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Monitoring Group: 400+ People Detained Across Russia While Mourning Navalny; Alexey Navalny's Family Demands The Return Of His Body; Global Outrage Grows Over Death Of Putin Critic Alexey Navalny. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired February 17, 2024 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00]

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. Good evening tonight.

A Russian human rights group says more than 400 people have been detained while trying to mourn Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny all across Russia. From Moscow to St. Petersburg, Russians are gathering to honor the life of the man who stood up to Russia's Vladimir Putin. Navalny's family is calling his death a murder and demanding Russian officials hand over his body immediately. A growing number of countries, including the U.S., are blaming Putin. President Biden saying this tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The fact of the matter is, Putin is responsible. Whether he ordered it or not, he is responsible for the circumstances with that man, and he is a reflection of who he is, and it just cannot be tolerated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And CNN Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Matthew Chance is in St. Petersburg where he filed this report in a city where there have been scores of arrests.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. It's very late. It's very cold. And of course, the death of Alexey Navalny has had a chilling effect on the willingness of people in this city and others across the country to come out and protest. But, nevertheless, there have been thousands of people across Russia that have violated the laws, essentially, in this country, to pay their respects and to give off their sympathies after the death of Alexey Navalny. In this city alone, more than half of the 400 people who have been arrested so far, rather than detained so far, were detained here. So, it just gives you a sense of how many people in St. Petersburg are behind Alexey Navalny. It's a very relatively liberal city within the context of Russia. But, there have been vigils, flowers being laid in cities across Russia. And as I say, that human rights group, monitoring group saying that more than 400 people have been detained for violating the regulations and coming out to pay their respects. This as the whereabouts of the body of Alexey Navalny is still uncertain. His mother, Lyudmila, has traveled to the polar region, to a small town where there was a morgue of where she was told originally by his penal colony that the body was located when she got there. It's about 1,000 miles from Moscow. She was told the body is not there. And now, the government is saying, that the authorities are saying that the initial autopsy on Alexey Navalny's body was not conclusive. And so, they're having to keep that body to carry out more tests.

And of course, Alexey Navalny's campaign and this family are suggesting that they're hiding the corpse to prevent the real reason for his death being uncovered. And so, still no relief in sight for the family, and still no resolution, really, as to what actually happened, what was the cause of death to -- for Alexey Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader. Jim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: All right. Matthew Chance, thank you very much for that report.

Let's discuss more now with retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, and his brother retired Colonel Eugene Vindman. He is a Democratic congressional candidate as well.

Alex, let me start with you. I mean, your reaction when we see this video of ordinary Russians carrying flowers, just trying to observe the death of Alexey Navalny, getting pulled up off the streets of St. Petersburg, Moscow, other places. Your reaction to all that.

LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN (RET.), FORMER NSC DIRECTOR OF EUROPEAN AFFAIRS: Jim, thanks for having us on, and congratulations on your last show on the weekend.

ACOSTA: Yeah. Thank you.

A. VINDMAN: So, it's -- the way I look at it, frankly, is in contrast, a little bit of a historian looking at the way the population has responded. In 2001, when Alexey Navalny returned after being -- there was an attempted assassination, he recovered. He returned. When he was arrested, there were thousands and thousands of protesters. It was a pretty large scale crackdown. Right now, we're seeing, frankly, a muted response. And that just tells you how far the Putin regime has gone in terms of establishing a police state, scaring, cowing the population into not protesting, even though there are sounds -- based on anecdotal evidence from that round of protests, there is still support for the most popular of opposition leader to Vladimir Putin.

So, it is -- there is heroism and valor from these folks that are coming out. But, it's not in a significant enough manner to really drive any kind of change or threaten Putin's regime. So, that's not going to be kind of a major event, I don't think, based on how Putin has been able to cow the population.

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ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, Eugene, I mean, does this mean that Vladimir Putin has successfully clamped down on dissent in Russia?

COL. YEVGENY "EUGENE" VINDMAN (RET.), WHISTLEBLOWER: Well, I think he has. I mean, we've seen a couple of episodes now last summer with Yevgeny Prigozhin. There were -- there was a mutiny, and the population rose up, and it was quickly squelched. And at this point, the population has been very much cowed. And frankly, this is -- it's a major issue. It's a major concern for Americans as well.

