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Witkoff Arrives in Russia for a Final Push in the Peace Deal; CNN Speaks to Combs' Defense Attorney on Potential Pardon. Aired 3- 3:45a ET
Aired August 06, 2025 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.
Donald Trump's special envoy arrives in Moscow in a final effort for peace as the threat of sanctions looms.
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ABEER SALMAN, CNN JERUSALEM PRODUCER (voice-over): Parents here say they are keeping their children indoors. No play or any movement that could sap the little energy they have. Not enough energy to play.
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CHURCH: As children are deprived of their childhood, Israel considers a full conquest of Gaza.
Plus, infiltrating the American workforce. How North Korean operatives are fooling U.S. companies into hiring them.
And finally, an exclusive interview with Sean Diddy Combs' defense attorney. What she revealed about the case and the music mogul's state of mind.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us.
Donald Trump's foreign envoy, Steve Witkoff, is now in Moscow, where he's expected to meet with Russian officials, including possibly Russian President Vladimir Putin. We're told the Kremlin requested this meeting ahead of the U.S. President's Friday deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face punishing new sanctions.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports from Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just hours ahead of the arrival of President Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, Russian state-T.V. trying to make sense of the visit.
It can be expected that Witkoff will strive to achieve a solution that will suit Donald Trump, this reporter says, because otherwise he risks returning from Moscow with nothing, and this would be a blow to the position of the American leader's special envoy.
But with Trump's ultimatum to Moscow for a ceasefire in Ukraine drawing closer, the President piling on more pressure, threatening additional tariffs against India if they don't stop buying Russian oil now.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT (on the phone): So we settled on 25 percent, but I think I'm going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours because they're buying Russian oil, they're fueling the war machine. And if they're going to do that, then I'm not going to be happy.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The Kremlin is very unhappy about Washington's threats of secondary sanctions against its main oil and gas customers, threatening to derail the warm relations Moscow felt it had with the U.S. President.
We hear many statements that are in fact threats, attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia, the Kremlin spokesman says. We do not consider such statements to be legal. We believe that sovereign countries should have and do have the right to choose their own trading partners.
PLEITGEN: Outside the U.S. Embassy here in Moscow already months ago, the Russians put up this sign in the colors of the Russian flag saying, my vmeste (ph), which means we are together. Now it's unclear whether they mean they stand together with the United States or whether it means Russians stand united against pressure from the Trump administration.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Folks around here telling us they hope their trading partners won't buckle under American pressure.
I don't think that India and China will directly stop and back down, he says. At least China is a power that claims to be a sovereign state on which no one imposes their will. And I don't think it will easily surrender at the behest of some third country from outside.
UNKNOWN: I wouldn't like India and China to have sanctions against them from the United States. But if Trump wants it, it's his choice.
PLEITGEN: But you think Russia can withstand American sanctions?
UNKNOWN: Yes, I'm pretty sure that Russia can withstand.
PLEITGEN: How do you think the relations are between President Trump and President Putin now?
UNKNOWN: Oh, all I have to say that I hope that their relationship will be great. I hope. Really.
PLEITGEN: But now difficult at the moment.
UNKNOWN: I think so, yes.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): And solutions seem hard to come by. As the Kremlin has already made very clear, Vladimir Putin will not back down in the Ukraine conflict.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
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CHURCH: This could prove to be a consequential week for the war in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is gearing up to meet with his security cabinet amid reports that he's leaning towards expanding military operations in the enclave.
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Netanyahu huddled for three hours Tuesday with close security advisers with the Prime Minister's office saying options for continuing the military campaign were discussed. This follows reports that Netanyahu is pushing for a full conquest of Gaza.
But a full meeting of the security cabinet on Thursday will likely shed more light on what exactly the government plans to do. The U.N. offered this warning.
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MIROSLAV JENCA, ASST. SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR EUROPE, CENTRAL ASIA, AND AMERICAS: Prime Minister Netanyahu's possible decision to expand Israel's military operations through the entire Gaza Strip, if true, are deeply alarming. This would risk catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
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CHURCH: That concern from the United Nations coming amid a deepening hunger crisis in Gaza.
And CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has reported extensively from Gaza for decades, but right now the Israeli government has banned international media from the territory. So Ben joins us live from Rome. Good to see you, Ben.
So what more are you learning about Netanyahu's plans to expand military operations in Gaza into a full-scale offensive and President Trump's reaction to those plans?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it appears from reports in the Israeli media that, Rosemary, that is his intention to fully reoccupy the Gaza Strip. That will require significant forces to be called up. It will take quite some time to gain control of the Gaza Strip, and obviously that's going to take place at a very high cost in terms of Palestinian lives and what's left of any structures still in the Gaza Strip.
I mean, we're seeing in the last few days of aerial footage of Gaza, and it really does look like the surface of the moon. And as far as President Trump's reaction, he was asked about that yesterday, and he said it's pretty much up to Israel as far as its actions in the Gaza Strip, which does seem to be a bit of washing of the hands of any responsibility. Let's keep in mind that Israel's war machine simply cannot function without the assistance of the United States financially in terms of ammunition and everything else.
And President Trump said he's focused on feeding the people in Gaza, and he stressed that the United States has given $60 million to feed the people of Gaza. The U.S. and Israel are supporting the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has set up this limited number of distribution points around which more than a thousand people have been killed. And this is the second attempt by the United States to somehow get around Israeli restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza.
Let's keep in mind that the Biden administration tried its Gaza Peer Scheme, which was also a complete failure. So it appears that the United States continues its policy of avoiding, sort of facing the war to an end with one phone call to the Israeli Prime Minister. But it chooses not to, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Ben Wedeman bringing us that live report from his vantage point there in Rome, I appreciate it.
Well, we have, of course, seen the desperation in Gaza as Palestinians rush for whatever aid they can get as the hunger crisis deepens in the enclave. Among the crowds are young children. CNN's Abeer Salman brings you the story of one 12-year-old girl and her daily quest to find food for her family.
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SALMAN (voice-over): In the summer heat, the walk to the soup kitchen gets longer and more tiring, especially with the lack of food. Parents here say they are keeping their children indoors, no play or any movement that could sap the little energy they have. Everyone is exhausted.
The choices for children like Jana are to wait at the back or get squashed at the front.
JANA AL-SKEIFI, GAZA RESIDENT (translated): If we have lentil, we can at least move. We have five children in the family, and I'm the sixth.
SALMAN (voice-over): She says they haven't eaten since yesterday.
Most people here are clamoring for their only meal of the day. The soup kitchen might not be open tomorrow or the day after. It's already serving much less food than months before.
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And there is no guarantee everyone here would get a serving of soup and carry it back.
The blisters and scars tell of how many times boiling soup has burned these hands, stoking disappointment and frustration among the weakest in the crowd.
Returning home with a bowl of lentil soup is an achievement, no matter how small.
AL-SKEIFI (translated): I went so the young children would eat, and me too. It was difficult, people get burnt. People were throwing rocks and attacking the place, it took all my strength to fill the pot.
SALMAN (voice-over): We first met Jana in May, when she stepped up to take care of her ailing parents and siblings after her family says an Israeli sniper shot her brother dead. Back then, Israel had just ended a total blockade of Gaza that lasted two and a half months. Under international pressure, Israel has allowed a trickle of aid that remains out of reach for families like Jana's, who cannot fight over aid trucks or afford to buy the looted food.
They've grown weaker over the past two months, like those around them in Gaza City, where the U.N. says the famine threshold for acute malnutrition has been reached. And like thousands of children across Gaza, these kids too have visited clinics due to malnutrition several times.
Jana's mother fears for her daughter's life.
UNKNOWN (translated): She has lost a lot of weight. She gets dizzy if she walks a bit.
SALMAN (voice-over): Jana feels the weight of this responsibility to keep her family alive.
AL-SKEIFI (translated): It's been difficult, we wake up hungry, and go to sleep hungry.
My mom sends me to get water. If I try to carry two buckets, I fall, if I stay in, no one will bring them water. It has to be me.
