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CNN International: Special Counsel Jack Smith's Investigation into Trump and the 2020 Election; Walt Nauta Pleads Not Guilty; Bag of Cocaine in the White House West Wing; Russian Police Raids Prigozhin's Home; Prigozhin's Whereabouts Still Unknown; U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen in Beijing; Twitter Threatening to Sue Meta Threads; Ukraine Destroys Two-Thirds of Drones Russia Used in Latest Strikes: Lviv Death Toll Grows to 10 People; Zelenskyy Heads to Turkey; House Freedom Caucus voted to Remove Marjorie Taylor Greene; Greene Expelled from Freedom Caucus; OceanGate Suspends Operations; Millions at Risk for Severe Weather; Controversial Fukushima Wastewater Plan; Britney Spears Calling Foul on a Security Guard. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 07, 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]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and all on the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Bianca is off today, but just ahead on "CNN Newsroom."

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: There were a lot of chaotic meetings in the Trump White House, this one was described as probably the most chaotic, the most unhinged.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: CNN has learned that the far-right House Freedom Caucus did vote to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Donald Trump ally from the hard-line group.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Beijing sees Yellen as this voice of reason in the Biden administration. You know, she has pushed to maintain economic ties with China.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twitter's newest rival is off to a strong start. And in response, Twitter is threatening to sue.

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

FOSTER: This Friday, July the 7th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. in Washington, and we begin with exclusive CNN reporting about Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Donald Trump and the 2020 election.

Our sources are telling us that Smith and his team have signaled a continued interest in what was one of the most chaotic meetings to ever happen in the Oval Office. It happened to December the 18th of 2020, six weeks after Trump lost the election.

Attorney Sydney Powell, Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and others floated some desperate ideas to keep Trump in power. They talked about having the military seize voting machines, declaring martial law, and appointing power as a special prosecutor to investigate alleged election fraud. A number of witnesses testified to the January 6th Congressional Committee about the meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT CIPOLLONE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: I was not happy to see the people in the Oval Office. I don't think any of these people were providing the president with good advice.

DEREK LYONS, FORMER DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: I mean, at times there were people shouting at each other, throwing insults at each other.

SIDNEY POWELL, ATTORNEY: Cipollone and (INAUDIBLE) and whoever the other person was showed nothing but contempt and disdain of the president.

ERIC HERSCHMANN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: I think that it got to the point where the screaming was completely out there.

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: I'm going to categorically describe it as, you guys are not tough enough, or maybe I'll put it another way, you are a bunch of --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Prosecutors have asked witnesses about the outsiders who attended the meeting. Powell, Flynn and Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, it came four days after the Electoral College met to officially cast their ballots declaring Joe Biden the winner. And after that meeting, Trump tweeted about the January 6th rally, saying, it will be wild.

More now from CNN's Kaitlan Collins speaking with Anderson Cooper about the exclusive reporting.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: There were a lot of chaotic meetings in the Trump White House, this one was described as probably the most chaotic, the most unhinged, and it happened about six weeks after Trump lost the election. It was this Oval Office meeting where these advisers from outside the White House were essentially going off against the actual attorneys inside the White House about this plan for him to seize voting machines with the military, basically to go back and recount the votes in the states, recount -- redo the votes in the states that he had lost.

And Jack Smith is asking people about this, his team is, and they've been asking witnesses months ago about it, but they've are also been asking people recently about it, including Rudy Giuliani who we learned went before his team for a voluntary sit-down last month. I'm told it was back-to-back, two days, about eight hours or so. He was asked about several topics, but he was also asked about this meeting. And so, it does signal that Jack Smith's team -- we don't know to which extent is still interested in this meeting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: We've also learned the Special Counsel is showing great interest in Trump's interactions with Arizona election officials after his 2020 loss, especially two conversations with this man, Rusty Bowers, who is Arizona house speaker at the time. Bowers is now revealing he was interviewed by the FBI several months ago about those phone calls.

Trump's legal entanglements have only compounded since he left office, most seriously at the moment to the boxes of classified materials he hoarded at his Florida home and allegedly tried to keep hidden from his own lawyers.

On Thursday, his co-defendant in the case, Walter Nauta, was -- or Walt Nauta was finally able to enter his plea. CNN's Carlos Suarez was in the Miami courtroom and has our report.

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[04:05:00]

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Walt Nauta's arraignment was quick, the 40-year-old did not say a word as he left a federal courthouse here in Downtown Miami. Nauta was finally able to enter a plea in his case after finally hiring a South Florida-based attorney. His arraignment was postponed twice because he couldn't find a local attorney.

