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CNN International: Trump Faces Total of 37 Counts in Federal Indictment in Classified Documents Case; I-95 Highway Collapse Could Take Months to Repair; Ukraine: Russia On the Defensive in Some Areas; Philippine Volcano Spews Lava; U.S. Citizen Detained in Moscow on Drug Charges; Thousands Evacuate as Philippine Volcano Erupts; New Video Shows Rescue of Four Missing Children in Columbia. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 12, 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.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Max Foster joining you live from London. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump will come to court on Tuesday, but he'll have that proceeding, be read his charges and we expect him to enter a plea of not guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any other defendant who faced this, would be in the most grave trouble. And I think Donald Trump is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A vehicle fire underneath I-95 caused a portion of the highway above to collapse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This cleanup could take some number of months and this is going to be a traffic nightmare.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayon has been spewing dangerous sulfuric gas and lava, it is one of the most active of the 24 volcanoes in the Philippines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: It is Monday, June 12th. 9:00 a.m. here in London. 4:00 a.m. in Miami, Florida, where former U.S. President Donald Trump will huddle with his legal team in the coming hours, one day before he's set to walk into a federal court and face 37 criminal charges.

NOBILO: Those charges are related to his handling of classified documents after he left office. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and railed against the charges in comments over the weekend. His former Attorney General's also speaking out and criticizing Trump's claim that he is being targeted and unfairly treated by the government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Here, I think the government acted responsibly. They gave him every opportunity to return those documents. They acted with restraint. They were very deferential to him and they were very patient. They talked to him for almost a year to try to get the documents and he jerked them around. They finally went through a subpoena. And what did he do? According to the government, he lied and obstructed that subpoena. And then they did a search and they found a lot more documents. And they're not even -- I don't think they're even sure now whether they have everything. So, they acted in a very patient way, and what they were met with was, according to the government and the indictment, very egregious obstruction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Trump is planning to deliver remarks in the hours after his court appearance on Tuesday. Sources say that will happen at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club where he'll be hosting a fundraiser. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has more from Miami.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: The level of detail and evidence that the Justice Department has collected in the case has begun to sink in. And Donald Trump's own Attorney General, Bill Barr, one of his top people in his own administration who had gone to bat for him multiple times saying investigations throughout Donald Trump should not have been taking place. Previously was condemning the actions of the former president after he left the White House.

Because this indictment is so explicit and the evidence that it has, because of the photos of documents in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, photos of boxes of documents spilled in a storage room. And then those 31 charges each representing a document that Donald Trump is accused of willfully retaining outside of the protected area of the federal government -- top secret documents, classified documents, national security information. Here's more of what Bill Barr said -- had to say on Sunday on Fox News.

BARR: And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt is ridiculous. Yes, he's been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims. And I've been at his side defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He's not a victim here. He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has. They have to be in the custody of the archivist. He had no right to maintain them and retain them. And he kept them in a way at Mar-a-Lago that anyone who really cares about national security would -- their stomach would churn at it.

[04:05:00] POLANTZ: Now with this indictment approved by the grand jury here in Florida, a process will kick off in the federal court system at this courthouse in Miami. So Donald Trump currently is going to be traveling. Because he needs to get here and face his charges in person. So, he's going to be traveling to Miami on Monday, along with his body man, Walt Nauta, a man also charged in this case, as part of the alleged obstruction part of this investigation. And then they will stay at a resort -- at his resort, near Miami, and then huddle with lawyers.

So, they're going to having to talk to their lawyers about what's going to be expected on Tuesday in federal court. And then Trump will come to court on Tuesday. But he's going to have a lot of Secret Service protection around him. It's very possible that there will be no live pictures of him or even photographs of him coming into the building to face these charges for his initial appearance. There's no photos in federal court. There's no video inside the building either. And so, he'll have that proceeding. He be read his charges and we expect him to enter a plea of not guilty at this time.

Afterwards, he's going to turn political again. The legal part of the day will be done. And Trump is also announcing he was flying back to Bedminster, New Jersey, where he has another resort and he will be giving a speech.

Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The mayor of Miami says the city will hold a news conference in the hours ahead, focused on safety and security precautions at the courthouse ahead of Donald Trump's appearance on Tuesday. Now Francis Suarez spoke about the preparations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCIS SUAREZ, MIAMI, FLORIDA MAYOR: I can tell you that in Miami, we're going to have a press conference on Monday to talk about safety and security. We want to make sure that all of our citizens know that they're able to express their First Amendment rights. And at the same time, we're going to keep them safe and we're going to make sure there are no disorder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Experts and CNN analysts are weighing in on the case and what impact it could have, not only on Trump, but on the Republican Party as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Our system of government absolutely -- our system of justice, depends on people being innocent in proven guilty. It doesn't disqualify him. But his party should think twice about having as its standard-bearer someone who is put at risk, it appears, major American secrets. The Republican Party has wrapped around -- it has wrapped itself

around the U.S. Army, U.S. military, understandably. They have a great military. Our military depends on secrets and keeping secrets. Our military depends on the loyalty of those who have been entrusted with knowledge, for knowledge, of military actions. The Republican Party, if it wishes to be the standard-bearer and the defender of the U.S. military must stand up now for American secrets.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Some say with all of the evidence cited in the indictment, this could be the most serious legal trouble that Trump has ever faced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORM EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The proof is so overwhelming. That doesn't mean we're not going to hear defenses from Donald Trump. But I worked on the classified document rules that the government cited in its indictment. And there virtually is no defense for this. Anyone else who did this, once or twice, one or two documents would be looking at jail time. This volume 31 counts under the Espionage Act alone. And then the long pattern of alleged obstruction of justice, wow. The biggest legal jeopardy Donald Trump has ever faced by far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: We'll have more on this just ahead, including what some voters are saying about the indictment.

Officials in U.S. state of Pennsylvania say it could take months to repair a section of a major highway that collapsed on Sunday. This is Interstate 95 in Philadelphia which was heavily damaged when a fuel tanker -- fuel tanker truck caught fire beneath it. Here's what one driver experienced as he drove near the area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK FUSETTI, DRIVER (via phone): At first, I thought, OK, this is just a brush fire. And I hit that bump, which was startling, but it's also in a section where they're doing reconstruction. So, it all just kind of I thought at the moment, like OK, this is just, you know, a normal bump, a normal little brush fire. Then once I realized what happened, when I looked in my rear-view mirror, I see 95, all of the cars stopping and then I learned, you know, shortly after that, that the road had just collapsed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: The city's mayor said no injuries or deaths have been reported so far. Local and federal investigators are now trying to find out what started the destructive fire. CNN's Danny Freeman has more now from Philadelphia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The big questions that we don't have an answer to yet are still why and how did this fire and this collapse happen?

[04:10:00]

The governor and the city were not giving answers during a press conference Sunday evening. But I will tell you what we do know about how all of this wept down.

Basically before 6:30 Sunday morning, there was a tanker truck that was sitting underneath I-95. That tanker truck then caught fire, and that fire is what ultimately led to the collapse of the northbound lanes on I-95. And the governor told us Sunday that the southbound lanes also are not safe at this moment.

Now currently, the truck is still trapped underneath that wreckage. We've been hearing all throughout the day, jack hammering and heavy machinery working through the day to sift through that rubble. And while there have been no reported injuries, the governor is saying they're working to see if anyone was actually alive in that truck when this collapse happened.

Now the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said that there are 500 tons of concrete mess now sitting on the ground. That's what officials have to sift through. Take a listen to what Governor Shapiro said when he laid eyes on this incident first.

JOSH SHAPIRO (D) PHILADELPHIA GOVERNOR: Remarkable devastation. And I found myself, you know, thanking the lord that no motorists who were on I-95 were injured or died. It's just a remarkably devastating sight. One that our first responders, law enforcement and others contained very, very quickly. They got people out of harm's way. And now, under leadership of Secretary Carroll and others, the hard work of clearing the site, rebuilding it, will be under way and we're going to move as quickly as possible.

FREEMAN: Now, Governor Josh Shapiro said that this cleanup could take, quote, some number of months. And just for some perspective, this is going to be a traffic nightmare. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said that this stretch of I-95 carries about 160,000 vehicles every single day. It's likely the busiest in the state of Pennsylvania.

Danny Freeman, CNN, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Australian authorities arrested the bus driver involved in a deadly crash in New South Wales. And the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is extending his deepest sympathies for those killed in the horrific bus tragedy.

NOBILO: Initial reports indicate at least ten people were killed and 25 others injured in the crash. The bus was returning from a wedding Sunday night when it flipped on its side while turning it around about.

FOSTER: The 58-year-old male bus driver was initially taken to hospital under police guard for mandatory testing and assessment.

NOBILO: Ukraine says Russia is on the defensive when it comes to fighting around Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. This comes as Ukrainian armed forces liberated villages along the eastern frontlines. Ukraine's defense minister says three villages in the Donetsk Region have been recaptured and Russian pro-military bloggers are warning its forces should, quote, expect the pressure to intensifying soon.

FOSTER: Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials say water levels are receding in parts of Dnipro River's west bank. But nearly 50 settlements are still flooded. It's been nearly a week since the Nova Kakhovka dam collapsed unleashing a torrent of water into the surrounding areas.