SALMAN (voice-over): Abeer Salman, CNN, Jerusalem.
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CHURCH: Earlier, I spoke with Jasmine El-Gamal, Foreign Affairs Analyst and former Middle East Adviser at the Pentagon, and I asked her about the possible geopolitical ramifications if Israel decides to expand its military operations in Gaza.
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JASMINE EL-GAMAL, MIDDLE EAST ANALYST AND FORMER MIDDLE EAST ADVISER AT THE PENTAGON: On one hand, this is huge. It's a huge development, and it sounds surprising, but actually, Rosemary, if you look at statements that have been coming out of the Israeli cabinet and senior Israeli officials over the last few months, they have basically been saying that this is their preferred plan all along, that they want to go back into Gaza, take it over, push Palestinians out, and resettle Gaza.
Primarily people like Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who so far both the international community and journalists have been dismissing as fringe voices or extremists. But if you look at actually what's been happening on the ground, you'll see that everything that they've been saying and everything that they've been calling for has actually been happening on the ground, despite the objections of the Israeli security and military establishment, including hundreds of former security and military officials who've come out in a letter and publicly said this is a disaster, a reoccupation of Gaza would have grave consequences for Palestinians living in Gaza.
As you've just been showing, they've already been squeezed into a tiny portion of their territory over the last two years, starved and essentially being forced to leave Gaza, which is also something that these Israeli cabinet officials have been saying over the last several months. We want them to leave. Not to mention, of course, the hostages and the danger that they're being put in because of the increased chance of clashes between IDF forces and whatever remnants of Hamas and other groups that are there.
All in all, it basically puts everyone inside of Gaza at a huge risk of danger, not to mention threatens pushing out Palestinians further into neighboring countries like Jordan and Egypt, which would destabilize those countries as well, as the heads of those countries have been saying.
CHURCH: And Jasmine, what role should U.S. President Donald Trump play at this time, given he's now saying that the decision to occupy all of Gaza lies with Israel?
EL-GAMAL: Yes, Rosemary, it's really, you know, if we look at Donald Trump's trajectory since he came into office, and even before that, he was talking about ending wars. He was talking about forging peace, he was talking about putting pressure on the parties to come to the negotiating table.
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And he did do just that in the early days of his presidency, when we saw that ceasefire being pushed by his envoy, Steve Witkoff, between Israel and Hamas that resulted in some respite for people living inside of Gaza, as well as a release of hostages on both sides.
So we have seen him go from that, basically, to less and less pressure on the Israelis, which, of course, the U.S. has leverage over, which is why I mentioned the Israelis, going from we're going to end the war to basically Israel, you can do whatever you want. It's quite disappointing to see from a U.S. president who had pledged to end this horrific war. And without pressure from the international community, Rosemary, Netanyahu continues to run unabated. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: An American woman is accused of helping North Koreans get remote jobs in the U.S. Still to come, an inside look at the North Korean scheme to infiltrate the American workplace.
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CHURCH: An Arizona woman has been accused of helping North Koreans get remote I.T. jobs in the United States. North Koreans have been flooding job sites with fake resumes, part of an effort to funnel money back to the reclusive state and beyond the reach of U.S. sanctions.
CNN's Ivan Watson is live in Hong Kong with details on this story. So, Ivan, what more are you learning about this?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, well, Rosemary, U.S. law enforcement, they say that this sophisticated criminal scheme earns the North Korean government hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and it would not be possible without the active complicity of U.S. citizens.
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WATSON (voice-over): Arizona resident Christina Chapman takes what may be one of the longest walks of her life, trailed by a documentary crew. She's going to court for sentencing after pleading guilty to criminal charges including wire fraud and identity theft.
WATSON: Did you know that you were working with North Koreans?
WATSON (voice-over): U.S. law enforcement says Chapman ran laptop farms for North Korea.
MATTHEW GALEOTTI, ACTING ASST. ATTORNEY GENERAL, CRIMINAL DIVISION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: She was involved with an extremely dangerous and serious and sophisticated criminal scheme in which individuals were directed by the government of North Korea to apply for information technology jobs to make it appear that they were either U.S.-based workers or workers in third-party countries that were not sanctioned.