Attorney Sasha Dadan was in court with Nauta along with his Washington, D.C.-based attorney. Dadan is a former public defender with experience, trying cases in South Florida. She has an office in Fort Pierce where Walt Nauta and Former President Donald Trump's trial will take place.

Nauta pleaded not guilty to obstruction charges and to lying to investigators. He also asked for a jury trial. Prosecutors say is that Nauta moved boxes with classified documents from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago to another part of the property in an effort to keep a Trump lawyer from finding classified documents that were subpoenaed by a grand jury.

According to a search warrant affidavit that was released on Wednesday, prosecutors said they have surveillance video from Mar-a- Lago showing someone moving boxes before the FBI search of the property. We believe that person to be Walt Nauta.

Carlos suarez, CNN, Miami, Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: $20 million, that's how much money Republican Ron DeSantis

raised in the second quarter of his presidential bid for 2024. Nearly half of that was in the first 24 hours of launching his campaign May. It's a big number, but it pales into comparison to Donald Trump's war chest. The former president announced a hall of more than $35 million in the second quarter. This comes as DeSantis's wife, Casey, just launched her "Mamas for DeSantis" campaign with this ad.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will not allow you to exploit their innocence to advance your agenda. We are no longer silent. We are united. And we finally have found our fighter.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're not going to let you impose an agenda on our kids. We're going to stand up for our kids.

CASEY DESANTIS, RON DESANTIS 2022 POLITICAL AD: We need every mama and every grandmama in every corner of the country to stand up and fight back by electing Ron DeSantis for president of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: But on the democratic side, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulled in $6 million during the second quarter of his long shot campaign for the White House. U.S. President Joe Biden been trying to win over voters who disapproved of his handling of the economy. He was in South Carolina on Thursday, a key battleground state, touting his legislative achievements. But the president admitted his economic agenda, dubbed Bidenomics, was not a victory lap.

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm not here to declare victory on the economy. I am here to say we have a plan that's turning things around quickly. But we have a lot more work to do.

When I came to office, we had a fundamental decision to make. Would we continue down a trickle-down economic path of policy that has failed time us time and again, accrue inequality, I saw jobs shipped overseas, towns hollowed out. When I ran, I promised we would not continue down a trickle-down path. F If there's a simple truth about trickledown economics, it represented a moment when we walked away from how this country was built, Bidenomics is just another way of saying, restoring the American dream.

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FOSTER: Well, the U.S. treasury secretary meeting with senior Chinese leaders in Beijing currently and trying to repair relations between the top two economies. Later this hour, Janet Yellen is expected to begin talks with the Chinese premier who is considered a close ally of the China's president. And not long ago she met with business leaders, telling them the U.S. does not want a wholesale separation of the American and Chinese economies.

CNN's Anna Coren is covering this live from the White House. And Yellen was critical of the way China has treated U.S. businesses, didn't she -- or wasn't she?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Max. She met with representatives of the U.S. Business Community. And in her opening remarks, you know, it really highlights the enormous challenges that she is facing on this visit as she tries to improve communication and relation between the world's two largest economies.

Janet Yellen expressed concern about China's punitive actions taken against U.S. firms in recent months. You may remember, there have been raids on U.S. companies in Beijing. She's also concerned about China's decision this week to control exports of critical minerals used in technologies like semiconductors. This, of course, is a huge issue between the U.S. and China, and will no doubt dominate her talks with the Chinese officials.

[04:10:00]

The Biden administration is preparing additional restrictions on U.S. technology trade with China, including potential limits on advanced chips and U.S. investments in China, citing national security. And, this, no doubt, will further anger Beijing. But Yellen is seen as this voice of reason, an economic pragmatist. And she has really pushed to maintain economic ties with China. She is argued against tariffs and warned that decoupling would be disastrous. Let's take a listen to what she had to said a little earlier.

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JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: The United States does not seek a wholesale separation of our economies. We seek to diversify and not to decouple. Decoupling of the world's two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy and it would be virtually impossible to undertake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: So, diversifying, de-risking, but not a decoupling. Now, this morning, she met with some old friends, former counterpart, Former Vice Premier Liu He, and outgoing governor of the People's Bank of China, Yi Gang. They met for an informal and substantive conversation.

Very shortly, Max, at the bottom of this hour, she will meet with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, at the Great Tall of the People. She was with him at the Paris Finance Summit last month where she said that the world expects China and the U.S. to work together.

