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CNN This Morning

U.S. Brings Back El Salvador Deportee To Face Charges; Tornado Watch In Effect For More Than 5 Million Across Four States; Trump Asks Aides If They Think Musk's Behavior Could Be Related To Alleged Drug Use. Crowds Clash with Authorities After L.A. ICE Raids; Colorado Anti-Semitic Molotov Cocktail Attack Suspect Refuses to Enter Plea on Federal Hate Crime Charges; U.S. Supreme Court Rules to Give DOGE Access to Social Security Data. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired June 07, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:33]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN This Morning, Saturday, June 7th. Good to have you along. I'm Victor Blackwell. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador is now back in the US to face criminal charges. The Trump administration says that he was part of a criminal conspiracy to transport illegal migrants. But much of what we heard from the attorney general is not in this charging document.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm not thinking about --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any plans to speak with Mr. Musk? This was one of your closest advisors.

TRUMP: I don't have any plans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The feud between President Trump and Elon Musk playing out in public. White House officials trying to downplay it. But there are questions over what impact the spat will have on the president's agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, they're removing the -- son of a.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Wow. Police and protesters clashed outside of a federal detention center in Los Angeles. ICE officials arrested dozens of people. LA Mayor Karen Bass says the raids were meant to sow terror in the community. Throughout the week of emotional testimony in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial with a witness known only as Jane testifying about these so called Hotel Nights. And the judge in the trial had a message for Combs himself.

All right, we're starting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, that's the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is back in the U.S. to face federal criminal charges. He appeared in a Tennessee courtroom Friday on human trafficking charges. The indictment states that Abrego Garcia and others worked together to smuggle people throughout the U.S. Many of them allegedly are members of the MS-13 gang.

Now, the case has made headlines for months with a lot of Democratic lawmakers criticizing the Trump administration for deporting him in the first place. That includes Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador earlier this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D) MARYLAND: I've said I'm not vouching for the man Abrego Garcia. This is not about him. It is about his constitutional rights. And I think we all recognize that if the Trump administration can trample over his constitutional rights. It's a very short road to tyranny when they can essentially put all of our constitutional rights in jeopardy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Camila DeChalus joins me now. What's the Trump administration saying about this?

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, President Trump has made it clear that he wants the Justice Department to go forward with pressing and pursuing prosecuting Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He's made it clear saying OK, even though my administration has openly admitted that it was a mistake to him, that he is going to come back and face criminal charges. Take a listen to what his attorney general had to say the other day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring. They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips. The grand jury found smuggling people throughout our country, MS-13 members, violent gang, terrorist organization members throughout our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DECHALUS: Now, as you can see there, Bondi was clearly laying out what the grounds that they to prosecute him for and laying out this the charges that she believes that he has committed. And this is pretty notable just considering how this headline, as you mentioned, Victor, has been playing out for months. First he was deported by accident. They openly admitted to it. Then

there was this back and forth exchange that President Trump was having with a lot of reporters saying that he didn't necessarily want to have him be taken back and that he really couldn't do that in his power to bring him back to the US. So you saw this big standoff between him and the federal Judiciary Branch on what exactly to do here.

And even in his recent comments, he's really doubled down stating that he didn't even want him to return in the first place. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He should have been returned. He should have never. He should have never had to be returned. You take a look at what's happened with him. You take a look at what they found in the grand jury and everywhere else. I thought Pam Bondi did a great job today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DECHALUS: Now, Victor, it's pretty notable that this has caused a little turmoil within the Trump administration. Just the other day, the chief of the Justice Department's criminal division in Nashville stepped down and resigned. And there is in large part, we don't know what the necessarily had to do with this case here, but there is a lot of speculation about it.

But what is clear is that this is going to be a long legal battle for Mr. Garcia, and we're going to see how this is going to play out while the Justice Department prosecutes him.

BLACKWELL: Camila DeChalus, thank you so much. Thank you for bringing up that resignation because we'll get to that in a moment with CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson. Joey, good morning to you. And I want to start, though, with just your view on the general strength of the indictment.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, Victor, good morning to you. It always depends, right? An indictment, let's just be very clear, is an accusation. That is the manner in which people proceed. In the justice system, you have a grand jury that convenes, and in that grand jury, what you do is you have members who evaluate evidence.

