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Lukashenko: Wagner Boss in Russia, Not Belarus as Agreed; Video Shows Russian Jets Harass U.S. Drones Over Syria; Trump Aide to Plead Not Guilty Today in Classified Docs Case. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 06, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:06]

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We still have severe thunderstorm watches in places for the Panhandle of Texas, back into parts of Oklahoma, and those will likely expire here within the hour.

But ramping the storms back up again, especially through the afternoon and into the evening hours. Watching places like Eastern Colorado where we have more of that tornado threat and then really ramping up as we move into the overnight hours in early Friday. Wind and hail going to be some of our bigger concerns -- Rahel.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR/BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we'll watch that. Britley, thank you.

And thank you for joining us. I'm Rahel Solomon. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. We're glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow alongside Victor Blackwell.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

HARLOW: We begin this morning with breaking news around the world. A dramatic turn of events this morning for the Russian mercenary leader accused of launching a rebellion. The president of Belarus telling our Matthew Chance that Yevgeny Prigozhin is back in Russia, in St. Petersburg, instead of being in exile in Belarus.

BLACKWELL: This comes as Russian state media reports police raided Prigozhin's properties in St. Petersburg. Just last week, the Russian government had claimed it was dropping charges against him.

During the raids, Russian police say they uncovered stashes of gold, and money, and wigs and guns and several passports allegedly belonging to the mercenary leader, under different aliases.

We've got team coverage from Washington to Belarus. Let's start with Matthew Chance in Minsk.

You just spoke with the president, and you got an answer to the question that everyone has been wondering about the whereabouts of Prigozhin.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and we were all absolutely shocked by the answer of the leader of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko.

You're talking to me from the Palace of Independence, which is one of Lukashenko's main offices in the center of the Belarusian capital, Minsk. And he called a few members of the international press around to hold what he said was a conversation about the events, the dramatic events that have been unfolding over the course of the past couple of weeks or so.

And I asked him specifically what could he tell us about Wagner, about the mercenary Russian group, and about its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who he had offered exile in Belarus in exchange for them calling off the armed rebellion that they staged in Russia last week. Take a listen to what Aleksandr Lukashenko had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: I wonder if you could provide us all with a bit of an updater on the whereabouts of the Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Is he in Belarus or not?

ALEKSANDR PRIGOZHIN, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): In terms of Yevgeny Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. Or maybe this morning he would travel to Moscow or elsewhere. But he's not on the territory of Belarus now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: Not on the territory of Belarus, which is something we did not know before this morning.

Also, I asked him about whether Wagner forces, the fighters of Wagner, had taken up his offer and relocated to Belarus, as well. Because that was also part of the deal that Lukashenko offered.

And he said, as yet, no Wagner fighters have come to Belarus, and he's not at the moment preparing any facilities to house them. And so it all kind of indicates, or hints at the idea that this deal that was brokered to bring to an end the military uprising in Russia last week is now being reviewed. Perhaps the Kremlin is reviewing it.

And that's backed up by the fact that on Russian television within the past few hours, there's been new video put out of a police raid in St. Petersburg, the Russian city of Yevgeny Prigozhin's house.

And they found extraordinary things there. Weapons, cash, gold, passports, some of which are said to have multiple identities of Yevgeny Prigozhin. And wigs, as well, presumably for -- for disguise. And, you know, it's all really discrediting the Wagner leader.

And it does imply that there may be some kind of move against him by the Russian authorities. I've asked the Kremlin whether they can comment on that, but they have not got back to me. But when they do, obviously, Victor and Poppy, I'll let you know.

HARLOW: Matthew, on that point in that conversation, that journalists, you and others had with Lukashenko, he was asked what happens to Putin [SIC] next. And he essentially said -- what happens to Prigozhin next, and he essentially said everything happens in life. But then seemed to say don't worry, Putin wouldn't be dumb enough to have him killed.

CHANCE: Yes, I mean, look, I mean, he was pretty noncommittal about what happens to Prigozhin. And he said a number of times that he wasn't able to read the future, et cetera, et cetera.