ACOSTA: And Alex, I mean, earlier this afternoon, we saw the President. He was asked about Alexey Navalny, and obviously he is putting the blame on Vladimir Putin. Let's listen to that talk about on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I've heard several things that haven't -- hadn't been confirmed. But, the fact of the matter is, Putin is responsible. Whether he ordered it or not, he is responsible for the circumstances with that man, and he is a reflection of who he is, and it just cannot be tolerated. I said there would be a price to pay. He is paying the price already.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Alex, I want to ask you, Eugene, this as well, what is it that the administration can do to get Putin's attention at this point?

A. VINDMAN: It is tragic, but also expected. I mean, just like a mob boss, that's party to a -- an assassination, even if he is not the one pulling the trigger, he is responsible. I think Vladimir Putin bears the same responsibility. He murdered. I was very quick to call him out as a murderer for the death of Alexey Navalny.

With regards our actions, I hope we show a fraction of the courage that Alexey Navalny has shown over the course of his life, coming back after an assassination attempt. I don't know if we're there yet. I just do not perceive the resolve from the European community to make the kinds of investments in their security to double down on support to Ukraine, the Germans failing to provide long-range attack munitions, the U.S., we should follow through on what was -- what amounted to a red line from the Biden administration when he said there would be dire consequences.

My sense, and I've talked to some folks so far, is that there is no action. I mean, if I were in the White House, I'd be generating a list of options that we could undertake with regards to punishing Putin. There is a whole bunch of things. Assets seizure and transfer to Ukraine would be one of the basic ones, doubling down on training, make sure that the Ukrainians have the best trained force. We could actually transfer equipment out of our stockpiles. It would be -- there is a little bit of risk involved because this is for our own troops. But, we could be transferring some weapons out of our stockpile to make sure that the Ukrainians don't suffer huge reversals, and, of course, maximum pressure on the Republicans to show up and vote for supplemental.

The President does have the means to recall Congress and compel them to take a vote on this and put -- make them -- put their money where their mouth is and live with the consequence. And right now, I'm not seeing the will to do that. I hope we do show some fraction of the courage that Navalny has done now.

ACOSTA: Yeah. And Yevgeny, the other pressure point on all of this, what Alex said, I suppose could all come to pass. But, at the same time, House Republicans are responding to pressure from the likes of Donald Trump, who has said in recent days that Putin can do whatever he wants, if NATO countries aren't paying their fair share, or paying their part of the burden for NATO's common defense. You have this news this past week of Russia developing a space weapon that could take out satellites and cause all kinds of chaos.

But, the other pressure point is their figures on the right, like Tucker Carlson, who had that incredibly fawning interview with Vladimir Putin so much that Putin was mocking Tucker Carlson. I mean, we saw that in recent days. And then, there is this bizarre video of Tucker going out doing, I don't know, it looks like he is doing Putin's grocery shopping. I don't know what he is doing. But, he is spending time in the supermarket to show how great life is. But, listen to what Tucker Carlson had to say when he was asked about some of this. And we'll talk about on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: I didn't talk about the things that every other American media outlet talks about --

UNDENTIFIED MALE: Why? This is --

CARLSON: -- because those are covered, and because I have spent my life talking to people who run countries, in various countries, and have concluded the following: That every leader kills people, including my leader. Every leader kills people, some kill more than others. Leadership requires killing people, sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And here is the video of Tucker Carlson in a Russian grocery store. Maybe he is picking up some a bag of beets or something for Putin. I don't know what he is doing here. It's just ridiculous. But, I see you shaking your head as we're watching this video, Eugene.

Y. VINDMAN: Yeah. So, I mean, this is outrageous. And I think if we think about the timing here, you had Donald Trump last week and basically saying that -- encouraging Vladimir Putin to attack our NATO allies.

[20:10:00] Before that, you had Tucker Carlson as a sycophant to Putin, a dictator. And this week, I mean, on a high, I think is when Putin -- if he didn't give the order, it's certainly very coincidental timing Navalny is killed. And this is just weeks before his own election.

So, I think Putin looks at events around the world. He looks to see what the environment is like, and he sees a very welcoming environment from Donald Trump, from Tucker Carlson, and, frankly, from the MAGA side or the Republican Party. I mean, the Republican Party, Mike Johnson gave a very sort of weak statement today, attempting to criticize Putin. But, the biggest thing and that he can do is pass the funding bill for our allies, and he has failed to do that. And these are critically important issues.