In the grand jury also, I should add, you just have prosecutors who are presenting witnesses. You don't have a defense attorney. You don't proffer a defense. The grand jury listens to information. 23 members sit on the grand jury. A majority that's 12, determined not guilt or innocence, just reason to believe that a crime was committed and that the subject of this proceeding here, Mr. Abrego Garcia, committed it.

Why am I spending so much time on that, Victor? Because a grand jury proceeding is simply what the prosecutors tell us. It's just when you peel back the onion, when you vet the allegations, when you vet what the attorney general said, when you evaluate whether there's underlying evidence that supports that, do you get to the ability to answer your question, which is an excellent one, and that is this right, a substantive and will it ultimately carry the day with regard to the factual underpinnings?

And the answer, quite frankly, is I don't know. I don't know whether this is just a cover that the administration has engaged in to justify this narrative that he shouldn't be here or whether this is substantive. I will say and I'll end here. That, listen, if someone resigns and it seems to be connected, the Chief of the Criminal Division associated with that office. Right. In light of this, presumably that's a problem to me. It's a red flag to me, and it raises many concerns to me.

BLACKWELL: So I was going to come to that later, but we've mentioned it twice now, so let's do it now. The former Chief of the Criminal Division. This is the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. His name is Ben Schrader. He resigned last month about the time that this -- the grand jury returned this indictment. And this is the. What he posted on social media. LinkedIn, I think it was.

It has been an incredible privilege to serve as prosecutor with the Department of Justice where the only job description I've ever known is to do the right thing in the right way for the right reasons. And sources tell CNN that his resignation is directly tied to this indictment. You say that's a red flag. Could he be compelled to testify to talk about why he decided to leave because of this indictment?

JACKSON: I mean, it's not a -- it's not otherwise a subject of a judicial proceeding. Right. So with respect to compelling him to testify or to talk about that at this point. Right. There's nothing underlying that would make him compelled to appear before the court, and it doesn't otherwise have to do with the allegations itself.

If a judge, for example, wanted more information to know whether there was not good faith what was happening here, whether these were fabricated, that is the allegations, what went into this, and whether this is just a ruse by the government, I think then that changes the complexity of it, changes the nature of it, and could factor in to issues relating to contempt for federal authorities. We're in a tough place.

I mean, when you can't trust the United States government and the nature of an indictment, that comes out of nowhere. It's a problem. And so we'll see whether he voluntarily, that is, the Chief of the Criminal Division comes forward and says anything. He was certainly cryptic with respect to his remarks, but I wouldn't rule out at some point that he may be called to address, hey, what is going on here? So we may hear from him, compelled or otherwise.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the specific charges, because despite what the attorney general mentioned about being related to a killing of a rival gang member's mother or illicit photos of a minor, there are two specific criminal charges here. Conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.

[06:10:02] Now, according to the Associated Press, Abrego Garcia's wife said that her husband sometimes transported workers between two job sites. If he did that for a fee, if the workers paid him to get from one job site to another, or the employer said, hey, we need five guys to come and we'll pay $100 to bring them, is that enough to support unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain?

JACKSON: Well, it would not appear so. Why do I say that. Uber drivers transfer people for a fee. It happens every day. That's the nature of their job. From one place to another. Other people might give Lyft to someone and you pay for their gas from one place to another. Why? Because it's the proper thing to do and because you're really going into the expense associated with the transportation.

The question is what he knew and when he knew it. That is, Mr. Abrego Garcia, was this something, as is alleged at the indictment, Victor, where it was this conspiracy, where he had knowledge, right, mens rea knowledge with respect to what he was doing, that these people were illegal, that other people were in on it, that he was transporting them for the purposes of engaging in this unlawful alien transport from one location to another, or was he simply bringing people to a job site and collecting a fee as a result of that, which would be anticipated.

So your question ends with answer, really deals with the facts. And once we get to the underpinnings of whether he was aware that there was illegality here, that they were illegal, that he was doing it for an improper purpose, that's another thing. If he was collecting a fee for the transport, that's quite enough.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Joey Jackson, thank you so much.

