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CNN This Morning

Russia Fires Missiles at Odessa for Third Straight Night; Today, Grand Jury Expected to Meet as Trump Faces Potential Indictment in Election Probe; Scandal Exploding at Border Over Migrant Treatment. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 20, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

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AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR (voice over): That drive to be the best is ingrained in the team's culture and there's no plan to change that now.

MEGAN RAPINOE, USWNT FORWARD: The goal is just always winning. That's all that matters. That's like our secret sauce is just this like insatiable desire to win, and everything else comes after that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAVIES (on camera): I have to say, there are not many people betting against the U.S. success, despite that incredible weight of history that is on their shoulders. The signs are certainly ominous for Vietnam, not only because it's their first ever match on the world stage. They lost their last match 9-0 to Spain.

And there's such an awareness, not only from the USA but everybody involved in this Women's World Cup. This is the biggest ever women's sporting event on the planet. They want to put on a show and the best way to do that is to let their feet do the talking.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: I can't wait to watch. Amanda Davies, thank you.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: All right. CNN This Morning continues right now.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Russia terrorizing the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Arguably the most intense yet in terms of the weaponry that we saw on display, What appeared to be interception rockets flying every which way, which did appear to take out a missile.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: What evidence does jack smith have? What witnesses has he spoken to that Trump and his team were unaware of? REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): What criminal activity did he do? He told people to be peaceful.

MICHAEL FANONE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: : Our justice system is not perfect but it is damn near perfect and the best in the world.

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The single most important question is whether any of these cases actually get to trial before the 2024 election.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Rocky Mount, North Carolina, a tornado packing 150-mile per hour winds pummeled a Pfizer pharmaceutical plant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a lot of damage here in the county at this time. I'm urging the people to stay off the roadways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's my sister's home behind me. That's totally destroyed.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: A witness is sharing what she saw when U.S. Army Private Travis King ran across the border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I initially thought it was some kind of TikTok stunt.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's believed that he sprinted across was able to jump into a van with North Korean guards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My mom has lost a son before. This is weighing very heavily on her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police in Suffolk County are re-interviewing two women after discovering Rex Heuermann propositioned them several years ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When he talked about it, he had this like smile on his face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their phone calls is just like any other. And for some reason they did not want to meet with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This defendant was living a double life, a part of his life that he very much kept hidden.

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PHILLIP: We have breaking news overnight, Russia launching its most intense attack on the Ukrainian city of Odessa, since the invasion began, at least one person is dead and two people are injured after Russia pummeled the southern port city with intense barrages of drone and missile strikes for the third straight night. It damaged a building and destroyed a nursery as well. Officials in Odessa are now urging people to stay in shelters until the sirens end.

MATTINGLY: And the E.U.'s top diplomat is warning that Russia's attacks on Odessa are causing large scale destruction of food infrastructure. He says not only did Russia withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal, they're burning the grain too in attacks he calls barbaric, as millions of people in developing nations rely on it. Officials claim the previous two days of attacks destroyed 60,000 tons of grain.

We want to get straight to CNN's Alex Marquardt in Odessa. Alex, are more strikes expected based on what you've seen over the course of the last three days?

MARQUARDT: That is certainly the fear, Phil. I mean, there was a major question about whether it would happen last night after two days, and it certainly did, in an incredibly intense way. This city has never seen an attack like this. Last night's strike alone would have been the worst attack on this city so far in this war, but it was three nights in a row.

I want to show you this building behind me that was completely destroyed overnight. This is an administrative building near the port. We are told that it has nothing to do with the port, nothing to do with the grain infrastructure, nothing to do with the military, and yet this is where one of those Russian missiles landed.

You can see how it was completely destroyed, all of this debris here. There's still smoke coming from the rubble. All of that blackened steel from that explosion, firefighters have been trying to put this out.

