000 residents ordered to evacuate, including one who lives at the heart of it.
BRENDA JERRELL, RICHMOND, INDIANA RESIDENT: I can see from the debris that some of it was on fire and it hit the trees, the tree line, and the trees immediately ignited.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): When she got the evacuation order, she didn't hesitate to leave her home.
JERRELL: And when they said evacuate, I didn't have shoes on. I had socks on and I left my purse, my shoes. I left a lot of things, personal things, you know, at the house and just got in the car and drove away.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): For health officials, their key concern now is hazards from the smoke.
CHRISTINE STINSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WAYNE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT: These are very fine particles and if they're breathed in can cause all kinds of respiratory problems. Burning of the eyes, tightening of the chest, it could aggravate asthma, cause bronchitis and all kinds of things.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): The EPA monitoring particulate matter, looking for toxic chemicals. Residents are being told to stay indoors, but the uncertainty is causing concerns and frustrations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to say what's going into the city there right now.
WAZIR MOHAMED, RICHMOND, INDIANA RESIDENT: We would like to know that it is safe to be able to breathe the air and to drink the water. So, we want to hear from the officials.
JIMENEZ: Now we've reached out to the previously mentioned owner of the burning property behind us, but we haven't heard back. Now the EPA teams have been on the ground here, testing the air quality. Now so far, as far as the area around the ground, they have not seen levels of toxins. But they believe those toxins are going into the air. And so, again, while the air quality around the ground is OK. Now they believe that is something that could change at some point, and it is why they say they are testing continuously.
Omar Jimenez, CNN Richmond, Indiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Ukraine's security service opened a war crimes investigation as two videos posted online appeared to show Russian fighters beheading Ukrainian soldiers. The foreign minister in Kyiv calls it worse than ISIS and says Russia should be kicked out of the U.N.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described the Russian fighters as beasts who must be held accountable.
CNN's Clare Sebastian joins me now with more. Clare, walk us through what we know and what we've seen.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're not showing the videos because they are incredibly graphic but we are showing some stills from these videos and we should still warn our viewers that they are also graphic and could be disturbing. So, take caution to watch that.
The first video that we're going to talk about purports to show the aftermath of two beheadings of Ukrainian soldiers purportedly filmed by members of the Wagner private military company. You can see and there's still sort of see the ruins of an armored vehicle nearby and their two bodies lying on the ground. But if you look again at that close up, you can see a yellow arm band that is -- it shows it sort of loyalty to the Ukrainian military that is on one of the victims. They had their heads cut off, and it looks like their hands as well.
A voice in Russian on the video says that says they've been killed, their heads have been cut off. There's laughter. Pro Russian social media channels have claimed that this video was filmed near Bakhmut. We, of course, have not been able to verify this.
There's another video, which shows the actual act or seems to show the act of a beheading. The plant life as you can see in this video suggests that it might have been filmed in summer sometime ago. Perhaps we haven't been able to verify that, but you can see that white band around that soldier's leg that is the soldier actually carrying out the beheading that shows loyalty to the Russian military.
And then we have another image, which shows a yellow armband again around the arm of the victim, very, very graphic. That again that yellow showing affiliation with the Ukrainian military. So, these we can't confirm where or when, or who, as of yet. As you said the Ukrainian security services are conducting an investigation. But really, really graphic points to potentially crimes carried out by Russia and the ongoing brutality of this war.
And the videos themselves, Bianca, point potentially to part of this information war. Ukrainian officials are warning about the propaganda value of them. They might be used as a psychological operation to intimidate in this war.
NOBILO: Clare Sebastian thank you so much.
[04:30:00]
