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CNN This Morning

Trump Barred from Sharing Materials in Documents Case; Israeli Raid Turns into Battle; FBI Investigating String of Suspicious Letters; Biden Meets with AI Experts. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 20, 2023 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

CRAIG SOPIN, TITANIC HISTORIAN (via telephone): Which is only about 21 or 22 feet long. It took 73 years to locate Titanic, notwithstanding its size. And when we compare it, we're looking at now something that's 22 feet long and we may think instinctively that it would take even longer than 73 years to find something like this. But, fortunately, our technology in 2023 is better than it was in 1912 and even better than it was in 1985 when Titanic was located.

But Titanic itself and this whole region of the north Atlantic is a very caustic environment. It's sort of a poisonous environment. Nothing really can survive outside of a submarine at that depth, over 12,500 feet. Not to mention the fact that it's a known area for swells and storms and things like that.

So, despite the fact that we are dealing with the best Navy in the world and the best Coast Guard, they have their work cut out for them because the ocean is a very big place and this particular area is a very difficult place. But, fortunately, technology should be able to accommodate for a lot of that, such as sonar testing. And it's sort of unknown whether this submersible has a pinger so that we can listen to the ping and try and locate it. That I don't know about. The website doesn't mention whether there's a pinger or not.

But, other than that, I can say that OceanGate is a very safety- oriented company. They test. They -- they cancel voyages when the weather looks a little bit iffy. So I'm thinking that between the safety measures that were used through OceanGate and this particular sub, and the technology that we have through the Navy and through the Coast Guard, that this is going to be something that gets resolved at some point before the oxygen runs out. And I think we have about another two days, assuming the vessel was still intact, that the oxygen can keep these five people alive.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Let's hope people. It's so striking to hear you say it took, you know, 73 years to find the Titanic. ultimately discovered in 1985. So that - you know, it has been many years since 1985. Has the technology to locate something like this gotten markedly better or has it not changed that much?

SOPIN: Yes, it -- it has gotten better. In 1985 we were able to find Titanic with side scanning sonar. Sonar has gotten better. We are now using actually C-130s, using airplanes rather than just submersibles to try and find this ship. So it has gotten a lot better since then. But we have to remember that it is a very big ocean and we're dealing with a very small craft.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Craig Sopin, we appreciate your expertise and insight. And we're going to lean on you again as we follow this, two days' worth of air left.

HARLOW: That left me hopeful hearing him say two days of air left.

SOPIN: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Yes. All right, Craig, thanks so much.

SOPIN: Thank you. My pleasure.

HARLOW: Well, coming up, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: In all fairness -

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: Why not just hand them over then?

TRUMP: Because I had boxes. I want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. I don't want to hand that over to NARA yet. And I was very busy, as you've sort of seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That was former President Trump offering up a new excuse for why he didn't hand over those classified documents.

BLACKWELL: And "The Washington Post" reports the FBI held back on investigating Trump's role in the January 6th insurrection for more than a year. The reason, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:47]

BLACKWELL: A magistrate judge has issued a new order barring Donald Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, from revealing any materials handing over to their legal teams by prosecutors. This is in the classified documents case. In an interview that -- from last night, the former president offered a new reason for not giving the boxes to investigators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out. These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things, golf shirts, clothing, pants, shoes. There were many things. I would say much -

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: Iran war plan (ph)? TRUMP: Much more - not that I know of. But, not that I know of. But everything was declassified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us live from Washington now.

Katelyn, the former president says he had some golf shirts in those boxes, so he didn't want to hand them over. He was too busy to look through them. Fit this defense explanation into what we already know about the case. What do you make of the new line?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Poppy and Victor, I don't know if you ask any defense lawyer on the planet if it's wise for their client to talk about the facts of a case after they've been charged and are heading to trial wanting to fight it. Most will say that that is not something that you should do. Defendants are even warned not - that they could be -- anything they say could be held against them in the court of law once they are arrested. And Donald Trump is out there now on Fox News in this interview essentially responding to many of the things that are alleged in this indictment. Specifically Bret Baier asked him about the subpoena he received, the subpoena where a grand jury demanded that he return any classified documents or documents with classified markings in his position to the federal government. And here was what his response was there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: In all fairness -

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: Why not just hand them over then?

TRUMP: Because I had boxes. I want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. I don't want to hand that over to NARA yet. And I was very busy, as you've sort of seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, Trump does appear there to be acknowledging the delay. And the next thing he says, that he did want to pull out his personal things before giving boxes back, things like golf shirts, other clothing.