And, of course, when missiles land, it is not just the destruction in that immediate area. There's destruction all around here. That shockwave has knocked out windows for blocks. There is dust everywhere. Trees have been knocked over.

This was an attack that started just before 2:00 in the morning. We heard those air raid sirens starting. We saw tracers from air defense guns trying to take drones out of the sky, and then the missiles started. We saw Ukrainian interceptor rockets flying up into the sky. There were some explosions causing this huge glow.

I want to play with you a short clip of one of these massive explosions that we witnessed.

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Take a look.

Again, that is just one explosion that we heard during an hour-and-a- half.

Now, this was a sophisticated, intense attack by Russia using almost 20 drones, almost 20 missiles, different kinds of cruise missiles and long range supersonic strategic bombers.

Odessa was not the only city hit. Mykolaiv also another southern port city was hit. There were 19 people hurt there. One person in this building was killed. Of course, there is a concern that that death toll could rise.

But, Phil and Abby, in the minds of Ukrainian officials there is no doubt that this is related to the grain deal. Russia, of course, pulling out of that grain deal on Monday. As you noted, Phil, some 60,000 tons of grain were destroyed in the second night of attacks. We do know that there was some destruction at the port last night. A local official pointing out to me that not only how important this port is to that grain deal but they've also been upgrading their machinery, their terminals.

Russia clearly sending a message not just in terms of the weaponry that they're using, but also the targets. Ukrainian officials, of course, believe that this was related to this grain deal that Russia pulled out of. Phil, Abby?

PHILLIP: Alex Marquardt, thank you very much.

MATTINGLY: Just hours from now, a federal grand jury is set meet as Donald Trump stares down another potential criminal indictment. We're expecting the panel in D.C. to hear more testimony from witnesses as they prepare to decide if Trump will face federal charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

It's unknown exactly when that big decision might come down. Midnight is the deadline for Trump's lawyers to respond to Special Counsel Jack Smith and decide if they want to put Trump on the stand in front of the grand jury.

PHILLIP: And we're also now learning that Trump has quietly hired another attorney to beef up his defense team. He's a white collar defense lawyer who used to be a federal prosecutor. And we're told that Trump's team is now scrambling also to find out if Smith has any witnesses or evidence that they don't know about yet in this case.

Let's bring in CNN's Senior Crime and Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz. So, Katelyn, this is potentially a big day, all eyes are on that grand jury.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes. So, Abby and Phil, the grand jury, they still have a little bit of work to do at very least this morning. We do know that there is witness going in, a man who was quite close to Trump as a personal aide after Trump left the White House, but who also had worked in the White House, a man named Will Russell.

We don't know exactly what Will Russell is going to be testifying about, but this is his third trip into provide secret grand jury testimony. And we do believe one other witness is going to be going into the grand jury today.

So, the grand jury has a little bit more work to do confidentially. The decision may already have been made at the Justice Department to bring a charge, an indictment through the grand jury against Donald Trump for actions related to January 6th and the 2020 election. Very likely, I say that because Trump gets that target letter. That's not something the Justice Department does lightly at all. And so now we wait.

The grand jury could return an indictment really at any time that they're being convened, but their proceedings are quite secret.

And on the Trump side of things, there really is a scramble happening right now to figure out what's going on. This lawyer, John Lauro, did come in to work on the January 6th side of the case. Kaitlan Collins was able to break that news last night.

But John Lauro has already been involved around Donald Trump and the legal proceedings with him previously. He's been at work in Florida. He's based out of New York. He's been representing attorneys who are privy to some of the things that have become part of the cases against Trump, specifically that documents case in Florida. But John Lauro was part of the team that's been trying to find out is anybody else going to get charged alongside Trump.

MATTINGLY: Katelyn, it's on that point that we had some investigative reporting, CNN had reporting that Trump's team is increasingly concerned the grand jury has evidence or testimony that they may not be aware of. If they're not aware of it, are you? What could it be? What would they be worried about specifically?