Coming up a little later on first of all this morning, I'll be joined by a member of Kilmar Brego Garcia's legal team for their reaction to the charges. That's at 8:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

All right. Right now, more than 5 million people are under a tornado watch across parts of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma. Just yesterday, a tornado touched down in Van Buren, Arkansas. Look at this mess. The storm sent at least two people to the hospital, damaged more than 50 buildings, forced about 30 families from their homes in one apartment building. CNN's Allison Chinchar is here with me now. So where are you seeing the greatest threat?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Probably where that tornado watch is, but it's going to gradually shift not just today, but over the next several days because this is going to be a multiday threat as the system continues to slide eastward and it's not going to move all that fast, which is actually going to create an additional threat of flooding because you're going to have a lot of water over the lot of the same areas over and over.

So here's what we're looking at right now. This is a live look at the radar. You can see we've got some stuff in the northeast areas over around the Carolinas, the mid-Atlantic and then also into portions of the mid-Mississippi Valley and the Central Plains. This is where we have the tornado watch. And most of this expires.

The western portion will expire here in about an hour or so. The other, the eastern parts, it's going to take about two more hours before we finally see that expire. But it's very possible we could see those continue to form even off to the east because look, these boxes that you see here, those are severe thunderstorm warnings and we've had them off and on throughout much of the day so far. And it's going to continue.

This is the overall threat for the day today. And you can see it's a very wide swath stretching from western Texas all the way over to the Atlantic coast. Now the target point is really going to be the yellow and especially the orange areas. But even if you live in the green zones, you still have the potential for some damaging winds.

It's really just going to be the focus of these other two where you have the potential for some hail and also the additional threat of tornadoes, especially late this afternoon. We've already got the ongoing storms from this morning. But as it slides eastward, hitting Memphis, say around lunchtime today, then continuing to slide into places like Atlanta and Chattanooga once we get towards the evening time frame. And then we'll continue through the overnight as well.

BLACKWELL: All right. We know you'll be watching it, Allison, thank you. Still to come, the explosive and very public breakup between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. But the president is asking aides about the Tesla CEO in private. That's next.

Plus, Russia pounds Ukraine again. The mayor of Ukraine's second largest city calls this the most powerful attack of the entire war.

And one of Sean "Diddy" Combs accusers testified that she wanted to stop the hotel nights, but he threatened to cut her off financially if she did. What's next in the trial? That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:19:06]

BLACKWELL: There are new questions this morning about what effects the feud between President Trump and Elon Musk may have on the president's agenda as growing concern on Capitol Hill that Musk's criticism of the Big Beautiful Bill Act may embolden Republicans who share his concerns over the legislation.

Some in Congress worry a prolonged fight between the two men could distract from getting Trump's agenda passed. And CNN has learned that the president is trying to understand what happened to their relationship. He's asking his aides and advisers if they believe Musk's recent behavior could be related to his alleged drug abuse. Trump spoke briefly about Musk last night on Air Force One.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your view on Elon Musk as of today? I mean, have you heard from him at all? TRUMP: Honestly, I've been so busy working on China, working on

Russia, working on Iran, working on so many I'm not thinking about.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any plans to speak with Mr. Musk? This was one of your closest advisors.

TRUMP: No, I don't have plans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:20:07]

BLACKWELL: CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOSUE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump and White House officials spent the day trying to downplay the feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Trump himself telling our Dana Bash that he wasn't even thinking about Elon Musk, that he had other things on his mind.

But when asked about this on Air Force One on his way to his Bedminster Golf Club, Donald Trump had a lot to say. He said that he didn't have any plans to reconcile anytime soon with Elon Musk. But he also said that he planned on looking at the government contracts that the federal government has with Elon Musk. That would be the tune of billions of dollars.

Now, he did refuse to comment on several things. And he said his land -- his head was in faraway lands, not on Elon Musk.

But I've talked to a number of sources who say, of course Donald Trump has been talking about this. He has speculated why this is happening. He has speculated what's going on with Elon Musk to create this environment where Musk is attacking Donald Trump on social media.

And as much as the White House wants to downplay this, it is impossible for people to take their eyes off because you just saw two of the world's most powerful men get into a brawl on social media, and much of it was incredibly public.

Now, Donald Trump's team says again, they have no desire to get in touch with Elon Musk or to reconcile the two. We will, of course, see what happens in the end, because with Donald Trump, you never say never.