But he said look, you know, he does not think that Putin at this point would kill Yevgeny Prigozhin.

[06:05:05]

But the fact that he brought that up, the fact that he even mentioned that as a possibility, I think, led us all to sort of, like, sit back and sort of take stock of the seriousness of the relation -- of the situation that the Wagner leader is now in.

You literally have, you know, Aleksandr Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, talking about the possibility, playing it down, yes, but talking about the possibility of him being killed by Putin. And so clearly, you know, the indications are there are moves afoot at the moment, first of all to discredit the Wagner leader, possibly in the future to take action against him. But who knows what.

BLACKWELL: All right, Matthew, stay with us. Let's bring in CNN contributor and former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty and CNN political and national security analyst, and White House and national security correspondent for "The New York Times," David Sanger.

Jill, let me start with you. The deal, in many respects, to save Prigozhin's life was that he would then go in exile to Belarus. And this was something that Lukashenko brokered.

Now that he is -- Prigozhin is in St. Petersburg, was there is a deal? Is he going to be prosecuted after we see this raid? What's your read on this news?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's priceless, actually. This -- we knew about a week ago when Putin said, by the way, we've given -- the Russian government has given Prigozhin roughly $2 billion, and we hope not too much was taken, or kind of an indication, we knew at that point that the other shoe could definitely drop. And that Prigozhin could not necessarily be killed but he could be prosecuted for corruption.

And I think the play is -- is working out exactly like that. This deal is -- is essentially Putin's deal, with Lukashenko playing role of trying to help Putin by creating this deal. It doesn't work, and maybe it was never supposed to work.

So if Prigozhin now is on state television, or his department is, with money and wigs, et cetera, just an example of the government now Putin's government coming up with the proof that Prigozhin should be prosecuted.

Prigozhin was too dangerous for Putin to allow to continue to exist wherever he was.

HARLOW: David, do you think President Lukashenko is telling the truth?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Poppy, shockingly, we have been misled here. It was President Lukashenko who, in late June, said that Prigozhin was in Belarus.

U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence has said since they don't believe he ever stepped foot in Belarus. And as we all discussed on this show a week ago, being in Belarus wouldn't offer him any protection from being assassinated, attacked from Moscow. So that's been the first thought.

The second is that we actually think that along the way, Prigozhin here has proven himself to be too valuable, in many ways, to kill, as Lukashenko suggested, that you don't know what -- how his troops would react and others.

So instead what you're seeing is that the Russians are systemically dismantling the Wagner Group. They've been moving some of the assets to other companies friendlier to -- to Putin himself. Some are reportedly going to Alina Kabaeva, the former gymnast who U.S. intelligence suggests is the mother of several of Putin's children.

But she also runs something called the National Media Group. So you're seeing Wagner being folded back into government hold, which of course, is exactly what started this to begin with.

BLACKWELL: Matthew, back to you. Is there any evidence, any indication, even, from President Lukashenko that Prigozhin was ever in Belarus? Does he even make that claim?

CHANCE: Well, I mean, beyond the fact, as David just said, that he said it a week or so ago, that Prigozhin was in the country, no, there's been -- there's been no supporting evidence. We haven't managed to verify it.

But the fact that he's backtracked now, I mean, is quite astonishing.

But it does make a lot more sense. Because one of the most incredible, unbelievable things about the way this -- this whole military uprising ended in Russia a week or so ago, was that this figure, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who effectively led an uprising against the Kremlin, was just allowed to walk away into what would have been a relatively comfortable exile, as we understood it, in -- in Belarus.

[06:10:00]

That just felt, you know, unrealistic, didn't it, given what we know about what happens to people who cross Putin. They fall out of windows. They get poisoned. They get imprisoned. They -- you know, something negative happens. They don't just walk away from this. And Putin was absolutely furious about what happened, about this

uprising, about being betrayed by Wagner. He spoke about it in terms of treachery. And of course, Putin's made no secret of the fact that treachery is not something he forgives.