POLANTZ: God, Phil, I wish I was aware of it. That would be really great.

PHILLIP: Katelyn knows all things.

MATTINGLY: You know everything, Polantz. I know you know.

POLANTZ: I'm trying. We're in this together. But there is very, very likely many things that Donald Trump's defense team does not know about that would be evidence in this case. First is and foremost, does a know what testimony Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, has given to the grand jury when he testified? He didn't speak to the House. He didn't speak to Congress. And from our understanding, he really was cutting off contact or at least his defense lawyers were cutting off contact with the Trump side of things very early on. So, huge question mark there.

And then, of course, the Justice Department has an enormous amount of subpoena power.

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They can go to tech companies. They can go to banks. They can go to all different kinds of places to get documents to bring into the case as evidence. And, you know, Trump's team might never know that any of those things are pulled in, let alone whether they exist. That audiotape was really an 11th hour surprise in the documents case in Florida of Trump speaking to people in Bedminster. We still remain to see whether something like that would emerge in the January 6th investigation.

MATTINGLY: All right. Katelyn Polantz, you and the team have a big day ahead. Thank you. PHILLIP: Let's bring in now former Federal Prosecutor Danya Perry. Danya, today, we've been talking about what might happen at the grand jury. They're expected to meet. But as Katelyn Polantz just pointed out, they actually have some interviews to do. So, as a former federal prosecutor, you look at that, you look at the target letter, and what do you think is the potential timeline here?

DANYA PERRY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I think it's not this week. I think it's next week. And we have some precedent here. As Katelyn said, target letters are not the usual course of business. It's extraordinary. But Special Counsel Jack Smith has done it before. He's done it with Mr. Trump, and an indictment followed within a week or so, just a few days.

So, I think that's likely he has a deadline of today, Mr. Trump does, in order to provide testimony, if that's what he chooses to do. It seems he will not. So, they are wrapping it up. That's clear enough. There are some loose ends. That seems also clear. So, I don't know exactly what dates the grand jury meets. Katelyn probably does. But it seems that they are finishing their work this week.

And I think that given how monumental this indictment will be and how polarizing, I'm sure sooner is going to be the preference rather than later. So, I expect it would be next week if, in fact, charges come.

MATTINGLY: On the statutes themselves that were mentioned in the target letter, there's been reporting from The Wall Street Journal and New York Times and others as well, there were three of them, it's the third one that I think that has captured attention, the deprivation of rights. I want to play something that Tim Parlatore, one of the Trump team's former lawyers, said to us yesterday when we asked him about it. Listen.

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TIM PARLATORE, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: Going a civil rights route I think gets them into a lot more granular detail of kind of re- examining every single little claim of potential fraud and really re- litigating the results of the election within this trial. So, that's a lot more extensive than I would have expected.

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MATTINGLY: You know, Parlatore was saying basically that this was a lot more extensive in terms of what they would have to do, re- litigating to some degree all the potential election fraud cases, alleged election fraud cases that ended up not being true, and that he was surprised. Their team had not prepared for that. Why would they want to pursue that if you're the special counsel's office?

PERRY: I'm surprised that the defense team is surprised.

MATTINGLY: Really?

PERRY: There's no question that, you know, at the end of the day, there are various schemes here, and it seems clear enough based on the statutes that are listed in that target letter that they are looking, no doubt, at several of them. A lot of attention is focused on the false electoral slate, and given the witnesses that have been in front of the grand jury, that seems likely.

But the statute that you mentioned, which is an unusual one, it was enacted shortly after the civil war, but it has been used particularly in the election fraud context and the context of violence that is used in order to deprive people of the constitutional right to vote.

We don't know if that's exactly what this means, if that's exactly the scaffolding here for that particular statutory claim. It could be also depriving members of Congress of their privilege essentially of casting their votes.