NOBILO: Clare Sebastian joins us to discuss the stories. Clare, obviously Ukraine is keen to -- gone up momentum and early successes in this counteroffensive. We're hearing about three villages being liberated. Obviously, there's extreme operational silence from Kyiv there about the future plans. What do you know at this stage?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think all we can tell from the locations of these villages, is that could potentially fit with the strategy we've all been discussing now for several weeks, if not months, of essentially -- I don't know if we can pull up the map again to show it -- but cutting in half Russia's gains so far. And if you look at where that is, it's just at the top of that frontline where Russia occupies in red there. That is really the narrowest strip linking Ukrainian controlled territory with the Sea of Azov. So possibly fits with that strategy cutting off the land bridge to Crimea.

I think the other thing to bear in mind here is that it's not just there we're seeing fighting. We're seeing pockets of fighting around Bakhmut. There is evidence further up even in Kupyansk, which is pretty much the northern most part of the eastern front line. Either they're keeping them guessing or perhaps there's still some probing activity. But I think that is key to understand this isn't as of now a localized counteroffensive like we saw in the Kyiv in the spring of 2022, like we saw in Kharkiv last autumn. It's over a widespread area.

But this is a hard fight for Ukraine. We are hearing from sources intelligence firm, a Dutch firm, include Oryx that they've lost 16 U.S. supplied armored vehicles, Bradelys, in the last several days. That's about That's about 15 percent of what the U.S. has supplied in total in terms of those Bradelys.

Russia has overall, according to the firm, lost much more equipment over the course of this war. But Russia is making a lot of these attacks on western equipment and Ukrainian strongholds of equipment and forces in general. So you know, military analysts will tell you much harder to attack then defend, certainly in terms of losses.

NOBILO: And in President Zelenskyy's Sunday night address, he said the ICC has begun its probe of the Kakhovka dam disaster. [04:15:00]

What will that involve?

SEBASTIAN: Yes, we don't know yet. We haven't been able to confirmed this with the ICC itself. But Zelenskyy is saying that this is on request of Ukraine by the prosecutor's office that officials have already visited the site. We need to try to understand what the parameters of the investigation are. Whether it's a war crimes investigation. We know that the Geneva Convention covers the destruction of installations that unleash damaging forces, they call that can include dams. So, that might be part of the investigation. But we don't know yet.

And meanwhile, as you say, a week on, they're still doing rescues efforts. A thousand people have been evacuated. Ukraine has even said its evacuated more than 100 people from the Russian side -- the Russian occupied side of the Dnipro River and of course, the environmental catastrophe they're unfolding.

NOBILO: Clare Sebastian, as always, thank you so much.

FOSTER: The mother of U.S. citizen Travis Leake detained in Moscow on drug charges says she has yet to hear from anyone in the U.S. government about his current status. CNN's Jennifer Hansler has the details from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: A court in Moscow has accused U.S. citizen Travis Leake of drug dealing or in their words engaging in the narcotics business through attracting young people and has said he will remain detained there in Russia until at least early August.

Now the State Department confirmed Travis' arrest and they said that there were officials from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow there at his arraignment hearing yesterday. Now Travis' mother says she has not heard from the State Department as of Sunday and she is concerned about the welfare of her son being imprisoned there in Russia. She is concerned about his well-being and his health and she said she would reach out to the U.S. government because she has still not heard from them -- if she did not hear from them by Monday.

Now, this arrest, of course, comes at a time of very heightened tension between the United States and Russia. We have seen them detain numerous Americans. Two of those Americans, Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan have been deemed wrongfully detained by the U.S. State Department. And last year Brittney Griner, the WNBA star, who was freed in a prisoner swap, was also arrested on drug charges.

Now one thing viewers should note, is that Travis had been living in Moscow reportedly since 2010. And about a decade ago he spoke with the late Anthony Bourdain about the state of repression in Russia. He cited an incident that happened with MTV and his band and the Russian government. Take a listen to what he said about that. TRAVIS LEAKE, U.S. CITIZEN DETAINED IN RUSSIA: This was a documentary

series about musicians standing up and risking their lives in some cases. Standing up against government abuse of power, government corruption. And yet, a foreign government was able to editorially control what American viewers see on their TV screens. That to me is a scandal of epic proportion.

HANSLER: And we will be continuing to follow this case. We will be watching to see what the U.S. government has to stay about Travis' arrest. For now, a State Department official said they will continue to monitor the case closely.

Jennifer Hansler, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, new footage from the moment four children who had been missing in the Colombian rainforest for weeks were finally rescued.

FOSTER: Plus, despite a federal criminal indictment on charges -- on dozens of charges, Donald Trump's fans and supporters are standing by their man. We'll hear from some of them.