Actually, this came up, I just came from a campaign event, and we talked about this. The constituents in Virginia's 7th District care about these things. I spoke to a woman that is the child of Hungarian refugees, and she cares about this. I spoke to another woman that's, frankly, embarrassed by Donald Trump, and are standing in the world degrading. And so, people care about these democratic issues. They care about the pocketbook issues, undoubtedly, but they care about the democratic issues. And that's why we need to fight hard to get this spending bill passed and really fight against this MAGA extremist movement, isolationist movement.

ACOSTA: Yeah. And Alex, I mean, as the House skipped town, I mean, Putin took another town in Ukraine. Now, he is gobbling up real estate in Ukraine, as the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition right now.

A. VINDMAN: Yeah. I'm going to have a lengthy article coming out in the next couple of days on this. But, I would say that we are facing a unique set of dangers that probably have emerged over the past couple of -- a week or two. The fact that Donald Trump welcomed an attack on NATO has really probably done more to endanger our troops, endangering U.S. national security than any recent action I can think of. Why do I say that? Well, because Putin pays attention. Putin paid attention to when Trump and the Republican Party was welcoming or cheering for Russia, and damning Ukraine before the war started in February 2002 to the latest phase.

Right now, he saw the President United States welcome an attack on NATO. What does that mean? That doesn't mean that he needs to wait until Trump is in office. It means that today, because of the Trump captured Republican Party, he believes he may have a license to attack NATO, and the Republicans would just sit out too fearful to challenge not Putin, but Trump. And now, we are in a world in which Russia is shifting its calculations about NATO, the he viability of collective defense, Article Five, and this is because of Trump. He is posing a grave danger today, not in November, not in January if he wins, today, by inviting Putin to attack U.S allies and in fact the U.S.

ACOSTA: All right. Retired Colonel Eugene Vindman, and retired Colonel Alexander Vindman, both of you coming on tonight, real pleasure. Thanks a lot, guys.

Y. VINDMAN: Thank you, Jim. A. VINDMAN: Appreciate it.

ACOSTA: Always appreciate the time. Great conversation. Thanks so much.

Still ahead, former President Donald Trump attacking the judge who slapped him with another multibillion dollar fine, this time for falsifying business records. He also brought up E. Jean Carroll tonight. We'll bring you that, after being told to pay more than $80 million in damages in that defamation verdict. All of that straight ahead. Stay with us.

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ACOSTA: Breaking news tonight, Donald Trump is sounding off after that massive $355 million hit to his real estate fortune for falsifying financial documents, attacking the judge behind that case, and suggesting the current legal system in the United States is a threat to democracy.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will have no higher priority than ending the weaponization of this horrible legal system that has developed around us. It's a horrible, horrible thing that's taking place. You talk about democracy. This is a real threat to democracy. This judge is a lunatic, and if you've ever watched him, and the attorney general may be worse, may be worse. You ever watch her? I will get Donald Trump. Her campaign, I will get Donald Trump. I promise I will get him. She knows nothing about me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN's Steve Contorno is in Michigan for us. Steve, what's the latest?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Donald Trump is speaking behind me right now, wrapping up his speech. And if there was any question whether he would address yesterday's $355 million ruling against him, well, he answered that right out of the gate. He spoke for about 15 minutes and in extended rants, going after the American justice system, going after the judge who presided over that case, going after the Attorney General, as you've just heard, also attacking the prosecutors down in Georgia that are overseeing that case there.

And we are seeing this clash of Donald Trump, the defendant, and Donald Trump, the presidential candidate, in real time. We're seeing these cases stack up on the calendar coming right into a campaign event. And that is something we're going to see over and over and over again in the coming months. And I'm telling you, talking to his supporters here, they welcome that. [20:20:00]

They say this isn't a distraction at all. This is actually getting us more energized, and they have seen these attacks on him, these criticisms of him, these judgments against him, as further evidence that the system is rigged against him and the reason why they wanted to see him return to office, Jim.

ACOSTA: Steve, Trump made a not so veiled reference to E. Jean Carroll after a judge ordered him to pay her millions -- tens of millions of dollars for defamation.

