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CNN This Morning
Air Guardsman Accused of Leaking Docs Set to Appear in Court; WSJ Reporter's Family Speaks Out for First Time Since Arrest; Biden to Explore His Irish Heritage on Final Day of Trip; Pentagon Now Limiting Classified Access as Leak Suspect Arrested. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired April 14, 2023 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR/CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Shonda Rimes and musician Jon Batiste. The committee was brought back after being disbanded during the Trump administration.
[06:00:10]
All right. Thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans. Have a great weekend. A great rest of your Friday, folks. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning, everyone. We are so glad you're with us. Good morning.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Can you believe this 21-year-old --
HARLOW: No, I can't.
LEMON: -- young man has the top secrets of the country, like, just stashed on his person or in his home.
HARLOW: That's right.
LEMON: And then giving them out. How in the world does that happen?
HARLOW: It's shocking, and it raises so many questions that we're going to get to this morning. It's one of many big stories we're covering. So let's get to the five things to know for this Friday, April the 14th.
As we were just talking about, the suspect in the leak of classified military documents will be arraigned in court today, federal court. The FBI arrested him in Massachusetts yesterday. Officials tell CNN he's just 21 years old, and he is a National Guardsmen.
LEMON: All right, so that's in Massachusetts. And then in Florida, Governor there. Ron DeSantis has signed a six-week abortion ban into law. The White House condemned it as extreme and dangerous.
And the man accused of killing tech exec Bob Lee set to appear in court today in San Francisco. Police say the suspect was someone Lee knew. HARLOW: Also, Magic Johnson may be close to owning part of the
Washington Commanders. We're told the deal is near and that Magic is part of the group trying to finalize the sale for 60 --
LEMON: He owns everything.
HARLOW: -- billion bucks.
LEMON: Theaters, now a team. I mean --
HARLOW: Good for him. Good for him.
Also, it's the end of an era --
LEMON: Oh, no.
HARLOW: -- for "The Phantom of the Opera." Broadway's longest running musical will have its final show on Broadway this Sunday.
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
LEMON: Whoa.
HARLOW: As we were just talking about just the stunning arrest yesterday. And to see the era -- aerial footage of it was remarkable.
LEMON: Everything is stunning: the arrest, to what happened, to who he was sharing it with, the -- the people who came out and talked about it. Their age, young people. There's a COVID connection. I mean --
HARLOW: All of it.
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: A young -- we're talking about a young, low-ranking Air National Guardsman arrested and accused of leaking some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets online.
Today, 21-year-old Jack Teixeira is set to appear in federal court for the first time. This is after the feds arrested him. That's at his parents' house in Massachusetts.
Dramatic video shows a SWAT team moving in with an armored vehicle, taking him into custody with their guns drawn, as he slowly walks backward with his hands on his head.
Teixeira was an IT specialist for a military intelligence unit on Cape Cod. And you had U.S. officials tell CNN he was also the leader of a private group of online video gamers, where hundreds of highly- classified Pentagon documents were posted before they spread on social media.
Our Jason Carroll is on top of this outside of the federal courthouse in Boston, where he will be arraigned.
Jason, good morning. So apparently, he was under surveillance for at least two days by the FBI before this arrest?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Federal officials and the FBI were waiting for just the right moment to move in on their suspect. They knew exactly where to find him. He was taken in without incident.
Now come questions as to why this low-ranking serviceman was able to get access to federal documents, classified documents, and then leak them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): The suspect in the leak of classified intelligence documents now in custody.
MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The Justice Department arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira.
CARROLL (voice-over): Aerial footage shows a heavily-armed tactical teams swarming his home. Twenty-one-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman slowly backing up and being handcuffed by a heavily-armed tactical team.
A fast-moving investigation found Jack Teixeira was the leader of an Internet chat group on the social media site Discord, where information about gaming, guns and racist memes were shared in the chat room, the same chat room where federal authorities allege he posted classified materials to a group of young men.
"The Washington Post" reports one of its members was a teen who says he became aware of the documents up to eight months ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The documents were often listed as Ukraine versus Russia at first. However, it slowly spiraled into just intelligence about everything.
