Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Lebanon Ground Incursion Possible; Netanyahu to Delivery Delayed Speech at U.N. Tomorrow; Helene Strengthens to Category 2; Zelenskyy Talks Victory Plan on Capitol Hill; Indictment Unsealed Against Mayor Adams. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 26, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER CLINTON DEFENSE SECRETARY: Time is on his side. He's going to do as much damage as possible to Hezbollah and as well as to Hamas. And what the Biden administration is trying to say is we have interests as well. You certainly have an existential interest, but we have interests.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

COHEN: There are other countries who could be involved and you could affect the world economy. So, please listen to us as well. And he's saying, I'm not ready at this particular point.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, Bill, I mean, I'm just curious what you think a ground incursion into Lebanon would look like, even with Israel fully engaged in Gaza at the same time.

COHEN: Well, we have speculated at least that this is the most well- armed militia in the world. They have estimated between 150,000, 200,000 missiles and rockets and other munitions that could unload on Israel. Israel could defend against many of them, but not all of them. So, to the extent that Israel became attacked, let's say in Tel Aviv, one of its major cities in Israel, they would likely respond with overwhelming force.

What would that mean? Perhaps at that particular point, Iran steps into the breach and tries to do something to help Lebanon to do more to help Hamas, to do more to get the Houthis involved. So, the potential for this spreading is very real. And that's why France, the United States and about 21 other countries are saying, can't we have a ceasefire? And Prime Minister Netanyahu said, no, you're asking me to put my country at risk in order for the ceasefire. I'm not going to do it, at least not at this point. He might change. I doubt if he changes before he goes to the U.N. later this week.

ACOSTA: Yes, he's expected to address the General Assembly tomorrow. No indication at this point that he's going to sign on to any kind of a ceasefire deal. It appears it's all heading in the opposite direction, at least at this moment. Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, as always, thanks so much. A little short on time this morning, but always appreciate your insights. Thank you, sir.

COHEN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. In the meantime, right now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as we mentioned, it is busy this morning. Zelenskyy is up on Capitol Hill right now presenting his victory plan to lawmakers. Next, I'll be joined by Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin on what Zelenskyy told him. More on that in just a moment.

And we're tracking Hurricane Helene as the storm inches closer to landfall in Florida, the very latest right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

ACOSTA: Welcome back. We are tracking Hurricane Helene at this hour. These are live pictures you're looking at Panama City Beach from EarthCam. The hurricane's tropical storm force winds now span roughly 480 miles. It is going to be a dangerous powerful hurricane. People in that part of the country need to prepare for that impact and we'll continue to monitor all of it.

But in the meantime, right now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is up on Capitol Hill looking to sell a bipartisan group of senators his strategy for fighting Russia. It comes one day after President Biden announced a $375 million aid package for Ukraine and pledged, quote, "unwavering support for the war-torn country." Zelenskyy is also meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and other top lawmakers as Ukraine braces for an uncertain future under a possible second Trump term.

My next guest just met with Zelenskyy. He is Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin. Senator Durbin, thank you so much for your time. How did the meeting go with President Zelenskyy? And did he lay out this victory plan? What did he have to say?

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Yes, he was very explicit. And he met with probably 30 senators, both political parties, for an hour and a half, and we were allowed to ask any question we wanted. It was a great exchange. And I think it made -- he made it clear, the future of Ukraine depends on the support of the United Nations -- pardon me, of NATO and the United States.

And he believes that the assistance which we give now could be crucial to determine whether this war comes to an end in the right way.

ACOSTA: And do you have confidence that his victory plan will work? And what does victory look like?

DURBIN: I can remember when this started, Jim. We were briefed by the intelligence agencies who said it was a matter of days and perhaps two weeks outside that Ukraine would be able to withstand Putin's attack and invasion. Look, it's almost three years now. The dramatic commitment to independence in their own country and trying to fend off this invasion, they've shown exceptional courage, and I think we should be standing behind that.

ACOSTA: I do want to ask you about Former President Donald Trump. He weighed in on Ukraine yesterday. Let's take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We had a president who was intelligent. We could have made a deal easy. The country is absolutely obliterated. Millions and millions of people, including all of these great soldiers, they're dead. Most of the country is gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Senator, are you worried about all of the falsehoods Donald Trump is peddling out there on the campaign trail about Ukraine? I mean, he's just spreading these lies that Ukraine is gone. That is not the case.