CONTORNO: That's right. He didn't mention her by name, as you said, but he was very clear who he was referring to. Take a listen.

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TRUMP: A woman, I'm saying, who the hell is she? Who is the woman? It's so unfair what's happening in our country. Our court system is a mess. What's happening in our country, they have to straighten it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, this event in Michigan is coming 10 days before the Michigan primary. We're also just a week away from the South Carolina primary. Yet, he didn't spend much time here talking about Nikki Haley, referencing her only briefly to say she was getting "decimated in the polls." Otherwise, he spent the majority of the time attacking the American justice system, going after Joe Biden, really setting the stage for a general election fight with his current opponent in that race, President Biden.

ACOSTA: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you very much.

Let's discuss with Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst, senior editor at The Atlantic. Ron, it sounds like Trump is not happy about all of these legal outcomes. But, when you do the crime, you got to do the time or pay the fine.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, & SENIOR EDITOR AT THE ATLANTIC: Yeah. What he is doing here has enormous implications, not only for this election, but what a second Trump term would look like if he gets it. The students of authoritarianism will tell you that strong men will break the rules while in office, push against the boundaries of law, and custom. And then, if -- when they are out of office and if they are held accountable, they will say the justice system, the legal system is being weaponized against them, and that becomes not only a way to rally their supporters, Jim, but as we've seen with Trump, it becomes a predicate for arguing that you should do the same thing if you get back in power.

His claims that there is this vast conspiracy of grand juries in multiple states and attorneys and district attorneys, and federal attorneys who are all conspiring against him, and that's what's produced his legal challenges, becomes the basis for him to argue, well, I am explicitly going to do the same thing. It's a pattern that's been seen in other countries. And that's why his language portraying the legal system as a threat to democracy is so dangerous, not only for what it means in terms of this election, but what it would mean if he gets control of the Justice Department again.

ACOSTA: Right. I mean, he has vowed retribution. He has vowed to use the Justice Department and weaponize it to his own ends. And so, we're getting into sort of Orwellian upside down world territory here.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

ACOSTA: And Ron, I mean, Trump is really pulling the strings up on Capitol Hill, tanking the bipartisan border deal, and now potentially torpedoing foreign aid to Ukraine. Is he basically the de facto Speaker of the House right now?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Absolutely. And this week, I think, is important to be understood, the magnitude of what we are watching, with a majority of Republican senators voting against the aid to Ukraine, the Speaker of the House refusing to schedule a vote on the bill after it passed the Senate anyway, and virtually no Republican in current elective office criticizing Trump over his comments last weekend in South Carolina that invited Putin to attack NATO members who were not spending the NATO suggestion on their own or mandate on their own defense. From Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush, there was an internationalist consensus in the Republican Party. It was the dominant view in every Republican presidency over that period, most pointedly under Ronald Reagan.

I think obviously under Trump, the balance has shifted more toward NATO isolationist, nationalist forces, dubious of alliance, dubious of international engagement, dubious of American leadership of democracies against authoritarian. And I think this week, we saw just how far that balance has shifted. And Trump's --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: control over the party really being underscored in this issue.

[20:25:00]

There was a fascinating tweet from a first term Republican Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri after the Senate votes this week, in which he noted that virtually every Republican Senator elected after 2018 voted no on Ukraine aid. That is a mark of Trump's influence, and it is something that is going to their voters who have -- in the Republican coalition who have held these Reaganite views, certainly are going to be strained about as this election goes forward.

ACOSTA: Yeah. And I mean, just in the past week, Ron, I mean, we do have to put our arms around this if we can, Trump inviting --

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

ACOSTA: -- Russia to invade NATO allies. Just days later, Alexey Navalny, the chief opposition leader in Russia, is dead. The U.S. intelligence community warning of a possible Russian nuclear space weapon. And just in the last 24 hours, a Ukrainian -- a very key Ukrainian city falls into Russian hands, as the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition, and still, the House skips town and does not deal with this issue of Ukrainian aid.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, we were in a position already last September where a majority of the House Republicans voted against Ukraine aid. Now, we have a majority of the Senate Republicans given -- especially given that the Senate is traditionally more receptive and supportive of international alliances than the House and both parties voting against Ukraine aid. Nikki Haley is connecting these dots --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: -- is criticizing Trump. She posted on social media today that, like President Biden, she blames Putin for Navalny's death. Does Donald Trump agree? I don't know if we heard from him tonight. But, I don't think we did --

ACOSTA: It doesn't sound like it. No.