CARROLL (voice-over): The teen says Teixeira was charismatic, sharing a love of guns and military gear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did see himself as the leader of this group, and he wanted us all to be sort of super-soldiers, to some degree: informed, fit with God, well-armed, stuff like that.
[06:05:03]
CARROLL (voice-over): We spoke with one former student who knew Teixeira from high school and middle school and says he had a fascination with war, the military and guns.
BROOKE CLEATHERO, FORMER CLASSMATE OF PENTAGON LEAK SUSPECT: A lot of people were worried with him, especially since he was really into the whole guns thing, and spoke about it quite often. And I know it was kind of off-putting to some people.
CARROLL (voice-over): Air Force records show Teixeira was enlisted as an airman first class, joining in 2019, working at a military base in Massachusetts.
His official title: cyber transport systems journeyman, a job the Air Force says would include making sure the communications network is operating properly. But it's not clear what level of access he had.
ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FBI: He may not have been the actual designated recipient of any of these pieces of intelligence. He may have pulled them out of the burn bags or taken them off people's desks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (on camera): And Poppy, as we mentioned, Teixeira will have his initial court appearance here at federal court later today. This is where, again, he will face a federal judge and where we are likely to get a real sense of the charges that he's going to be facing -- Poppy.
HARLOW: Jason, thank you. Everyone is waiting for that. We'll watch.
LEMON: Yes. Everyone is waiting for that.
Let's bring in now CNN senior justice correspondent, Mr. Evan Perez.
And Evan, good morning to you.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
LEMON: Let's talk about how investigators were able to track him down and also talk about oh, but no seriously.
PEREZ: Yes, I know. This is a wild, wild story. I mean, just the fact that, you know, from the beginning of this, when -- when these documents first were discovered, frankly, when they showed up in media, in social media, you know, which happened last week, and there were thousands of people they discovered had access to these very sensitive documents.
And so the FBI begins. It begins its work. And very quickly, they realized that they can narrow the scope by just focusing on this -- this group, this small group that was -- that was on Discord. Cyber -- I'm sorry. they call themselves Thug Shaker Central, and he was the leader of it.
It turns out, you know, he didn't really hide his tracks very well. The FBI was able to narrow it down. They talked to a number of people who were in part of that group. And very quickly, they knew who they were looking for.
What they didn't know was how -- whether there was anybody else involved; whether there was, you know, a foreign state, perhaps, that was involved in -- in trying to encourage him to do these -- these are things that they spent the last few days doing.
And then, of course, his name became public. "The New York Times" published his name yesterday while the FBI was sitting on his house waiting for him, waiting for the -- for the right moment to move in for the arrest.
HARLOW: Obviously, one of their questions now has to be, Were you acting alone? Did you share these with anyone else physically? They could continue sharing them online.
But one of the things that I thought was striking yesterday is that officials would not answer questions about why his job, low-level, 21 years old, would -- working overnights at this base in Cape Cod, would -- would mean that he needed access to these, right?
PEREZ: Right.
HARLOW: So there's a lot of questions for the Pentagon this morning.
PEREZ: The Pentagon still has not fully explained, you know, how it is. What, for example, what vetting he had. How is it that he got promoted just recently?
So it appears people in the military thought he was doing a great job. And meanwhile online, he's, you know, living a different life, essentially.
And it appears that he had some anti-government views, at least according to some of the members of that -- of that group online. His tie again, he works for this -- this position called cyber transport system. According to the Pentagon, this is a group of employees who essentially keep their global communication systems alive.
So you know, he kind of -- he was an I.T. guy and, you know system --
HARLOW: Think about that. An I.T. guy who had access to this every day.
LEMON: And a military guy who had anti-government views. Like it just --
PEREZ: Right. And so what you hear from some of the members of this group who are sharing what, you know, they -- their love of memes and their love of guns, and apparently, they shared a lot of racist memes as part of this group.
You know, this is a group that got together during the pandemic. You know, I joke that that some of us learned to make sour dough during the pandemic.