BLACKWELL: Yes, one of the questions over the last two weeks, is why has Prigozhin been spared the fate of an Alexei Navalny, Viktor Yushchenko, Alexander Litvinenko, who all were poisoned after going against Putin and the Kremlin.

Matthew, we're going to let you get back into this news conference and check back with you as more comes in.

Jill and David, stay with us, because of course, all this is happening in the broader context of Russia's war in Ukraine.

New this morning, at least four people are dead after Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles on Lviv. The Lviv Regional Military Administration says the attack destroyed more than 30 houses, 250 apartments, an orphanage, two university buildings, and a school.

Ukrainian officials say it's the most devastating attack on civilians in the Lviv region since the beginning of the full-scale war. Right now, search crews are digging through the wreckage for people who are trapped under the rubble.

Lviv is, as we know now, hundreds of miles away from the frontlines and right near the border with Poland, of course, a NATO ally.

HARLOW: We're now seeing video of Russian fighter jets harassing U.S. drones over Syria. This happened yesterday morning. The Pentagon released this footage. Take a look.

The Air Force says the drones were monitoring ISIS targets. That's when Russian pilots intercepted them. flying dangerously close and forcing drones to take evasive action.

Our national security reporter, Natasha Bertrand, is live at the Pentagon.

No surprise, obviously. You have U.S. forces with the anti-ISIS coalition in Syria. You've got Russians in Syria backing up Assad. But the fact that this happened in this manner, how significant?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. So the U.S. and Russia, they are operating in pretty close proximity to each other.

And the U.S. has seen an uptick in these kinds of Russian provocations over the region and in the country over the last several months.

But what happened yesterday morning was that the U.S. was operating three MQ-9 drones over Syria as part of an anti-ISIS mission. And three Russian fighter jets moved to intercept them.

And according to the top commander in charge of Air Force operations in the Middle East, they did so in a very unsafe and unprofessional manner.

What the three Russian fighter jets did -- and we can see it on video here -- is they got extremely close to these drones, and they started releasing parachute flares in front of them, essentially in order to block their view.

One of the jets also engaged its after burner in front of one of those drones in order to, again, block its view and force them to take evasive maneuvers.

And so this is part of a broader pattern that the U.S. has been seeing from Russian fighter jets in the region, according again to the top commander in the Middle East for Air Force operations. It appears, according to him, that the Russians have actually been trying to get into dogfights with American manned fighter jets operating over Syria.

So not only trying to harass these drones here, but also trying to harass American fighter jets.

Of course, all of this comes within the broader context of the war in Ukraine. U.S. officials are not entirely sure what is causing this uptick in harassment by Russian jets against U.S. aircraft, but they do say that it is a disturbing pattern. And they have called on the Russians to act in a professional manner when both are operating in such close proximity in the country -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Natasha Bertrand, thanks so much for the reporting from the Pentagon.

Let's bring back in our experts. David, to you. This also comes, you know, just a week over Putin being humiliated on the world stage with -- with Prigozhin's attempts there. And so I just wonder how you think this factors into this moment for Russia.

SANGER: So Poppy, the big fear in Washington and among President Biden's aides has been that the war will expand either horizontally or vertically.

Horizontally means beyond the borders of Ukraine. And now in Syria, where obviously, the U.S. and Russia are both operating, we're seeing potential clashes come up. So far, fortunately, nothing very serious.

The attack on Lviv is right on the Poland border. It's right near where Poland is helping ship in all of the arms into Ukraine.

So far, the Russians have not touched a NATO country. But when they do, or if they do, that obviously has severe risk of expanding the war.

Vertically means reaching for nuclear weapons. And we've already heard from Belarus that they are going to be installing Russian nuclear weapons, under Russian control. We haven't seen evidence that they're ready to go yet. They were supposed to be ready around now.

And of course, in just a week, less than a week, you'll see President Biden in the region in Lithuania at the NATO summit. You can't imagine Putin is going to stay quiet for that.