Hi, everybody. I'm a TikTok fan.
WATSON (voice-over): Chapman documented her life extensively on TikTok from poverty in 2021 --
I'm classified as homeless in Minnesota.
WATSON (voice-over): -- to two years later when she had a new job in what she described as the computer business. It allowed her to rent this house in Arizona.
I start at 5:30, go straight to my office, which is the next door away from my bedroom.
WATSON (voice-over): The FBI raided Chapman's house in October 2023, seizing more than 90 laptops and accusing her of helping North Koreans use stolen and purchased U.S. identities to get remote I.T. worker jobs at more than 300 U.S. companies, earning North Korea more than $17 million.
WATSON: Why is this case important?
GALEOTTI: It's funneling money back to North Korea, which is sanctioned for its nuclear weapons program. So in other words, we are resourcing one of the most hostile nations in the world, funding their weapons program.
BRIAN JACK, CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER AT KNOWBE4: If you post remote software engineering jobs and those positions are listed on a site like Indeed, I can guarantee you are fielding resumes from North Korea.
WATSON (voice-over): Brian Jack knows firsthand. Last year, his company discovered it had unwittingly hired a North Korean. Now he says his teams are experts on spotting North Korean job applicants.
JACK: In the last year, I know of and have looked at least 100 North Korean resumes.
WATSON (voice-over): They often use similar generic names and almost identical job and educational experience. They also use A.I.-generated photos and even A.I. face filters.
UNKNOWN: Are you using something to change your camera view?
WATSON (voice-over): Such as this one, where the man on the left used a Caucasian filter to hide his identity in an online job interview.
UNKNOWN: I can see that you're using some kind of software.
MICHAEL BARNHART, PRINCIPAL I3 INSIDER RISK INVESTIGATOR, DTEX: This is an instruction manual by them for them.
WATSON (voice-over): U.S. Army veteran and I.T. security expert Michael Barnhart has been collecting evidence that the North Koreans accidentally share.
BARNHART: We've seen their chats, we've seen their emails, we've seen their faces.
WATSON (voice-over): Including Google and ChatGPT searches that show how they're trying to fit in with American society. Asking questions like, I want to know about American football and when is lunchtime in the USA?
U.S. law enforcement can't physically catch North Koreans. UNKNOWN: I was working remotely most of the time.
WATSON (voice-over): Believed to be running their schemes out of China and Russia. But American laptop farmers are a different story.
GALEOTTI: These schemes always happen with U.S. based facilitators. Whether they're financial facilitators allowing their bank accounts to be used, whether they're hosting laptop farms, or whether they're helping create or sell false identities.
WATSON (voice-over): Christina Chapman's prosecution is a warning to corporate America about the North Korean threat that can come with every job application.
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WATSON: Moments ago I watched a judge in this courthouse sentence Christina Chapman to eight and a half years in prison. He said the safety of the nation was at issue in this case. As for Ms. Chapman, she told the court, weeping, that she hates herself for what she did and that she feels like a monster.
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WATSON: Now, U.S. law enforcement, they conducted another series of raids that they announced in June, targeting some 29 suspected laptop farms across 16 different U.S. states. They said that this was part of a scheme that included accomplices in Taiwan, in the UAE, and in China. And they arrested two suspected laptop farmers in New Jersey.
These schemes are thought to earn North Korea between 225 and $600 million a year. That's according to the different estimates. And they're so successful that American investigators are worried that other copycat groups could get in on this.
And that could include other adversary nations or organized crime.
And there's a final issue to keep in mind here. The A.I. techniques are only getting more and more sophisticated. So it's just going to get harder and harder to spot some of these activities, Rosemary.
CHURCH: It's a shocking story. Ivan Watson with that report. Many thanks, I appreciate it.