BROWNSTEIN: -- talk about whether he agrees. Yeah. And he is more likely to say, well, that never would have happened if I was President. All of these, and as you just heard Colonel Vindman saying, that his comments about NATO not only have implications for when he -- if and when he is President again, but for Putin's calculations today.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: There is a study coming out tomorrow that I am writing about from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, showing that for the first time in the 50 years they've been doing a polling about American attitudes, about foreign policy, a majority of Republicans now oppose an active role for the U.S. in global affairs. But, that is not evenly distributed among the half of the party that is most sympathetic to Trump. That's the overwhelming perspective. The other half --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: -- of the party that is less sympathetic or are resistant to him still believes the U.S. should play a leading role in international affairs, still supports aid to Ukraine. And that's why I say, like, if you look at the way the Republican primary is unfolding, Jim, with Nikki Haley, obviously, not commanding a majority of the party, but holding a significant slice of college-educated voters, most of whom are part of that half of the party that is still open to the traditional U.S. Reaganite-type international role. I think this could be his open scorn of NATO, could join in things like abortion and questions of democracy in straining his ability to hold those voters in November, if he is the nominee.

ACOSTA: Yeah. Absolutely. You have to think that there are some of those Republicans just like we saw in 2020 and 2022 who are just not going to go down the road of Trumpism and Putinism as it were, and may decide to either stay home or vote for President Biden. All right. Ron Brownstein, as always, thanks so much. Really

appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Hey Jim. It's been great doing --

ACOSTA: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: -- weekends with you. I'll miss you.

ACOSTA: All right. Thanks so much. Well, we can do weekdays too. We'll do that as well, Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. See you then.

ACOSTA: Hope it is not too early for you out on the West Coast.

All right. And a quick programming note -- in a different programming note, in the new CNN Original Series United States of Scandal, CNN's Jake Tapper dives into some of the most sensational political controversy. It appears tomorrow at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. We'll be right back.

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ACOSTA: In Gaza today, dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes. That's according to doctors at hospitals in the region. A video obtained by CNN shows children among the injured as they were rushed to hospitals for treatment. And CNN's Nic Robertson brings us the latest. But, first, a warning, some of the images you're about to see are graphic.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Terrified, calling for her mother, a young girl on the floor of Al- Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, victim of a nearby Israeli air strike, her mother at her side. A missile came and destroyed the whole area, she says. My sister's daughter was killed. Here is my daughter. She is injured in her back, stomach and leg. Rescuers at the site of the impact frantically searched the rubble for more survivors in what they describe as family homes. This man reunited, the boy uninjured, fared better than others he found. Two missiles were being targeted at a house and they destroyed the house, he says, and the whole civilian area around it. We took around four women out and some children who were injured in the head.

The IDF said they targeted a series of Hamas operation and command and control centers in Deir al-Balah. Airstrikes, they say, were based on intelligence. Doctors from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, nearby Al-Huda Hospital, say at least 44 people died, including children and dozens of others were injured in the Israeli air strikes. Some people here have been on the run from bombs and missiles for months, having safe at his wit's end, had taken refuge with nearly 1.4 million others in Rafah, fleeing as he realized it is Israel's next target.

[20:35:00]

We were in Rafah, in the tents, he says, and they started telling us there is bombing. Go back north. So, we came north, and they targeted the home next to us and destroyed it. At a press conference Saturday, Prime Minister Netanyahu advising Gazans to flee Rafah, saying there is a lot of space north of Rafah. We have to make sure we do this in an orderly manner. And this is the instruction I have given to the IDF.

ROBERTSON: And despite a week of growing international pressure on Netanyahu not to send the IDF into Rafah, he said he told President Biden that Israel wouldn't stop until it has complete victory, which he said includes a ground operation inside Rafah, although we added that that wouldn't happen until the citizens were safely out of the way. Jim.

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ACOSTA: All right. Our thanks to Nic Robertson, and we'll be right back.

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ACOSTA: Former President Donald Trump is attacking the judge overseeing his New York civil fraud trial after he was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for fraudulently inflating financial statements. CNN's Kara Scannell has more on the financial and political fallout.