DURBIN: It is not the case at all. And I think those people fighting for their lives against the odds, their families being separated, many of them refugees in Europe and around the world to listen to Donald Trump and what he's saying about this circumstance is just shameful. It is shameful. We should be standing behind these brave people and courageous people. They're risking their lives for democracy. The least we can do is support them.

ACOSTA: And what does Ukraine look like? Do they have a path forward under a Trump presidency? And what does that mean for the rest of Europe?

[10:40:00]

DURBIN: I can't say what Trump presidency would mean, but he's made it very clear that he's not supporting Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people in their current strategy to prevail. I just have to tell you, representing a lot of people in Illinois and Chicago, from Poland the Baltic nations, the notion of turning Putin loose on those countries next in order is a frightful notion and that we ought to be fighting every step of the way.

ACOSTA: And just finally, I did want to ask you House Speaker Mike Johnson is not meeting with Zelenskyy today, we're told. He says Zelenskyy's visit to Pennsylvania this week amounted to foreign election interference. Zelenskyy was in Pennsylvania thanking factory workers and so on for the -- some of the munitions that are made to fight the Russians. What was your response to that?

DURBIN: I think that's unfair. You know, take a look around the country. How many states are on the brink of being decided in this presidential race? A dozen? Twenty? And to say that Zelenskyy should not go to an American factory making armaments to protect his people and thank the workers, I think is just plain wrong. No matter where you go, he ought to stay out of the direct campaigning for sure. But to go and thank workers just because they're in a crucial state in the election, that's an unfair standard to establish.

ACOSTA: All right. Senator Dick Durbin. Thank you so much for your time. As always, we appreciate it. DURBIN: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, refusing to apologize. A Republican lawmaker is doubling down after posting, then deleting racist comments toward Haitian immigrants. But will he face any real consequences for his remarks. I'll discuss that with my panel next.

We're also watching the Trump assassination attempt hearing up on Capitol Hill. You're looking at live pictures of that right now. We'll continue to follow that bring you more as it develops. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ACOSTA: And we have more breaking news this hour. The indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams was just unsealed in the last several minutes. I want to go straight to CNN's Gloria Pazmino. She is standing by in New York for us. Gloria, what does it say?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We just got the indictment just a few minutes ago. We are all reading through it, Jim. But so far, we see five charges. The first charge, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals.

This is what we knew, federal investigators had been looking into for nearly a year now. Whether or not the Eric Adams campaign in 2021 conspired with Turkish nationals to funnel campaign donations into that 2021 campaign. And that is exactly what this indictment appears to be laying out. There's also a wire fraud charge in here. Solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, a charge of soliciting foreign national contributions, bribery, and forfeiture allegations.

Now, it is illegal for political campaigns here in the United States to accept donations from foreign nationals. In this case, it was Turkish nationals who were donating to the mayor in the hopes of receiving favorable treatment. There is several reporting that we have done throughout the last several months, showing that there were some favors that were traded between Turkish officials here in New York City, specifically at the Turkish mission and the administration of the mayor, and that seems to be a major critical part of this indictment, which we are reading through right now.

57 pages in total, all laying out these accusations. Specifically, it also looks like they are detailing information that took -- detailing alleged activity that took place before Eric Adams even took office after his successful campaign in 2021.

Now, we are expecting the U.S. attorney to speak about this around 11:30 today. He will be detailing the details -- he will be talking about the indictment on announcing the charges. And for the past several hours, the mayor and his attorneys have been huddled at Gracie Mansion. That's the mayoral residence where federal agents showed up this morning to issue yet another search warrant. We've have been reporting on just how many warrants his circle has received over the last several months, including himself.

ACOSTA: All right. These are very serious charges. Gloria Pazmino, thank you very much. Stay with us. I want to bring in Elie Honig, Elie, I know you're standing by as well. Elie, these are very serious charges. He's been accused of wire fraud and bribery. We saw federal authorities, agents going into Gracie Mansion this morning. You know, they are not going to do that unless they feel like they have a very serious case to bring against the mayor. What's your take on all of this? What do you think?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Jim. So, I just opened up the indictment, which has just been unsealed moments ago. As a reporter said, it's 50 some pages. This clearly is an investigation that's been building for at least a year now. If you go back to November of 2023, that's when federal agents first started executing search warrants, seizing phones and laptops from Eric Adams himself and from people around him. They've continued to do that today as they've seized one of his cell phones.