So, we don't really know, but it's all of a piece, and it seems that this is a statute that could actually capture a lot of the various schemes leading up to January 6th and that encompass January 6th as well.

PHILLIP: It's sort of like an umbrella for all of these problems that Trump could face.

I do wonder what do you think the evidentiary burden is here. What do they need to show Trump did or said in order to prove these charges?

PERRY: So, of course, the evidentiary burden in any criminal trial is beyond a reasonable doubt. I think that Special Counsel Jack Smith's team is probably looking to prove it beyond any doubt. But, you know, in this case in particular, I think they are crossing every T, dotting every I, and looking at all possible defenses, making sure they can rebut them.

But I think, you know, in this case, they don't have to prove that, you know, anything really about the election, whether it was stolen or not stolen, they actually don't need to re-litigate all these cases, if they keep it tight and narrow in the way they did with the Mar-a- Lago indictment that just came down last month.

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They can actually litigate whether or not there was fraud, whether or not -- and that could be relatively simple, right? Were these slate of electors, the real slate of electors or were they fake? And then you don't have to bring in, I think, a lot of the questions that Mr. Parlatore was just talking about and re-litigating a lot of the cases that the defense already has lost.

PHILLIP: And real quick, before we go, John Lauro added to the team, is that a good addition, in your view?

PERRY: I know Todd Blanche very well, who's been on the team for a little while. He was a colleague of mine at the Southern District of New York. He was actually a paralegal in my first trial there. And he's an incredibly hard worker, incredibly meticulous, incredibly smart. I don't know Mr. Lauro as well, but I'm sure that they will have a robust and very hardworking team. PHILLIP: All right. Danya Perry, thank you very much.

MATTINGLY: Well, new this morning, the Department of Justice is looking into how migrants at the southern border are being treated after reports surfaced that troopers were told to push them back into the Rio Grande River and deny them water in scorching Texas heat. The reports stated the treatment comes under Governor Greg Abbott's latest policies.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins us now. And, Shimon, the reports, some of the photos with the reports, were shocking. What is going to happen here, right?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. And, really, Phil, what's so shocking here is the fact that this is a state trooper who is working on the border because of the governor's policies. They have hundreds of state troopers that are now assigned to work on the border and he is essentially complaining about what they are doing to the migrants, how they are treating the migrants.

And one of the things that he talks about in a memo that he writes to his bosses is that there's this razor wiring that they've put all across the water to try and prevent migrants from coming to land. And that razor wiring is actually causing a lot of destruction and harm to the people that are crossing.

And what we have found that is that in some of the photos that were released, you could see there the injuries on this one individual across his stomach. He was caught in the razor wiring. They had to actually cut him out and bring him to land.

The other thing what's going on is that because of the way they have placed the razor wiring, which is sort of on the more shallow end of the water, people are going to the deeper end to try and get to land, and they are drowning. And so there were five people who died during the week that this particular trooper was working the operation.

But it's so stunning and really just unprecedented to see a state trooper complaining to his bosses about what they are doing on the border. But he's not the only one. We're told there have been several other complaints. They're complaining that they're not giving water to the migrants.

The Department of Public Safety says that's not happening. We don't have that kind of a policy. But we know it's happening because I spoke to someone who was in a meeting where they were told don't give the migrants water. We don't want to help them come to land. We need to deter them from coming to land.

PHILLIP: I mean, it's really shocking and potentially, allegedly inhumane conduct here. If this is true, what happens next? And has there been a response from Greg Abbott's office?

PROKUPECZ: So, of course, Greg Abbott is continuing. This is our policy. This is what we're doing. We're doing whatever we can to secure the border. The Department of Justice is now saying that they're assessing the situation at the border.

And, really, the question now is will the administration, in some way, which we know they're unhappy with some of Greg Abbott's policies, will they get more involved? Will the Department of Justice get more involved?

You talk about being inhumane. That's exactly what the state trooper is saying in this memo to his bosses, that we have gone too far here and what we are doing is inhumane.