BLACKWELL: Jill, do you see some -- some residue of the Wagner uprising on this? Is this -- are these -- I'll put Lviv and what we're seeing over Syria together -- are these face-saving measures for Putin?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I think the picture that -- if you look at this, you know, latest thing with Prigozhin, it's just an example of the extreme corruption of the Putin system.

And so that's the way that it works. And the war is now -- everything was controlled by Putin. He's the guy who decided to start the war. He's the guy who decided to hire Prigozhin in the first place and pay him billions of dollars to carry out -- you could really say dirty deeds that the Russian government didn't want to have its fingerprints on.

So right now, when Prigozhin is lost, they're not sure what to do about Wagner. The war in Ukraine is not going exactly the way that they want, and there are other places Putin -- that they have trouble. Putin is now trying to show that he's in power, that he is stable, that people love him, et cetera.

I think, on the contrary, it is more unstable in Russia and that his regime is more unstable. And that means that there's going to be a lot more instability everywhere that he is involved. That's Ukraine and other --

BLACKWELL: Jill Dougherty, David Sanger, thank you both. Of course we'll have more on the breaking news, Lukashenko saying that Prigozhin is in Russia, not in Belarus. Thank you both.

All right. Ahead, new Trump Mar-a-Lago search warrant details have been released. What we're learning about new surveillance video just as Trump's aide, Walt Nauta, is set to be arraigned in court hours from now.

HARLOW: Also, the Secret Service this morning combing through cameras and visitor logs, trying to figure out who brought drugs into the White House. What those lab results uncovered.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:02]

HARLOW: We are tracking significant developments this morning in two federal probes into former President Donald Trump.

In just a few hours, Trump's personal aide and alleged co-conspirator, Walt Nauta, will plead not guilty in the classified documents case. Take a live look at the federal courthouse in Miami. This is where this hearing, this arraignment will take place.

And it comes after a judge unsealed more of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant. The previously redacted information reveals the FBI obtained surveillance video of Nauta moving dozens of boxes in and out of a storage room before the Justice Department showed up to retrieve any and all classified documents that Trump still had.

Meantime, Arizona's former House speaker made some big news on CNN last night about the special counsel's investigation into the other federal probe, on 2020 election interference. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We talked about your call with -- with Trump and with Giuliani as you just mentioned there. They were both on that phone call. Have you been subpoenaed by the special counsel?

RUSTY BOWERS (R), FORMER ARIZONA HOUSE SPEAKER: I have -- That's a great question. I -- I'm hesitant to talk about any subpoenas, et cetera, but I have been interviewed by the FBI.

COLLINS: In the January 6 investigation? Or excuse me, in the efforts to overturn the election results?

BOWERS: Correct. It was four hours of a -- of a discussion that they had with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: You will recall the former Republican House speaker, Rusty Bowers, refused to bow to intimidation and attempts to get him to back off efforts in the legislature to decertify Biden's 2020 victory in Arizona.

You'll also remember, there he is when he was testifying before the January 6 House Select Committee about the phone calls he received from Rudy Giuliani and former President Trump.

Our senior crime and justice reporter, Katelyn Polantz, has the latest for us. We'll get to that in a moment, because that was a really significant moment in the interview that our other friend, Kaitlan Collins, did with him, but first, what happens today in the courthouse with Walt Nauta?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. So this is the Mar-a-Lago documents case that's charged. Donald Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta.

But Walt Nauta has to come back to court, because he still has to plead not guilty. It's been about a month since that indictment, but he has had this dragged out for a couple different reasons; couldn't make his last appearance. He also needed to find a Florida lawyer.

So we're watching for two things. We're watching whether or not Walt Nauta shows up in person today. He doesn't absolutely have to. We think that he may be there in person, for the first time by himself, really, in court, without Donald Trump by his side, the man that he's traveling with quite consistently as his political aide.

And we're also watching to see who shows up as Walt Nauta's lawyer in Florida, to be added to his team. This really is putting the spotlight on him as the co-defendant, as

that man that was even known by the Justice Department last year before they searched Mar-a-Lago to be a person who was moving boxes, and the Justice Department realizing there were boxes missing. Now, he's accused of obstruction -- obstructing justice, lying to investigators.