HARLOW: That was me.
PEREZ: Right.
HARLOW: One-bowl bread.
PEREZ: This guy, apparently, you know, joined the group online of men and boys around the world who loved war video games, and apparently started showing -- started sharing some of the most sensitive intelligence secrets of the U.S. government online.
HARLOW: Don's been talking about that point a lot.
LEMON: Yes. Yes. Just about the pandemic, right, and what it did to a lot of --
PEREZ: The isolation. Right?
LEMON: You took the words out of my mouth.
Evan Perez, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
HARLOW: Thank you, Evan.
Also this: significant development in Florida overnight. Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a six-week abortion ban into law. It's called the Heartbeat Protection Act. It bans most abortions after six weeks.
There are exceptions for victims of rape, incest and human trafficking until 15 weeks.
[06:10:06]
This law prohibits doctors from prescribing abortions by telehealth, as well. It prohibits also getting any sort of abortion pill in the mail.
It makes Florida one of the most restrictive states in the country for abortion.
And this is fascinating, because just a year ago, Florida was where people were fleeing in the South to get abortions. As other Southern states restricted access for decades, Florida remained relatively open because of a privacy amendment in the state's constitution.
But with DeSantis and a more conservative court, number of judges that he appointed, that has changed.
And this all comes as a federal court of appeals froze part of a Texas judge's order that suspended the FDA's approval of the abortion medication mifepristone. While the drug will remain on the market, its use is significantly restricted, requiring women to see a doctor in person to be able to get the medication, not by mail any longer.
Florida is currently one of the states with restricted access to the abortion pill.
LEMON: Well at first, they believed it was a random act that could be attributed to the random crime in San Francisco. But police there now say that Cash App founder Bob Lee knew the suspect, who has been arrested for his murder.
This morning, 38-year-old Nima Momeni, an I.T. consultant for nearby Emeryville, he sits in jail this morning after being taken into custody without incident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHIEF BILL SCOTT, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE: We are confident in the evidence that we have found so far. Mr. Momeni is our focus and the single suspect in this case.
The evidence shows that they knew each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, Momeni is expected to be arraigned later today on a number -- on a murder charge, I should say. Police did not provide any details about the suspect's connection to Lee.
Lee was stabbed to death on the morning of April 4th. The moments following his attack were caught on surveillance video as he desperately pleaded for help.
We're going to have a live report from San Francisco in our next hour.
For the first time, we're hearing from the family of a "Wall Street Journal: reporter who has been arrested and accused of being a spy in Russia.
HARLOW: I forward to hearing from his parents.
Also, it is the president's final day of his trip to Ireland. He is digging into his Irish roots, and we are waiting to see if he comments on the arrest of the suspected Pentagon leaker.
LEMON: Lots of green ties there.
HARLOW: Yes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[06:15:54]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ever talk to him about what could happen as a journalist in Russia?
MIKHAIL GERSHKOVICH, FATHER OF "WALL STREET JOURNAL" REPORTER DETAINED IN RUSSIA: No, but I trusted him. I trust his judgment. Of course, it makes things more difficult for me now, because I feel that I've failed in some way, as a father.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Oh, heartbreaking to hear that.
New this morning, that is the father of "Wall Street Journal" reporter, journalist Evan Gershkovich, speaking out for the first time since his son has been detained in Russia.
"The Wall Street Journal" just released clips from this exclusive interview with Gershkovich's parents. Two weeks ago, Russian forces arrested him, accused him of espionage.
That -- that is, of course, an accusation the "Journal" and the U.S. government vehemently deny.
He began reporting in Moscow 5 and a half years ago, and here's what his sister says about why he chose to move to Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was it like for you to read about Russia through his reporting?
DANIELLE GERSHKOVICH, SISTER OF "Wall Street Journal" REPORTER DETAINED IN RUSSIA: I'm just in awe of him. We're -- we're so different. I'm a homebody. He's a thrill seeker and an adventurer. I can't even relate to -- to him sometimes and the life he leads as a reporter.