We have reported time and time again of people losing their cool with Donald Trump, being on the outs with Trump's inner circle, only to have them show up and be a part of the second Trump administration. But as for now, we are told fairly, definitively that there is nothing on the horizon for the two of them to come together and that Donald Trump and his team have no interest in that. Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAOE)

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's talk about this now with Alex Gangitano, White House correspondent for The Hill. Alex, good morning to you. Let's start here with this desire of the president's to move on. What we know about this president is that he can hold the grudge. He can go on a social media rant for hours and then circle back to it years later. Or what informs this? Let's move on. Spirit from the president.

ALEX GANGITANO, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE HILL: That's right. It seemed like on Thursday it was just a nonstop back and forth between the President and Truth Social, Musk on X. And then yesterday he wanted to move on. He was saying there are efforts to get back together with Musk in this relation, this friendship. But I'm not interested. I'm so focused elsewhere on China, Iran, Russia.

And I think a lot of it has to do with some of these personal insults that were lobbed at him from Musk. I think he is feeling pretty personally offended by a lot of this. We were hearing from White House sources yesterday that Musk went pretty low with some of these insults. I mean, those are things from suggesting that Trump's inside of the Epstein files to saying that Trump wouldn't have won the election without Musk's help.

I mean, that's a pretty low blow for this president who is still reeling after losing the 2020 election. And so White House aides were basically saying, you know, things needed to cool off after Musk decided to go personal. And the President has held off from going, you know, attacking Musk on a very personal basis, including talking about some of that alleged drug use.

Meanwhile, though, he did threaten to cut his contracts, which is, you know, essential to Musk's business. So at this point though, it seems like he's ready to cool things off. But you're right, this come back up at any time.

BLACKWELL: At the center of this disagreement is Musk's opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And a reminder to people, it's not me characterizing it as the One Big Beautiful Bill. That is actually the name of the legislation every time you hear someone on television say that. But is there some fear in the White House or concern that Musk's opposition, as vocal as he has now become, could further jeopardize that getting through the Senate?

GANGITANO: Yes, definitely. I mean, I think there's a kind of quiet concern about the fact that Musk is giving platform to a lot of these fiscal hawks in the Senate who are now saying, you know what, you're right, we shouldn't be adding to the deficit and must gave them the that ability to speak out.

I mean, Musk has been working on cost cutting efforts out of the federal government. He wanted to cut 2 trillion, then 1 trillion, and cut much less than all of that, but was so devoted to that for a long time and was hailed by Republicans for taking on this work.

Now he's saying, you're undermining my work with this quote, big beautiful bill. I think it gave the likes of Senator Paul, Senator Johnson the ability to say, yes, why are we undermining these efforts?

[06:25:06]

So I think there's a real fear inside of the White House that this could be the thing that tanks the bill, because people are actually looking at, why are we spending more money when the whole platform was supposed to be that we find areas to cut. And you could also kind of see the tension with Speaker Johnson yesterday because he was saying, I hope that Musk and Trump reconcile, really believing in redemption.

These were all things that I think at the end of the day, Johnson also wants this bill to go through. He worked really hard on it in the House and getting his members on board. So he would like to see Musk kind of take it down a notch when it comes to criticizing this bill as well, and maybe get along with Trump a little better because that would help him personally, too.

BLACKWELL: Yes, the guys stop fighting strategy from the Speaker. Alex, last one for you here. You mentioned it a couple seconds ago and the President talked about it on Air Force One, the plausibility that there would be cancellation of any of Musk's contracts. He responded to someone on social media that he's now not going to decommission the Dragon. But is that realistic considering they're trying to smooth this over?

GANGITANO: Right. I think at this point, if the idea is to smooth it over and it sounds like it is, going after these government contracts wouldn't be the way to do that. I think that could have just been a threat from the President, considering he had to figure out a way to get back at Musk after all these posts on X he was fielding on Thursday.

Because I think these SpaceX contracts in particular the Dragon, you know, shuttle, these are all things that our government has figured out a way they really depend on all of these. They need these. It would make an impact if we didn't have them. But what was interesting is Trump was asked, do we really need these companies and Musk's help? And he was saying, you know, the U.S. -- the only thing that America really needs is me.