Well, next, a CNN exclusive. Music mogul Sean Cohn's attorney talks courtroom strategy, the surprise verdict, and the possibility of a pardon. Back with that in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Rosemary Church. I want to check today's top stories for you. Donald Trump says it's up to Israel whether to occupy all of Gaza. His
comments follow reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for a full conquest of the enclave. The U.S. President voiced no concern about those reported plans and instead said his goal was to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow, he's expected to meet with Russian officials and may speak with President Vladimir Putin himself. His trip comes just days before the U.S. President's deadline for Russia to make a peace deal with Ukraine or face punishing new sanctions. We're told that the Kremlin requested the meeting with Witkoff.
Sources say top Trump officials will get together tonight to discuss their strategy in the Jeffrey Epstein case. The administration is considering releasing transcripts or audio of last month's Justice Department interviews with Epstein's partner and conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
An attorney for music mogul Sean Combs confirms his legal team has spoken with the Trump administration about a potential pardon. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister sat down for an exclusive interview with Nicole Westmoreland.
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ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: In her very first interview since the trial, I asked one of Diddy's defense attorneys, Nicole Westmoreland, about their winning strategy that enabled their client to be acquitted on the two most serious charges. I asked, was it a mistake for the government to even bring about this case? Take a look.
NICOLE WESTMORELAND, ATTORNEY FOR SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS: Absolutely. The government's first mistake was bringing the case, period. And the second mistake was allowing it to keep going.
I think they definitely knew early on, you know, they knew.
They knew that there was no way that Mr. Combs committed sex trafficking or we go. They knew that and they just continued prosecuting the case anyway. And I think that was their second mistake.
And I think the jury saw straight through it.
WAGMEISTER: Now, just this week, the judge denied a motion for bail after Diddy's defense has been relentlessly fighting to get him released from jail ahead of his October 3rd sentencing. And his attorney told me that she believes that Diddy should be either fully acquitted or should get a new trial.
Now, I also asked her if his team has contacted the Trump administration to discuss a potential presidential pardon. Take a look at what she told me.
WESTMORELAND: Yes, my understanding is that we have reached out.
WAGMEISTER: Reached out as one thing. Having a conversation is another. Do you know if there have been active conversations about a pardon?
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WESTMORELAND: Yes, we've -- it's my understanding that we've reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon.
WAGMEISTER: President Trump, when he was asked about this pardon, he said, quote, "I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great and he seemed like a nice guy. I didn't know him well, but when I ran for office, he was very hostile."
And the President indicated that a pardon is likely not on the table because of that break in his relationship with Mr. Combs years ago. How is he feeling now about the chances of a pardon given the president's commentary?
WESTMORELAND: I think that Mr. Combs is a very hopeful person and I believe that he remains hopeful.
WAGMEISTER: Now, when contacted by CNN, a White House official said they, quote, "will not comment on the existence or nonexistence of any clemency request." Back to you.
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CHURCH: Still to come, the U.S. is hoping to pull ahead in a new space race. Why officials want to build a nuclear reactor on the moon. That's just ahead.
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CHURCH: The U.S. is accelerating plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. Transportation secretary and acting administrator for NASA, Sean Duffy, made the announcement on Tuesday. A reactor would help power exploration efforts on the moon and give the U.S. a leg up on China and Russia, who've announced similar plans.
Duffy told reporters if the U.S. is to have a base on the moon, they need energy to power it.
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SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY AND ACTING NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Energy is important and if we're going to be able to sustain life on the moon to then go to Mars, this technology is critically important.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: NASA's Artemis 3 mission, currently planned for 2027, is expected to return humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
Dozens of people are thought to be missing after floodwaters tore through a mountain village in India on Tuesday. A wall of water and mud was seen racing down a river in a village in the Himalayan foothills, demolishing buildings in its path. At least four people were killed. India's weather agency had previously issued the highest level of warning for extremely heavy rainfall in the region.
In Costa Rica, emergency crews rescued a baby sloth still clinging to its mother, who had died after being electrocuted by a power line. The calf was transferred in good condition to a rescue center and is being kept under observation. The Costa Rican Fire Department says about 2000 sloths are rescued each year after being electrocuted or hit by vehicles and about 90 percent of them survive.
I want to thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "Marketplace Middle East" is coming up next.
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