I think the -- America reports on Russia, sometimes in a way that makes it seem like a pretty terrifying, cold place. He was really passionate about showing other sides, fresh with the nuance and the beauty of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: His job was so important, being there. Evan Gershkovich could face up to 20 years if convicted of espionage.
But even as he remains in prison in Russia, his mother, who fled the Soviet Union for the United States in 1979, said she's still hopeful.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELLA MILMAN, MOTHER OF "WALL STREET JOURNAL" REPORTER DETAINED IN RUSSIA: It's what's one of the American qualities that we absorbed. Be optimistic. Believe in happy -- happy ending. That's where we stand right now.
But I am not stupid. I understand what's involved. But that's what I choose to believe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: You can watch, and we should all watch and share that full interview with Evan's parents and family on WSJ -- That's the "Wall Street Journal" -- dot com.
LEMON: Yes. I can't -- no one can imagine.
HARLOW: No.
LEMON: But I am really happy that the Wall Street Journal is keeping this front and center. They're putting out video. They're keeping him on the front page. It's on there. When you open the app. It's right there, so this needs to be front and center. HARLOW: And something that everyone of our viewers can do, the "Journal" has said, is keep liking his story, sharing them; because it keeps them sort of rising up online and keeps him in the forefront of the conversation.
LEMON: Let's talk about what's happening in France right now, because this morning France is bracing for a high-stakes verdict on the controversial pension reform bill to increase the retirement age to 64.
The Constitutional Council will decide to approve it or fully or partially strike it down, and whether to allow a referendum. If approved, reforms will begin in September.
It comes after twelfth day of nationwide protests -- Look at that -- where thousands of demonstrators targeted the central bank offices in Paris and briefly invaded the headquarters of a luxury retailer.
Outside the court, activists dumped bags of garbage. And another crowd erupted into violent clashes with police.
HARLOW: Any minute now, we could hear from President Biden on the arrest of the Air National Guardsman in the Pentagon leak investigation.
That's because the president is set to take off for the last leg of his trip in Ireland, in about 20 minutes. We'll monitor if he takes any questions.
Today, he is headed to County Mayo, digging into his Irish roots. The cultural tour will include stops to the Knock Shrine, which is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site, and St. Muredach's Cathedral. That is the same place that his great-great-great-grandfather sold 27,000 bricks for its construction, which ultimately helped finance the family's boat tickets to America.
And we have none other than Donie O'Sullivan, live -- live in Ballina --
LEMON: Just chilling next to a wall there.
[06:20:02]
HARLOW: -- Ireland. You have been the highlight of our week, really taking us into Irish culture, showing us how excited the people are for the president's week there.
Talk to us about today, because today is not about politics. We saw him yesterday with the Irish president.
Today is about culture and what Ireland means to him.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly yes. And he's coming, many people here would say home to Ballina in County Mayo. He's going to be speaking here behind me tonight on this spectacular setting along the River Moy, right outside of that cathedral that you mentioned.
And last night when he spoke to the Irish Parliament, he spoke some Gaelic, or tried to speak some Gaelic. And he said, "Ta me sa bhaile," which means I am at home.
And you can see very much, with his dealings with people here all week, he's literally stopping to talk to everybody. So much so that there was a state banquet here last night in Dublin that was -- I think run run about two and a half hours late because he had been rubbing so much flesh all day.
Look what's going to be happening here tonight is there's going to be musical performances, and then Biden is due to speak around 4 or 5 p.m. Eastern, time dependent, of course.
HARLOW: OK, I just destroyed it. I called it "Bolena." Ballina. I am so sorry, Donie.
O'SULLIVAN: You know, it's tough.
HARLOW: To all the Irish people, I am so sorry.
LEMON: I think you're good.
O'SULLIVAN: I get called "Donny" all the time, so it's OK.
HARLOW: Donie.
LEMON: I think it's -- OK, Donie.
O'SULLIVAN: I would say you guys, so --
LEMON: Go on.
O'SULLIVAN: This setting here is absolutely spectacular, and we saw I last night when it's fully lit up here by the river.