So, a very typical Trump response last night about all of that, but the fact that he's just saying that he's looking at them and hasn't made any actions yet. You know, this president can move pretty swiftly when he's upset about something. I think it's telling that they realize that it may not be in these best interests to cut all of these contracts, but maybe they'll find a way to cut some in order to just take a stab at Musk.

BLACKWELL: Well, I mean, the president says all America needs is him, but he doesn't have a cruise shuttle or a cargo shuttle and Elon Musk does so. Alex Gangitano, thanks so much for being with us.

Russia is pounding Kharkiv with missiles and drones. Experts say it's retaliatory -- retaliation for Kyiv's daring Spiderweb drone operation just a few days ago. The latest on the war in Ukraine is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]

BLACKWELL: Crowds clash with ICE agents after dozens of people were detained in raids across Los Angeles on Friday. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SIREN BLARING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, they were moving --

(GUNFIRE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Son of --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Police issued a city-wide tactical alert just hours after declaring protests across the downtown L.A. area as unlawful assemblies. Police in riot gear used tear gas and flash bangs to try to break up the crowds. At least, 44 people were detained in ICE raids. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said the raids sow terror in the community. The Egyptian --

(CLEARS THROAT)

BLACKWELL: Excuse me, the Egyptian national charged in the anti- Semitic Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado, did not enter a plea on federal hate crime charges. Mohamed Soliman was in federal court on Friday. He's also facing 118 charges in state court, including 28 counts of attempted murder for last Sunday's attack that left several people, including a holocaust survivor, injured.

Soliman will be back in court on June 18th. The conservative Supreme Court majority handed DOGE a pair of wins. The biggest ruling gives DOGE access to sensitive Social Security data for millions of Americans. DOGE says it needs the access to find fraud and modernize outdated systems.

Now, the justices also paused a lower court ruling that required DOGE to turn over documents as part of a lawsuit, claiming that the entity should be subject to federal records' requests. All three liberal justices dissented in both rulings. New this morning, Ukraine says it shot down a Russian military jet near Kursk in successful Air Force operation.

Now, Russia has not confirmed it, but a military blogger says the jet went down and the pilot was rescued. Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv faced what its mayor says is its worst attack since the war began. Two people were killed. Russia also launched strikes yesterday just hours after promising to retaliate for hits on its air bases. At least, six people were killed in those attacks. CNN's Sebastian Shukla is joining us now. What's the latest?

[06:35:00] SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN FIELD PRODUCER: Yes, good morning, Victor. As

you say, Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, which lies some 20- odd miles inside Ukraine from the Russian border, has come under what the mayor has described as the largest attack on the city since the war began in February 2022. What we're learning as a result of these attacks is that three people have now died, and there have been scores injured, 21, the mayor says.

And this is the second straight night now of attacks on Ukraine by Russia, following that one on Friday night, which saw 400 drones and 40 ballistic and cruise missiles launched to all different areas and cities in Ukraine. And it appears now to be without doubt that this is the retaliation that President Trump spoke about that may be coming and alluded to in the call that he had with President Putin earlier this week. I want you to take a listen to what the President had to say on board Air Force One earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, they gave -- they gave Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night. That's the thing I didn't like about it. When I saw it, I said, here we go, now it's going to be a strike --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUKLA: And so, what we're seeing, Victor, is, and the retaliation and the response is a result of that audacious attack carried out by Ukrainian Intelligence Services last Sunday on those various airfields located well inside the borders of the Russian federation. It should be noted, though, Victor, that the President is also still considering the possibility of sanctions which would mirror a sanctions package being proposed by the European Union on Russia.

All of it is designed to try to force Moscow to come to some sort of ceasefire and a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine. One at the moment as we're looking at these attacks, seems to be further and further away. Victor.

BLACKWELL: Sebastian Shukla, thank you. One of Sean Combs' accusers is describing their relationship as defensive, belittling, dismissive. We'll discuss the latest on the trial with an expert next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: A former girlfriend and accuser of Hip Hop mogul Sean Combs will return to the stand on Monday. She's going by the pseudonym Jane, and she gave emotional testimony Friday. Jane read text messages aloud where she expressed feeling mistreated. Audio recordings were also played in court where Combs told Jane to, quote, "do her job".

Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Here with me now to discuss is attorney and "Court TV" anchor Julie Grant. Thank you for coming in. JULIE GRANT, ATTORNEY & ANCHOR, COURT TV: My pleasure, Victor, thanks

for having me.

BLACKWELL: So, let's start here with the effectiveness of Jane's testimony, where she said she was lured to these hotel nights with other men -- so-called hotel nights. What do you think of what she's covered so far?

GRANT: Jane is key, Victor. She's really key to counts four and five. The sex-trafficking and the transportation to engage in prostitution. And she also can add to count number one as well, the racketeering conspiracy. And so, really, if she's testifying and this jury believes her that she was put under force or threat of force or coerced to lured into doing these hotel nights, Cassie called them freak-offs, she calls them hotel nights where she is being provided to these male sex workers to engage in these sex acts that she didn't enjoy and really didn't want.

It satisfies the requisite elements, Victor. You know, sex trafficking, it's not that complicated. I think sometimes people often confuse it with human smuggling. You were talking --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

GRANT: About it earlier in the show. And that trafficking, I mean, it's enough that they're going on the private jet to Miami, Vegas, wherever they're headed and crossing state lines, so that makes it federal. And then here, we have "Diddy" procuring these men. There's the commercial act to the payment for the act. He's getting enjoyment from it.

She says she's not. So, if the jury believes Jane, she largely helps the government's case. If they don't, it's good for "Diddy". It's good for "Diddy" because it shows he was supporting her financially. She was living a nice life --

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about that. This house --

GRANT: Yes --

BLACKWELL: The $10,000 a month that -- paying for the house that she's renting, that she says he is still paying.

GRANT: Right --

BLACKWELL: Fit that piece of the puzzle in.

GRANT: Sure, so the financial dependency, right? That's so key. So, on one way we look at it, the government could say, OK, this is part of the coercive lifestyle that he was creating for her to make her do these things, making her financially dependent, emotionally dependent, all of that relationship hinges on it.

But from the "Diddy" team's perspective, hey, she could have walked away. We live in a free country here. She didn't have to stay, but she liked the lifestyle. Ten thousand for just the rent, and she's getting -- I mean, all the attention that comes with being in a relationship with Sean "Diddy" Combs, I mean think about all the people he had working for him to help her life.

Be as enhanced as possible. And so, which did she like? Was it easy living or was it tough living, Jane? So, it's a big question, as you know, Victor --

BLACKWELL: It's --

GRANT: For the jury.

BLACKWELL: She also said that before meeting or dating "Diddy", Sean Combs, that she'd only used drugs twice before.

GRANT: Right.

[06:45:00]

BLACKWELL: What's the relevance of that to the jury?

GRANT: Oh, that's such a great question. So, we're hearing that the drugging was part of these freak-offs or hotel nights that people were administered drugs to engage in them, given the recovery, IV fluids to recover from the brutal nature of them. Jane was allegedly used as a mule as well, Victor.

And this is so key because it also supports the racketeering conspiracy. You know all about these --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

GRANT: Predicate crimes. The government must prove right, they've got to prove two really bad things racketeering activities within a ten- year period. And Jane's testimony was a little bit of a surprise in that regard, because if "Diddy" is making her take drugs with her on planes to be brought to the different location and then administered to the people there, that's drug trafficking.

And so, that's also part of this. So, it's interesting that she's saying she was never involved with that lifestyle. And if she was forced to be, that also is not a good thing for "Diddy".

BLACKWELL: There was a warning from the judge late this week about Sean Combs, as he said, nodding vigorously at the jury, which I find myself doing now because I'm learning so much from you explaining this --

GRANT: Kind of talking --

BLACKWELL: But the nodding vigorously at the jury, what could that mean for the jury, the impact? Now, he's not removed him from the courtroom yet, or no suggestion he will. But what does it mean?

GRANT: Right, Victor, this was such an event the other day when this happened. So, what the judge is trying to do is stop him from exerting any improper influence or any intimidation or any engagement that's out of the bounds of the court rules with the jury. So, for instance, eye contact, like you and I are making right now, totally appropriate. You know --

BLACKWELL: Sure --

GRANT: It shows you're listening to me --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

GRANT: You know, the nodding, I'm nodding back at you. That's a conversation. But where the difference was, the judge was noticing that it looked like he was trying to convey a message.