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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A devastating blow to Trump's reputation as a successful businessman after a New York Supreme Court judge ordered him and his company to pay nearly $355 million, barring him from serving as a company director in the city where he made his billions, where his name is plastered on skyscrapers for three years.

LETITIA JAMES, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: Donald Trump may have authored the art of the deal, but he perfected the art of the steal. This long running fraud was intentional, egregious, illegal.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Friday's ruling follows the nearly three-month long trial filled with dramatic moments. Trump himself often chose to attend court, though he was only required to be there when he testified.

TRUMP: This trial was railroaded and fast-tracked. This trial could have been brought years ago, but they waited till I was right in the middle of my campaign. SCANNELL (voice-over): He frequently attacked Judge Engoron as well as

his clerk, and then New York Attorney General in the hallways of the courthouse and on Truth Social.

TRUMP: This judge is a very partisan judge, with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside of him. We're wasting our time in this trial. With a Democrat judge from the clubhouses, it's a disgrace. We're going to be here for months with a judge that already made up his mind. We have a rogue judge that ruled the properties are worth a tiny fraction, one-one hundredth, a tiny fraction of what they actually are. A Trump hater, the only one that hates Trump more is associated up there.

SCANNELL (voice-over): His attacks even resulted in the judge issuing a gag order, restricting him from going after the court staff, which Trump then violated twice and was fined a total of $15,000.

DONALD TRUMP JR., CO-DEFENDANT, NY CIVIL FRAUD TRIAL: I thought they were going to go somewhere, but I think they understand that they have nothing as it relates to a case other than, I guess, an overzealous Attorney General who would destroy all of New York business by going after transactions where there are no victims, I guess, other than herself.

SCANNELL (voice-over): The former President and his adult sons, all testified during the trial which began in October last year. During his testimony, Donald Trump frequently clashed with Judge Engoron in the courtroom. The judge warning Trump's lawyer Chris Kise to control your client and threatened to remove him.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Outside Mar-a-Lago Friday after the ruling, Donald Trump continued those attacks.

TRUMP: These are radical left Democrats. They're lunatics. And it is election interfering. So, I just want to thank you for being here. We will appeal. We will be successful, I think, because frankly, if we're not successful, New York State is gone. People are moving out of New York State. And because of this, they're going to move out at a much faster rate.

SCANNELL: The judge ordering Donald Trump to pay nearly $355 million plus another $100 million in interest with other legal judgments against him. He is owing more than $540 million, a big bill for the former President.

Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Still ahead, new developments at the U.S. southern border. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced some plans for an 80-acre base for the National Guard near Eagle Pass. We'll talk about that in a few moments. You're live in the CNN Newsroom.

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ACOSTA: Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the state will begin building a permanent military base in the border city of Eagle Pass. It will serve as an 80-acre basecamp, housing up to 1,800 Texas National Guard members. The governor says it's being built to aid Texas' controversial efforts to prevent illegal crossings from Mexico.

And CNN National Correspondent Camila Bernal is following this for us. Camila, what more you are learning?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. Look, this is truly the latest in this contentious feud between the state of Texas and the Biden administration over federal immigration policy and how things should be handled at the border. The base here will house up to 1,800 Texas National Guard members, but it could also expand to 2,300 if there is a surge of migrants at the border. Now, the governor is calling it a military base to amass a large army in a very strategic area. But, it's also an 80-acre base that appears to be in direct defiance of federal border control.

Now, according to Abbott, the base will help them consolidate and it will give them that flexibility and speed because of its proximity to the border. And he also highlighted the ability it will give them to expand razor wire in that area. That has already been a point of contention between these two sides.

Last year, Texas officials sued the Biden administration for cutting that razor wire at the border. But, last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol agents could remove that razor wire while the state's legal challenge plays out. And it's not just the razor wire and the Border Patrol's access to the border that's playing out in court, the legality of Texas decision to implement a series of buoys on its river border with Mexico. That is still in question as well. And appeals court is set to reconsider an earlier court rulings that declaring that barrier illegal, and then you have Abbott that continues to send migrants from the border to Democrat-controlled cities across the U.S., which of course has been at the center of this showdown between the state of Texas and the federal government.