But this puts the spotlight on him and moves him and Trump directly toward trial. There's a lot of things that need to happen in this trial. This kicks it off, Poppy and Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yes. A significant day. Let's talk now about this news from last night that Kaitlan Collins got. Fill out the significance of Rusty Bowers, former Arizona House speaker, saying that he was, indeed, interviewed by the FBI.

POLANTZ: Right. So Victor, every day or every couple days, we're learning about another person, essentially in a battleground state, who's talking to the special counsel's office, providing them evidence of some sort, very -- very likely testimony that could be used in building a case.

And so we know the special counsel's office has been focused around those efforts of what Donald Trump did, the pressure he wanted to be placed on lots of people, including Mike Pence and also what top lawyers around him were doing.

And in recent weeks, you know, we heard about fake electors in Nevada testifying to a grand jury. We heard about Trump campaign officials who were working to organize this fake elector scheme across the country to try and get battleground states, including Arizona, to overturn the vote.

We also heard about the secretary of state in Georgia talking. Now we get Arizona, too. Rusty Bowers in Arizona says he talked to investigators, and he talked about those calls from Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump himself.

HARLOW: Really shows the expansion that we're learning of in terms of how many states this probe -- this federal probe looks at. Katelyn, thanks very much.

BLACKWELL: Some sad news to report this morning. Two New Jersey firefighters have died after they responded to a ship fire in the port of Newark late last night. That's according to CNN affiliate WABC.

Fire officials say they were trying to put out the flames but got pushed back by the intense heat while backing out of the structure. We will have, of course, updates on this developing story.

[06:25:04]

HARLOW: Our thoughts with their families, of course.

All right. This just in. The super PAC backing Mike Pence out with a new ad, hitting Donald Trump's relationship with world leaders. Xi Jinping, Putin, Kim Jong-un. We'll play it for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America doesn't stand with thugs and dictators. We confront them. Or at least we used to.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.

MIKE PENCE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There can be no room in the leadership of the Republican Party for apologists for Putin. There can only be room for champions of freedom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That's a new ad from a PAC supporting former Vice President Mike Pence, and it does not hold back on his former boss.

Joining us now, Elie Honig, CNN senior legal analyst, former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. And former federal and New Jersey state prosecutor. Also John Avlon, CNN senior political analyst and anchor. John, let me start with you.

HARLOW: He's tapping the desk, he's so excited to talk about this.

BLACKWELL: You say this is the biggest political domestic story, at least of the day. Why?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST/ANCHOR: Absolutely. Look, take a step back. You have a former vice president of the United States accusing his former boss, who he's running against in the primary, of being too tight with dictators, for being an apologist to Vladimir Putin. That is a very big deal.

And invoking the Reagan mantle is a different path for the Republican Party going forward. Pictures of him sucking up to Putin and Kim Jong- il (ph). That is a very big deal. That is a tough shot from this Pence-associated PAC.

HARLOW: You know, it's -- sorry.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I have a question for John. Where is Mike Pence? I mean, why is he so straightforward and unequivocal in an ad like that, yet every time he's asked about January 6, we get into, well, we didn't see eye to eye.

HARLOW: Not really. Can we play for you what happened yesterday -- I think this was yesterday when a voter came up to him in a pizza shop and asked him about this. Do we have that, guys in the control room?

Oh, we don't have it. But essentially, he -- he didn't punt. He directly answered, you know, Trump was wrong, I didn't have that right, I don't have that right under the Constitution. I thought that was a change in tone, and I think that it's interesting that it comes as this ad comes.

AVLON: I know the event you're talking about and you're exactly right. Look, this is what Pence needs to do. He needs to stop -- stop sort of tiptoeing around and draw a clear contrast on matters of principle.

And when it comes to cozying up to dictators, that's a pretty clear way do it. Requests to overturn the election.

[06:30:00]