[06:40:00]

There is also another portion of this interview where he is asked about the Bedminster 2021 episode where he's caught on an audio recording talking about and referring to a top-secret or secret document in his hand, waving documents around.

Here is what he said about that as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: That was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn't have any document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, Trump is clearly acknowledging that he may have remembered that episode here. But when you get into the court, Victor and Poppy, there's going to be witnesses. There's going to be that audio tape that the Justice Department would be able to play at trial. And there will be people who were in that room who we know have already testified to the grand jury would be very likely that they could be called back and testify at a trial. And would Donald Trump take the stand and say those same things in court? That's going to be a big question because what he says on television may not be what he would also say under oath.

HARLOW: Yes. Well, that's a really good point.

Also, the magistrate judge in all of this has signed off on a request and order from the special council, Jack Smith, essentially saying you can't share any of this discovery that the Trump team gets, you can't share it with the media, you can't share it with supporters, you can't share it with anyone. I read that and I sot of thought, well, that's obvious, but, obviously, the judge felt he needed an order for this.

POLANTZ: It is obvious. This is something that is very common in criminal cases. There's almost always an agreement that usually comes very early, just like this, that has not a lot of dispute around it, and it just says that a defense team, a defendant himself, and then any other witnesses they're talking to, other lawyers, if they share any evidence from the case with them, they can't share it more widely. That's a way of protect the integrity of a trial.

But in this situation, it's an important moment because it's a restriction placed on Donald Trump and Donald Trump is clearly a person who's already charged with wanting to allegedly share documents that are protected on -- from the national security perspective. How he handles this and how he responds to this, if he can abide by it leading up to trial, that's a new world for him as a criminal defendant. There's a judge's order on this.

HARLOW: Yes, it really changes things, you're right, when you are a criminal defendant.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you for all the reporting.

So, the United States is urging de-escalation between Israelis and Palestinians this morning. This is after an Israeli raid on the West Bank town of Jenin on Monday, left -- that left at least six Palestinians dead, dozens wounded.

Our colleague Elliott Gotkine joins us live from Jerusalem. So, the U.S. is hoping for de-escalation here. What can you tell us?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Poppy, this raid which took place on Monday is, of course, over. The dust has settled on that. But I think the ramifications of the vicious fighting that ensued is something that will perhaps persist in the days and weeks ahead because it's not uncommon for Israel to go into Jenin or other cities in the West Bank to arrest wanton militants. That's what it did yesterday, it arrested one member of Hamas, one member of Islamic jihad.

But it - what it wasn't expecting in particular was this improvised explosive device that took out one of its vehicles and damaged a number of others. The ID have described this IED as pretty advanced.

And then on top of that, after the Israeli soldiers, a number of whom had been wounded, were kind of bogged down in Jenin, they had to call for support from an Apache helicopter. And that's the first time that's happened in the West Bank in some two decades. And as you say, the result of all of that is that six Palestinians were killed, half of them have been claimed by the Jenin brigades militant group that's associated with Islamic jihad. The last of those six funerals took place earlier today in Jenin.

There's been condemnation from the Egyptians, from the Jordanians. And, as you say, the U.S. State Department also calling for a de- escalation.

We also saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting some of the injured soldiers on Monday afternoon, reiterating that Israel would continue to carry out these kinds of raids as and when it sees fit.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Elliott Gotkine, thank you very much for that reporting from Jerusalem.

BLACKWELL: The mystery in Kansas continues. Government officials across the state are getting ominous letters with white powder. So, of course, the question is, what is it? Who sent it? The latest on the investigation, that's ahead.

HARLOW: Also, President Biden set to meet with artificial intelligence experts today, trying to learn more about the benefits and, of course, risks and how to balance it all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:41]

BLACKWELL: The FBI is responding to those dozens of suspicious letters sent to public officials in Kansas, many of them containing some type of white powder. Investigators say early tests suggest the powder is not any type of biological agent but cloaked in the mystery appear to be political overtones.

CNN's Rosa Flores has been following this story.

Rosa, so you spoke with a Kansas lawmaker who received one of these letters. What did she say about this and why she believe that Republicans are receiving these letters?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, good morning.

Yes. I spoke to Representative Tory Marie Blew. She's a Republican. And she says that the GOP-led legislature in Kansas voted to override multiple vetoes by the current Democratic governor. And she says that many of these were very controversial. But she points to one specifically. One regarding transgender female athletes. And the reason why she says that is because she points to the actual envelope that she received for a clue. She says that she looked at the name of the return address, looked it up, and it's actually the name of a transgender woman who died. And she believes that that's not by mistake.