PHILLIP: And we have to remember also a lot of these folks coming over the border are children as well --

PROKUPECZ: There are children.

PHILLIP: -- in this razor wire.

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Shimon, keep us posted on the Justice Department in particular. Thank you.

PHILLIP: The IRS whistleblowers testifying on Capitol Hill that Hunter Biden received special treatment in a federal investigation. But House Democrats are calling the Republican-led hearing a theater of the absurd.

MATTINGLY: And it's the only question that matters today. Have you checked your Powerball ticket this morning? Somebody out there is a billion dollar richer. We're going to tell you where the winning ticket was sold, coming up soon.

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PHILLIP: This morning, some lucky person in California who is not me will wake up as a brand new billionaire, and that's billionaire with a B, after winning the third largest jackpot in Powerball history, the ticket holder will have to decide whether to take a lump sum payment of $558,000,000 or the yearly payments on the $1 billion prize. Both numbers are before taxes, of course.

And CNN Stephanie Elam is live in Los Angeles where this ticket was sold. Man, Stephanie, you didn't win, right?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Friends, would I be here right now? That's what I had won. That's what I'd be here right now.

PHILLIP: That's what I told, Phil.

MATTINGLY: That's fair. That's fair.

ELAM: That would be a game change. It's a billion little dreams being answered right now for one person, a group of people, who knows, maybe it was an office pool. Who knows? But here it is, Las Palmitas, here in Downtown Los Angeles, in the garment district on this very unassuming little street, someone has purchased a ticket. And in case you want the numbers, in case somebody's up, maybe they can't sleep and they just want to make sure that these numbers are, in fact, their numbers, it is 7, 10, 11, 13, 24 and the Powerball 24. But somebody hit all six of those numbers.

And maybe you guys should be buying a plane ticket to come out here because in November, there is a $2 billion jackpot, Powerball jackpot that was won in Altadena about 15 miles away. So, there might be something in the air out here. I think a lot of us are going to keep buying into that and buying our tickets. So, some very lucky person, persons, we don't know who they are yet.

But here's another fun fact, this little shop here, they're going to get about a million dollars for just selling the ticket. They'll get a million dollars, too. So, there is more than just one winner this morning here in California.

PHILLIP: Wow. Well, that little shop --

MATTINGLY: But not the three of us.

PHILLIP: Yes. And that little shot may or may not be there in a few months once they get that million dollar check. Stephanie Elam, thank you.

ELAM: It might be ready to move on.

PHILLIP: Yes, exactly.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, buddy. All right, we're following the Supreme Court's ruling that colleges and universities may no longer consider race, some schools are eliminating legacy admissions. Wesleyan University is among them. The president is going to join us next.

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PHILLIP: Since the Supreme Court's decision against affirmative action, more colleges and universities are now reevaluating their admissions processes. Legacy admissions have come under increased scrutiny since the high court's decision because the practice usually gives preferential treatments to applicants who are the children of alumni, which also tends to favor white and wealthy candidates.

Now, the private school, Wesleyan University in Connecticut, now joins an array of prestigious schools that have ended that practice, including MIT, Amherst, Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon.

And joining us now is the president of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth. President Roth, thank you very much for joining us.

For years, activists have been calling for this step to end legacy admissions and even that playing field. Polls also show that a majority of the public just doesn't support this practice. I wonder, why did it take so long for your school to get there?

MICHAEL ROTH, PRESIDENT, WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: Yes. For us, legacy admissions was never a very important feature of our admissions process. And truth be told, several years ago, I suggested that we just do away with it because it's a distraction.

We're talking -- you and I are talking about legacy admissions rather than talking about the inequitable distribution of educational resources all across the country for K through 12 students or the inadequate funding of public university cities all across the country.

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We're talking about a relatively small number of highly selective schools that give unfair preferential treatment to the children of alumni.