NOBILO: And later, this bear beat the heat by taking a trip to the beach. We'll show you where this very beach goer was spotted. Coming up.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Rescuers are searching for three British tourists who are missing after a fire broke out on a boat in the Egyptian Red Sea. 12 other tourists were rescued. Video shows one person jumping into the water as the boat is engulfed in flames. The survivors, along with the boat's crew were taken to the nearby diving resort.

NOBILO: The Red Sea's state governor's office says the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit on board. The U.K.'s foreign office says it supporting the British nationals who are involved.

Nearly 13,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the Philippines, as one of the country's most active volcanos erupts.

FOSTER: Officials say Mount Mayon has been spewing sulfuric acid and lava in the southeastern part of Luzon, the nation's largest island. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout following this for us. Sulfuric acid, said (INAUDIBLE) the situation?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, sulfuric gases are being spewed from this volcano. Lava is starting to flow from the violent volcano in the Philippines and nearly 13,000 residents, thankfully, has been evacuated and taken to 18 evacuation centers.

We have videos of the evacuations that have been taking place. And you see the families bringing their children and their belonging to the shelters. This involves some thousands of families that have lived around the volcano now in these evacuation centers.

The government says at least 88 percent of the local population has already been evacuated and they're working to move the rest to safety.

Now Mayon has been spewing sulfuric gas and lava in the past 24 hours. And let's bring up that dramatic video again, the video that was just filmed last night on Sunday evening. Where you see the glowing hot lava, the hot molten rock flowing. An alert level 3 out of 5 is the effect, and that signals a possibility of explosive volcano activity and a perimeter is in place. Any entry into a so-called danger zone, the six-kilometer, or 3.7-mile radius of the volcano has been prohibited.

There are no major industries around this volcano. There is subsistence farming. And local officials, in addition to evacuated the 13,000 residents from the area have evacuated 10,000 farm animals as well.

I want to show you the map of where this volcano is located. It's located in the Philippine's Albay Province. It is in the southeastern part of Luzon Island, some 330 kilometers or 205 miles away from Manila, the capital.

And of course, the Philippines is a country that's in the ring of fire. It's where volcanic activity, earthquakes, tremors are very, very common.

[04:25:00]

But now all eyes on what Mayon going to do next. This is one of the most active of the 24 volcanos in the Philippines. And just look at it. It is known around the world because of its perfect shape. Of its near perfect conical shape which has inspired stories, myths, legends and artworks. And while it is awe-inspiring, it is destructive. It has erupted more than 40 times in the last 400 years. And given what's happening right now, volcanologists are warning a hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or even days -- Max and Bianca.

FOSTER: OK, Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, thank you.

NOBILO: Canadian firefighters appear to be making progress in an effort to obtain the large blazes in Quebec. Officials say the number of out-of-control wildfires across the province has dropped from 72 to 44. And now, more help is coming from around the world. By Monday, about 1,200 firefighters including more than 100 from France are expected to battle those flames in Quebec.

FOSTER: We're getting new images of the team that rescued those four children who've been missing in Colombia's rainforest for weeks. This video aired on a public TV station showing local indigenous scouts and Colombian soldiers feeding the children in the dense jungle. The four siblings have been lost since May 1st after surviving a plane crashed that killed their mother and two other adults.

NOBILO: And now for the first time, we're hearing from the father of those children. Stefano Pozzebon reports from Bogota.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: On Sunday, the father of the four Colombian Indigenous children who were rescued last week after spending 40 days in the Colombian Amazon rainforest, traveled to Bogota and spoke with reporters outside the hospital where his children was receiving medical treatment, Manuel Ranoque actually joined the search and rescue operations in the last five weeks and was in the jungle up until Friday when his children were finally rescued. He said that he never lost hope, not even when the stakes against him, where it seemed so daunting.

MANUEL RANOQUE, FATHER OF RESCUED INDIGENOUS CHILDREN (through translator): We are Indigenous people. I believe in the jungle, which is our mother. And that's why I've always kept the faith and would say that both the jungle and nature have never betrayed me.

POZZEBON: Ranoque also said that his children were very weak when he visited them in hospital. We can only imagine how affected they are both mentally and physically by surviving this experience. The doctors are saying that they expect the children to stay under medical observation between two and three weeks. They're also receiving psychological support at the Central Military Hospital here in Bogota.

Ranoque concluded by urging the Colombian President Gustavo Petro to invest more into transportation in the Amazon. And also said that he wants to provide his children a good education in the future. With just a reminder that the mother of the four children died in that fatal crash on May 1st when this ordeal began.

For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Now despite serious criminal charges and an apparent mountain of evidence against Donald Trump, his supporters are sticking with him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's an audio report of him doing so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know that can be changed. We know that can be altered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: We'll have more on their reactions after the break.

NOBILO: Plus, the former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon released without charges after Sunday's arrest. Hear what she's saying amid a probe into the Scottish National Party's finances.

[04:30:00]