BLACKWELL: Yes --

GRANT: Maybe such an eye lock and such a stare and such an intense nod that the jurors may feel that, oh, with his body language, he seems like he's singling me out for some reason, or trying to say something to me that's improper. So, the judge going so far as to say he would remove him is interesting too, Victor, because as a defendant, Sean "Diddy" Combs has the right to be present at his --

BLACKWELL: Sure --

GRANT: Trial, that's a really --

BLACKWELL: Sure --

GRANT: Extreme measure. And as you noted, we don't know that the judge would even do that --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

GRANT: And from what we've heard, "Diddy" corrected the behavior. So, I think it's the way the judge is letting everybody know it's his courtroom, he's going to make sure everybody respects the rules of decorum, and that "Diddy" stays in line.

BLACKWELL: Julie Grant, a lot happened this week, we'll look toward Monday. Thank you --

GRANT: Oh, thanks for having me, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Thanks for coming in. Large hail, damaging winds, the Central Plains in the Mississippi Valley, they're bracing for some severe storms. We'll have details of what to expect, that's after a quick break.

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[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: Look at this. New video of a major wrong turn. Chicago Department of Aviation just released this video. It's from O'Hare International Airport, this is May 17th when it happened. This car comes just feet from planes parked at the gate. Officials say he's a DoorDash driver who mistakenly drove through an unauthorized and secured area.

Order for Carl(ph), Zaxbys(ph) for Carl(ph)?! And the driver is not facing any charges for the incident. I mean, clearly this is a security concern, but bruh, at what point did you realize I don't think I'm in the right place? This morning, millions of people are bracing for back-to-back rounds of dangerous storms from the Central Plains, the Mississippi Valley, severe weather is set to bring hail and flooding, maybe tornadoes to some areas. Allison Chinchar is back. This sounds like a dangerous weekend.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and as we talked earlier, it's going to be multiple days. So, it's not like we're done after today. It's all good after that. It's just going to shift into some different areas. But a few spots are actually going to get it from multiple days. And that's going to lead to a flooding threat because you're going to have those storms hitting the same areas over and over and over again.

So, here's a live look at the radar. You can see we've got some rain across portions of the northeast, the mid-Atlantic, and then the real strong stuff that's currently over portions of the Central Plains. Now, one of the concerns is going to be flooding as we mentioned. So, you've got these flood watches in effect, not only where the super strong storms are, but also a few into the northeast, and that's because they've kind of just had these lingering showers for the last few days.

So, that ground is already saturated. So, even though it's mostly light nuisance rain, it's on top of very wet ground so it doesn't take much to cause some flooding. Here's a look at where we have the best threat for that excessive rainfall. So, you can see we've got that level two out of four.

We've got a portion of it up across portions of New England. But you also have it into the southeast as well. And this is because this is where a lot of those storms are really going to train. You're going to have multiple rounds as we go through the day today and even into tomorrow. Overall, most of these areas you're looking at maybe 2 inches at most, but some isolated spots could get three, maybe even 4 inches of rain by the time it's all said and done.

And that's where you start seeing a lot of that water pile up and begin to cause some big concerns.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Allison. In this week's episode of "SEARCHING FOR SPAIN", Eva Longoria takes viewers to a rugged, mountainous region on the northwest coast of Spain known for its dairy products. There, Eva visits the town of Longoria, where her ancestors are from. Here's a look.

[06:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hola! UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hola.

EVA LONGORIA, AMERICAN ACTRESS & FILM PRODUCER: Of course, this D-I-Y philosophy extends to dinner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: On the menu, you guessed it. Shall(ph) the lamb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: I think we all know which liquid. You can smell the cider (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) it's already marinated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: Wordy --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow --

LONGORIA: Oh, these are all my favorite veggies. While the lamb simmers in cider, a (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) of onions, peppers and leaves is fried off. Does anybody else cry? Before being tossed into the pot along with a little more of the good stuff. (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) see you in a couple of hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Be sure to watch a new episode of Eva Longoria's "SEARCHING FOR SPAIN", airs tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN. Still to come next hour, Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in court on Friday. What Attorney General Pam Bondi is saying about the charges against him. That's ahead.

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