[06:50:01]

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TORY MARIE BLEW (R), KANSAS STATE HOUSE: It's unfortunate that that's the political climate that we're in today. I just keep thinking about when I agree - when I disagree with somebody, I agree to disagree, and I want to move forward. I think of how polarizing our - our politics have gotten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, authorities have not identified that as the motive here. But, Victor, it's important to note that the FBI, KBI, which is the Kansas Bureau of Investigations, they're all investigating. No one has been hurt according to these agencies. And authorities, as you mentioned, have tested this powder and it has come back negative for biological agents.

BLACKWELL: We mentioned the law enforcement agencies that are investigating this. We had roughly 100 letters received overall. This must be putting a massive strain on law enforcement to recover the letters, process the letters, and make sure that the powder in each of them is harmless.

FLORES: You know, you're absolutely right. Representative Blew talked to me about this. And she actually shared photos of the recovery process at her parents' house because that's where the letter was. And you can look at these photos. And she says that there was a lot of resources that were needed. It required the bomb squad, a hazmat unit, an ambulance, a fire truck, the FBI, the KBI, other emergency vehicles, just to recover one letter. And just imagine, Victor, as you mentioned, there are 100 of those letters across the state of Kansas.

And these are finite resources that the state and federal government has. As a matter of fact, Representative Blew says that some of the lawmakers were told to double bag those letters, leave them outside, because the recovery could take a while. And I should mention, Victor, that I asked the KBI, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, about this to see if they are still recovering these letters or what the recovery time has been, if anybody else is waiting, and I have not heard back.

Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Rosa Flores, doing the reporting for us. Thank you, Rosa.

And, ahead, Republican Kansas State Lawmaker Stephen Owens, he will join us. He has also received one of these threatening letters. We'll talk about what he thinks is behind this campaign and his concern for his safety.

HARLOW: Five people were in a submersible looking for the wreckage of the Titanic, but that sub disappeared. Onboard, a billionaire, a father and a son. Next hour, the key factors at play. How much oxygen remains. And the complicated efforts to try to bring them safely home.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:08]

HARLOW: Well, President Biden preparing today to meet with leaders in artificial intelligence as part of his west coast swing. The White House says the goal is to talk with these experts and researchers about the advantages of AI, but also how to manage the risks.

Our Arlette Saenz, live at the White House, with more.

I think one thing that's been encouraging is to see the White House, see Congress sort of try to get ahead on this where we fell so behind on social media. Is that part of what the White House is trying to do here?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is, Poppy. And the White House is really racing to try to get a handle on this quickly evolving world of artificial intelligence, an issue that the White House says is a top priority for President Biden. We've heard President Biden himself share how some scientists are concerned that AI could, at some point, overtake human planning and thinking. And that is certainly one of the agenda items that will be discussed today as he's convening these top experts and researchers to talk about not just the opportunities presented by AI, but also the potential risks.

And we've really seen the White House, in recent weeks, really ramping up their attention to this issue. The White House officials are meeting about two to three times a week to discuss AI. President Biden himself has been extensively briefed on the issue. One official even telling me that he's experimented with programs like ChatGPT.

Now, additionally, the White House chief of staff's office has also overseen this process to try to develop some decisive actions that they can try to roll out related to artificial intelligence in the coming weeks. So, this is really an all hands on deck moment as they're trying to address this issue. The president out in California today to holding that meeting.

HARLOW: OK. Arlette, thank you very much for the reporting at the White House. We'll follow it.

CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An urgent search and rescue operation is now underway in the north Atlantic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for five people aboard a missing submersible that tours the Titanic wreckage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a race against time. You're fighting oxygen levels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to make sure that we're looking on both the surface but then expand into underwater search as well.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I have every right to have those boxes.

BILL BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: He had no right to those documents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just complete political spin on Trump's part.

TRUMP: I want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He clearly doesn't have an answer for this. I would be very concerned if I were part of his legal team.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Republican officials in Kansas are on alert after at least 100 letters containing a suspicious white powder were sent to state lawmakers and public officials.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The message reads, it is important not to choke on your ambition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far they found no biological agents of concern.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was quite terrifying. This is the stuff that you ultimately see in movies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Russia is launching new air attacks across Ukraine targeting the capital Kyiv.

[07:00:03]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This as Russia has heavily mined the front lines and is sending more reservists into battle. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Underscoring just.