Looking at the indictment, the first thing that I see that jumps out at me is the gist of the beginning of the indictment, at least, is that Eric Adams was receiving money from foreign donors, which you're not allowed to do, campaign contributions, through stray donors.

[10:50:00]

Meaning, through people who were at the actual donors, which usually is the thing you do when you're trying to hide or conceal the source of those donations. And it looks like this charge -- this indictment largely springs off of that platform, that he was taking money from foreign countries or foreign entities in as for -- as campaign contribution, which in itself is illegal. And then, it seems like the other charge is the wire fraud and the other campaign charges are basically related to that core of conduct.

So, we're still going through this, Jim. And I'll tell you what I'm looking for, first of all, how strong does the evidence look? Are we going to see evidence that there's a cooperating witness or multiple cooperating witnesses? And second of all, do they have intercepted electronic communications? Do we see specific texts and e-mails referred to in this indictment that may tend to implicate Eric Adams? That's what I'm going to look for as I continue to go through this.

ACOSTA: Yes. Elie, I mean, we heard reports leading up to this that his phone has be ceased. And there is also this reporting pertaining to a Turkish consulate building, do some of those details appear in this indictment? Do we think that that's what this is -- that this is at the heart of the case?

HONIG: So, two things. First of all, it does look like one of the core allegations in this indictment is that Eric Adams was receiving money from Turkish interests and that that somehow had an impact on the work he did as mayor. That seems to be the core, at least of, again, the early part of the indictment. I want to put qualifications on this. I've only read the first handful of pages.

Second of all, the fact that cell phones have been seized throughout this investigation by the FBI, by the U.S. attorney's office tells me that they have dug in deep to the -- obviously, the electronic communications. When I started as a prosecutor, most people didn't have cell phones, but now that they do, they are a jackpot of evidence. I mean, think about how much information about a person is on their cell phone, their e-mails, their text, if they're using encrypted apps, sometimes their location.

So, these are huge sources of evidence for prosecutors. It doesn't surprise me at all that they've seized them. It is a little surprising that they're still seizing as of yesterday and today new cell phones. Maybe they've just learned about them, but there's a lot of forensics here for the prosecutors to do.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. And we should note to our viewers, at any moment we expect the New York City mayor, Eric Adams, to speak after being indicted after this indictment has been unsealed. He has maintained his innocence so far, Elie. But obviously, this embattled mayor is facing a case that we've seen take down other public officials over the years. I mean, you know this all too well. Federal prosecutors know how to bring this kind of a case when it pertains to public corruption.

HONIG: Yes. And, Jim, I can assure you this case was vetted word for word within the U.S. attorney's office all the way up to the U.S. attorney, Damian Williams, who we are going to see speak reportedly at 11:30. But I also can promise you this went down to what we call main justice. This had to go to the deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, probably almost certainly would have had to go to the attorney general, Merrick Garland, because DOJ's Internal Guidelines say, if you are going to charge a sitting public official, we need to know about it down here in D.C. And so, I assure you it's been reviewed very carefully.

And look, you have to be incredibly careful. This is a high stakes case. Eric Adams seems like he's dug in to fight this. He has extraordinarily talented defense lawyers. So, DOJ usually wins its cases, but this one's not going to be easy.

ACOSTA: No, not at all. And I mean, Elie, it looks as though this is a pretty expansive case when it comes to what the federal investigators are -- in that U.S. attorney's office, what they're looking at. There have been other officials who have been brought into this. And I want to go to Shimon Prokupecz for a few moments, cause he's with us as well.

I mean, Shimon, this is -- the buildup to this moment has been something to behold. I mean, a whole slew of public officials have been mentioned in news reports leading up to this indictment. I guess you're reading through it as well. What stands out to you, Simon? Are you with us right now or -- can you hear me, Simon?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm here, Jim. Can you hear me? ACOSTA: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me?

ACOSTA: Yes, go ahead. Yes, I got you.