Roughly $700 billion in trade, you know, occurs between China and the U.S. each year. Both economies are deeply entwined and, you know, with the global economic uncertainty it only adds to the importance of this relationship, Max.

FOSTER: OK. Anna in Hong Kong, thank you so much for that. Now, there's a massive and surprising hiring blitz in June, according to the latest U.S. job figures. The ADP National Employment report shows the private sector added nearly half a million new positions, which is more than double what economists expected. The Labor Department's official unemployment report will be released later today. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the more than one and a half million jobs generated between January and May marks the tenth highest surge in U.S. history.

The trading day getting underway in the U.S. in just over five hours. Taking a look, here's what the futures look like right now. They are marginally down. European markets also up and running. And they're also down, taking their (INAUDIBLE) perhaps for those futures, and this is how markets across Asia fared today. You can see, it's pretty grim, particularly in Japan and in South Korea. But hopefully, some good news, we sometimes just come through on a Friday.

Wall Street didn't fare particularly well on Thursday, and that was largely due to the red-hot jobs data, which is fueling fears that the Federal Reserve will keep hiking interest rates. The Dow dropped more than 360 points, which is more than 8 percent and it's the biggest one day decline really since May. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 both shared about 0.8 of 1 percent.

Yes. The biggest food liver companies are challenging in court, New York City's new minimum wage law for food act delivery workers. Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub claim the law is fraud for a number of reasons, including that it would compel companies to pay workers for hours that they are available to take orders, even if they don't actually make any deliveries.

The new minimum wage, the law would increase pay for delivery workers to nearly $18 an hour before tips. DoorDash says, "We will not stand by and let the harmful impacts of this earning standard on New York City customers, merchants, and the delivery workers it was intended to support go unchecked." The laws that go into effect on Wednesday.

Far-right Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is apparently being voted out of an ultra-conservative group. But some of the details of her removal are unclear, we'll explain.

Also, ahead, the latest on the investigation into how a small baggy of cocaine ended up in the White House. Officials now admit they may never know for sure.

Plus, the hunt for Yevgeny Prigozhin. A raid by Russian police turns up cash, gold, weapons and wigs, but no warlord. Reaction from the Kremlin just ahead.

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[04:15:00]

FOSTER: There are some bizarre new twists in the mystery surrounding Russian warlord, Yevgeny Prigozhin. The whereabouts of the Wagner mercenary leader remain unknown at this hour. The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, revealing that Prigozhin is not in his country, but likely in Russia. A short time ago -- well, shortly after that, Russian state media showed video of a raid on Prigozhin's office and residents in St. Petersburg where they say they recovered wigs, gold, cash, guns, and fake passports. The Kremlin refused to comment on Prigozhin's whereabouts, saying he's neither the ability or desire to track him, or the Kremlin doesn't.

CNN's National Correspondent Matthew Chance was at the Lukashenko news briefing in Minsk, and he filed this report from there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The rare meeting with the Belarusian leader, and extraordinary revelation on the whereabouts of Wagner, the Russian mercenaries his meant to be sheltering.

Despite earlier statements, neither its fighters nor its leader, he tells me, have taken up his offer of exile.

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): As far as I am informed, as of this morning, the Wagner fighters are now stationed at their regular camps where they go for rotation, to rest and recover from the front lines.

In terms of Yevgeny Prigozhin, he's in St. Petersburg or maybe, this morning, he would travel to Moscow or elsewhere. But he's not on the territory of Belarus right now.

[04:20:00]

CHANCE (voiceover): It wasn't meant to be this way. Lukashenko's deal was how the Kremlin explained how Wagner's armed uprising last month had been brought to an early end. There was even talk of Prigozhin arriving in Belarus, and of all charges against him being dropped, that deal now appears in doubt.

CHANCE: And so, the offer that you extended to Wagner and Yevgeny Prigozhin has not been taken up, they are not in your country?

LUKASHENKO (through translator): Not yet. This will depend on the decision made by the Russian government and Wagner PMC. If they deem it necessary to locate a certain number of Wagner fighters in Belarus for rest in preparation, then I will keep my promise.

CHANCE (voiceover): But the Kremlin may have other plans. Russian state TV has, for days, been painting Prigozhin as a traitor and a criminal, now broadcasting these new images of a raid on his St. Petersburg property. The police seizing weapons, cash and gold, even wigs for disguise and multiple passports under aliases. The Kremlin told CNN they won't comment on where Prigozhin is or whether new charges may be filed against him.

But Lukashenko raised the disturbing possibility of Prigozhin being assassinated before insisting the Kremlin would never do. LUKASHENKO (through translator): What will happen to Prigozhin next? Well, in life, anything can happen. But if you think that Putin is so malicious and vindictive that he will do him in tomorrow, no. This won't happen.