I will say we were in there earlier for the setup, and it really does have a kind of campaign -- political campaign vibe in there. So you might possibly expect when he -- when he does, and if he announces he's running, that scene shots from here, there is expected to be thousands of people along the streets, along the keys here of the River Moy tonight.
He also mentioned yesterday at Parliament, given, of course, all that is happening back at home in the U.S. with the intelligence leaks and whatnot, he mentioned, when he -- after he spoke that line of saying, "I am at home," he said. "I wish I could say here longer."
LEMON: Yes. I have never seen the president smile --
HARLOW: So much?
LEMON: -- so much. And you know, I mean, he never likes to talk to people, right?
HARLOW: No, come on. He loves it.
LEMON: His whole job (ph) is pulling him away from people. I've never seen Donie smile so much, as well.
Donie, great job. Lots of fun. We'll see you soon. Thank you, sir. And the River Moy in Ireland. Thank you sir.
O'SULLIVAN: See you in a while.
LEMON: See you in a bit.
So what has changed since the leak of highly-classified documents? What are officials doing to make sure this doesn't happen again? We're live at the Pentagon.
HARLOW: Also ahead, What is going to happen at the Supreme Court today as they take on the abortion pill ruling?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:28:50]
LEMON: So this morning, there's some new details about the changes the Pentagon is making in the wake of the leaked classified documents online.
The arrest of a 21-year-old National Guardsmen in connection to the leak yesterday is raising questions about how the government categorizes top-secret and who has access.
For explanation now, CNN's Natasha Bertrand is on the story for us live from the Pentagon with more.
Good morning, Natasha.
The question -- the perplexing one, of course, is how could a 21-year- old Guardsmen have access to such sensitive material?
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the question that reporters were really grilling the Pentagon press secretary on yesterday.
It's not only his age, but it's also his relatively low rank. He was an E-3, which is really one of the lowest ranks as an enlisted person in the military.
And part of the reason why he may have had access to this information is because he was in the intelligence wing of the Air National Guard in Massachusetts.
But look, the Pentagon press secretary told reporters that this is not uncommon, that it doesn't necessarily have to do with your age, the amount of information that you have access to. It basically has to do with the job that you are entrusted to do.
And he said that a lot of people across the military have access to this kind of information at a very young age, because the military entrusts people with that, hoping that they have enough military discipline, he said, to safeguard these -- this information properly and knowing the consequences, of course, of what will happen if you do expose it.
And so he was really emphasizing here that it is not uncommon for someone of his rank and his age to have access to this kind of information.
But it is going to raise a lot of questions about whether that is appropriate, right? Because the fact that these kinds of documents, which are briefed to the highest levels of the military, including -- including the chairman of the joint staff, General Mark Milley, was accessible by someone of his age and rank, that is going to raise a lot of questions about what the Pentagon should be doing moving forward about this kind of information, Don.
LEMON: Well, true. So what are the changes? How are they changing its handling of this information?
BERTRAND: Yes, so to be clear, it is still on unclear at this point, whether he properly accessed this information, right, or whether he took it, or whether someone else gave it to him. So that is something that's going to be under investigation.
But the idea that he had access to it at all, that is something the Pentagon is grappling with at this point.
And we are told that, in the last week or so, the Pentagon has significantly whittled down its distribution list of this kind of classified information. People across the government who were getting it for months and even years have stopped getting it in recent days.
The Pentagon has also ordered an internal review of intelligence access that they will be conducting over the coming weeks and months as they assess, of course, the damage that this leak has done.
So a lot of changes likely to be made to this, but don't expect it to happen very quickly, Don.
LEMON: All right. Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon. Thank you very much, Natasha.
HARLOW: Well, the battle over access to an abortion pill is heading to the Supreme Court today.
The Justice Department is asking the high court to intervene in emergency relief in response to a new appeals court ruling. While the Fifth Circuit's ruling this week does guarantee mifepristone will stay on the market, it also significantly restricts how it can be used, who can use it, how they can get it, unless the Supreme Court steps in here.
So let's go to our CNN senior Supreme Court analyst, Joan Biskupic.
Joan, good morning. So as I understand it from your reporting.