PROKUPECZ: All right. So -- OK. Well, obviously -- yes, they are providing a lot of detail in this indictment. It's very clear that they've laid out their case. The thing that I think Adams' attorneys are going to jump on is how far back this indictment goes. It's several years back to the time when he was -- when Eric Adams was borough president and was building relationships they allege with Turkish officials and using that influence. They used that influence on him, they allege a more recent activity involving the Turkish consulate here in New York City, and to put pressure on the fire department to get approvals.

[10:55:00]

But I think one of the things, and I've -- you know, I've been talking to some people close to the Eric Adams legal team, and I think they're going to take issue with how far back this goes and really how much information they have. But most of it comes years and years ago.

The other thing also, they're taking a lot of issue with how heavy handed the FBI has been, you know, just this morning going to the official residence of the mayor, Gracie Mansion at 6:00 in the morning, coming in, serving him with a summons, and then taking his phones yet again.

So, I think the attorneys feel that they have a lot to work with here. They think this is quite frankly, very personal. You know, for those of us who have been here in New York, living here and growing up here and have known Eric Adams for a very long time, you can sort of start to hear that kind of sentiment from the attorneys and from the people close to Eric Adams.

But it's a lengthy indictment. There's a lot of information, and that's by design, Jim. They need to do that here. I mean, they have indicted and are going to be arresting the mayor of the largest city in our country, an influential person. And so, they need to provide as much information as possible as to why they did this and why they're doing it in such an aggressive and heavy-handed manner.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Shimon, I mean, federal investigators do not go into Gracie Mansion and execute this kind of a warrant lightly. And I just wonder, I mean, what kind of shockwaves this is going to send through the City of New York, to have the mayor indicted in this fashion. Have other public officials in the city swept up in this investigation? I assume they're going to be relying on the testimony of some of these public officials to help convict the mayor. I mean, this is a very serious case.

PROKUPECZ: Yes. It's a very serious case, right? There's allegations of foreign influence. Look, this is something the government here, as we have seen, takes very seriously. And no matter how small, no matter how large, but anytime there's any kind of foreign influence, that is a major concern for the U.S. government. What brought it to this point? Hopefully, we'll get some more explanation on that as we read through this indictment.

We don't know if any other people are going to be charged in this, right. There's no one else named in this indictment, and I think that's pretty significant. Are other people cooperating? What is the deal with that? We don't know. It does appear though that, you know, as we know, they took the mayor's phones. They have a lot of text messages and a lot of the indictment is based on the information from these text messages and the mayor talking about what they allege is money for his campaign to run for mayor.

And also, this -- you know, I am struck, Jim, certainly, by how far back the FBI has gone here, how far back they are reaching to make this case to bring this indictment up. Certainly, there are other investigations that are ongoing here in the city against the mayor and his staff. As we know that other warrants have been searched, other warrants have been issued. They've issued subpoenas for more information.

Also, significant, of course, there are people that are tied to his campaign, his lead campaign financier, the person that was helping him raise money, all of this started about a year ago when they raided her house in Brooklyn, and then, you know, days and weeks after, they started taking his phones, and then it went quiet.

But a lot of this information has been out there. The Turkey connection, the fire department's connection to the consulate, the Turkish consulate, a lot of stuff, a lot of that information has been out there. But it's going to be interesting to see how the U.S. attorney who's set to speak here in about an hour or so, about 30 minutes or so, it's going to be interesting to see what he has to say and what kind of questions he certainly gets.

Look, you know, we have -- we are seeing a very defiant mayor. He's going to be speaking soon again. He's ready to take this on and his team. You know, I've talked to his team today, an attorney who was close to his legal team, and they are just so pissed off at how the government has treated the mayor and what specifically with what they did this morning by going to Gracie Mansion and treating him in the way, when they knew that they could have just simply called his attorneys.

ACOSTA: Yes.

PROKUPECZ: They were worried they were going into arrest in this morning. So, they are certainly taking issue with a lot of what's happening here.

ACOSTA: That's fascinating, Shimon. And, Elie, I mean, what do you make of that? I mean, it sounds as though the mayor is going to get his -- you know, his take on all of this in before the prosecutors do before the U.S. attorney does. But to what Shimon was just saying a few moments ago, they are furious inside the mayor's administration right now. HONIG: Yes. So, Jim, sometimes when you have a pending investigation like this, it will be open lines of communication.

[11:00:00]