CHANCE (voiceover): But clearly, the fate of Wagner and its leader is now in question. Just last week, these satellite images appear to show a military base in Belarus being prepared for a possible influx of fighters. Lukashenko may now, himself, have got cold feet.

CHANCE: Is part of this, you rethinking the wisdom of inviting a battle-hardened rebellious mercenary group into your country? Aren't you concerned that that would've destabilized Belarus? I mean, the Russians thought that it was -- you know, it was safe to have them but, you know, they were wrong.

LUKASHENKO (through translator): This is not a situation where I was lending Wagner a helping hand. This was reached in a process of negotiation. You know what was at stake. I made this decision at that time and I would stick to it. But I don't think Wagner would rise up and turn its guns against the Belarusian state.

CHANCE (voiceover): But for Belarus, Wagner's absence may yet be a blessing in disguise.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Minsk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Ukraine says it shot down two-thirds of the drones that Russia used in its latest wave of strikes. Ukrainian air defense as reported destroying 12 Iranian made drones launched overnight. Six others went through, but it's still unclear they actually hit their targets.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is ending its search and rescue operations following a Russian strike on the City of Lviv. The death toll was raised to 10 people this morning, with 42 others injured. There were also reports that 10 of the city's shelters were closed during Thursday's strike. Lviv's mayor responded in an interview with CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRIY SADOVYI, LVIV, UKRAINE MAYOR: We have, in my city, 6,000 shelters, it is private shelters and local government shelters and different owners. And after missiles attack, we made a new decision, all shelters must be open all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy heads to Turkey today with 10 days left until a grain deal brokered by that country and the U.N. expires. According to Turkish news agency, Mr. Zelenskyy will discuss the agreement and other issues with President Erdogan.

The U.S. could supply Ukraine with a weapon that's been banned by more than 100 countries, and a formal announcement about that is reportedly expected as early as today. Nada has been looking at that. We are talking about cluster munitions, certainly it wouldn't be sold by a European country.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely not. This is a deeply controversial move, but it's something that has been under consideration by the Biden administration for some time now. I think the focus has really shifted now on bolstering Ukraine's capabilities on the battlefield because, of course, over the course of the counteroffensive in recent weeks, the Ukrainian armed forces have really struggled to make any major gains. But of course, this is a deeply controversial move, there are pros and cons to the supply of these cluster munitions, for example, it would potentially help the Ukrainian armed forces to counterattack against dug in troops.

FOSTER: Yes. It's the trenches they're useful.

[04:25:00]

BASHIR: Exactly. And that is really the focus for the Ukrainian armed forces. But as you mentioned there, this has been banned by over 100 countries, including some of U.S.'s own allies. And there are some significant risks, essentially what these cluster munitions do is scatters smaller submunitions or bomblets which -- some of which can fail.

And then, according to the Red Cross, between 10 percent and 40 percent of these fail to detonate, and this eventually leads to something like a land mine. It leaves a long-term risk for anyone who comes across it, particularly, of course, civilians. So, that is a huge concern. It's been outlawed by more than 100 countries. So, deeply controversial.

But this isn't the first time that these cluster munitions have been used on the battlefield in Ukraine. They've been used both by Ukrainian armed forces and the Russian troops on the front lines. And in fact, Ukraine has been using them, supplied by Turkey, in recent weeks. But of course, there isn't a formal announcement just yet by the U.S. government, it is still under consideration. But if in fact that transfer of cluster munitions is approved, we could see the transfer taking place as early as this month.

FOSTER: OK. Nada, thank you.

President Zelenskyy says that Ukraine has lost track of some 200,000 children during the war. He made the statement during the visit to Bulgaria on Thursday. Mr. Zelenskyy says some of those children had been deported to Russia while others might be in occupied territories. But ultimately, Ukraine is not sure how many of them are even still alive.

Earlier this year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia. The Kremlin dismissed the warrant as null and void. We're getting word that two Palestinians were killed during an operation by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. Israeli military officials say the two were suspected of carrying out a shooting attack on an Israeli police car earlier this week. The Palestinians died during the exchange of fire with Israeli forces, three others were injured.

Far-right Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene hasn't commented, but at least one member of the House Freedom Caucus says that Greene was expelled from the group. Details after the break.

Plus, Meta is hoping to fill the vacuum left by Twitter's recent instability. The social media giant has launched a new platform. How is Twitter responding, after the break.

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