[20:50:00]

Now, the administration has said over and over again that this is a federal issue, but Abbott is showing with this latest announcement that he really isn't backing down, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. An 80-acre base. So, that is going to be huge. We're going to keep our eyes on that. Camila Bernal, thanks very much for the --

BERNAL: Thank you.

ACOSTA: -- reporting today. Appreciate it. Still ahead, Russian dissident Alexey Navalny has died. He died in a

Siberian prison. We'll look back at the life of the man who stood up to Russia's Vladimir Putin and paid the ultimate price. You're live in CNN Newsroom.

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ACOSTA: Tonight across Russia, hundreds had been detained for attending gatherings in memory of Alexey Navalny, that's according to a Russian human rights group. Many around the world are mourning the defiant Putin critic and questioning the circumstances surrounding his death.

And CNN's Clarissa Ward has more now on the life and incredible legacy of Alexey Navalny.

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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For three years, Alexey Navalny had been languishing in Russian penal colonies, sentenced on charges of extremism. His real crime, taking on Russian President Vladimir Putin, and exposing the rampant corruption of Russia's political elites. Navalny's lawyers warned that the brutal conditions in solitary confinement were taking a toll on him. Still, he managed to communicate to his followers and loved ones through social media.

On Valentine's Day this year, as he had done every year, he posted a message to his wife, Yulia, "Baby, everything is like in a song with you. Between us, there are cities that take off lights of airfields, blue snowstorms and thousands of kilometers. But, I feel that you are near every second, and I love you more and more."

Hours after the shocking news broke, Yulia Navalnaya addressed world leaders at the Munich Security Conference.

YULIA NAVALNAYA, ALEXEY NAVALNY'S WIFE (Translated): I would like Putin and all his staff, everybody around him, his government, his friends, I want them to know that they will be punished for what they have done with our country, with my family, and with my husband. They will be brought to justice, and this day will come soon.

WARD (voice-over): Defiant and determined, just as her husband always was. A staunch critic of Putin for more than a decade, Alexey Navalny had dodged death before, collapsing on a plane from Siberia in August 2020 after being poisoned with the deadly nerve agent Novichok. The flight was diverted. Two days later, a comatose Navalny was flown to Berlin and saved by a team of German doctors.

The CNN investigation with Bellingcat found that a team of FSB operatives had been following Navalny on trips across the country for years before poisoning him. We located one of the men accused of the poisoning and tracked him down to his apartment in Moscow.

WARD (Translated): My name is Clarissa Ward. I work for CNN. Can I ask you a couple of questions? Was it your team that poisoned Navalny, please? Do you have any comment? He doesn't seem to want to talk to us.

WARD (voice-over): Despite the attempt on his life, Navalny vowed to continue his work and return home.

WARD: So, you've said that you want to go back to Russia.

ALEXEY NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: And I will do.

WARD: You're aware of the risks of going back.

NAVALNY: Yes. But, I'm Russian politician. And even when I was not just in hospital, I was in the intense therapy, and I said publicly I will go back and I will go back because I'm Russian politician. I belong to this country. And definitely, which I -- especially now when this actually crime is cracked open, revealed, I understand the whole operation. I would never give Putin such a gift.

WARD (voice-over): Before boarding the plane to Moscow, Navalny posted an expoze on YouTube about the $1.3 billion Black Sea villa he claimed belonged to Vladimir Putin. It was viewed more than 100 million times. The moment he landed back in Moscow, he was taken into custody. Yet, even in prison, Navalny never stopped criticizing Putin, never lost the extraordinary charisma and courage that made him popular.

Russia's opposition has now been crushed. But, in prescient words from the Oscar-winning documentary "Navalny", he had a clear message for the Russian people. You are not allowed to give up, he says. If they kill me, it means we are incredibly strong.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, London.

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ACOSTA: And you can watch a special encore of the Oscar-winning documentary "Navalny" next. It's a required viewing right here on CNN coming up in just a few moments.

In the meantime, thank you very much for joining me this evening. I'm Jim Acosta. A quick programming note, as there have been some references to this, I'll be moving to weekdays at 10 a.m. on February 26. It's a week from Monday. So, stay tuned for that, of course. Please continue to watch this program on the weekends brought to you by the terrific team here. They'll continue to bring you great shows each and every weekend.

In the meantime, I'll see you again tomorrow night starting at five o'clock Eastern. Thanks so much for watching tonight. Have a good night.