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Erin Burnett Outfront
Report: Trump Officials' Mortgages Similar To Dems He Accuses Of Fraud; GOP Calling Out RFK Jr.; MAGA Goes After India. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 04, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:26]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, Trump targeting multiple Democrats over allegations of mortgage fraud. But a new report tonight, brand new, just out, revealing at least three Trump cabinet members also claimed multiple primary residences on their mortgages. So will he investigate them, too?
And more breaking news. More Republicans calling at RFK, Jr. for his anti-vax views. Is the nation's chief health official in trouble?
And MAGA going after India? Not happy with Modi holding hands with Putin. But then where is the outrage over Trump rolling out the red carpet for Putin?
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with that breaking news. Trump's mortgage fraud hypocrisy, as the president is going after a Biden appointed Fed official, a top Democratic senator in New York and the New York attorney general for what he calls mortgage fraud, right. It's been the main thing they've been going after with.
And a new report tonight is turning the tables. On the same day that the Justice Department is opening a criminal investigation into that Fed official, Lisa Cook, she's the one Trump's trying to fire for mortgage fraud, "ProPublica" is reporting that at least three Trump cabinet officials have also claimed multiple primary residences on their mortgage applications.
Here they are. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and EPA Chief Lee Zeldin, all claiming multiple primary residences on their mortgage applications, according to "ProPublica".
Now, all three deny wrongdoing. And this is important, none of them, by the way, have been investigated. None, despite the Trump administration on this issue, setting this bar.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) BILL PULTE, DIRECTOR OF THE FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY: If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate, and we will refer it for criminal investigation.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, you heard it there from him. Two primary residences is criminal referral. Well, that's what's the case in these situations. And Trump has done this, right, in the case of Lisa Cook, also in the cases of Senator Adam Schiff and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, right? That's been the standard, two primary residences claimed investigation.
The thing is, those three individuals that I just mentioned all happen to be people that Trump is politically at odds with.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Adam Schiff, they have him 100 percent on mortgage fraud.
Letitia James, who's the attorney general of New York state, it seemed -- I'm not involved in that at all, but it's major fraud -- mortgage documents and fraudulent everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, in the case of Cook at the Fed, the Trump administration is accusing her of committing fraud by listing more than one property as a primary residence, which could be used to potentially secure a lower interest rate.
Now, to be clear, if that happened, if it's true, you know, it's not okay. She's a Fed governor. She should not be doing any such thing, right? That's true.
Cook's attorney is slamming the accusations, though, writing that the administration is scrambling to invent new justifications for its overreach. But here's the thing about this. Trump says that what cook did was fraud and should be investigated because she's accused of signing two mortgage documents two weeks apart, promising that each of those residences would be her primary residence for at least one year. That doesn't seem to add up at all.
Now, according to "ProPublica", Chavez-DeRemer did something very similar, claiming a home in Arizona was a primary residence and signing both her mortgage documents in the same year, back in 2021. So, two primaries within one year.
And today, Bill Pulte, Trump's housing finance chief, the man that you just heard earlier there who very simply defined what this administration calls mortgage fraud, what they say should be investigated and prosecuted, right? If you've got two primary residences claimed, that hits the bar.
So, today, he was asked, what about other Republicans who might fit that very same standard? Here's how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PULTE: There are a lot of other people that have been criminally referred, and they don't have this type of benefit being given to them, which is, oh, you know, maybe it's a clerical error and maybe it's this. Did you sign these documents or did you not? Do we hold people at the Federal Reserve to a high standard or not? Public officials shouldn't be exempt from scrutiny.
[19:05:00]
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, CNBC ANCHOR: Speaking of that, Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general running for U.S. senator -- U.S. Senate, has -- there's at least, it looks like three examples -- working examples right now of what could be described as alleged mortgage fraud. Is that something you're looking at?
PULTE: As I said, unless it's something that's either been made public by lawyers like Norm Eisen or in criminal referrals, I'm not going to comment on any specific situation. If things are made public, then in -- or if we decide to make them public, then I will talk about it. But I'm not going to engage in any specific individuals.
SORKIN: But why wouldn't you make them public if you made this -- if you made this public?
PULTE: That's false.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay, great question there by Mr. Sorkin. And here's the thing. So, something was made public today, wrote "ProPublica", came out and has these three examples. So, what does the White House has to say about it? Well, they are saying of the new reporting tonight, quote, adding, unlike Lisa corrupt Cook, who blatantly and intentionally committed mortgage fraud, Secretary DeRemer, Secretary Duffy and Administrator Zeldin own multiple residences and they have followed the law and they are fully compliant with all ethical obligations.
Begs the question of how they know that in those cases, but not in any of the ones against their political opponents.
OUTFRONT now, Justin Elliott of "ProPublica", who broke this story, did all of the hard reporting, along with Mimi Rocah, the former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, and Brian Barrett, the executive editor of "Wired".
All right, Justin, you've done all of this work over the recent days. Everyone said, okay, they're pointing the finger at Cook and Letitia James and Adam Schiff. So what about in your own house?
So you went and looked in their house and his cabinet. Three cases within the Trump administration that certainly seemed to meet Bill Pulte's definition of what should be investigated. Two primary residences at the same time. He says that should get a criminal referral.
What did you find?
JUSTIN ELLIOTT, REPORTER, PROPUBLICA: Yeah. I mean, so a couple of things. First of all, I've been spending a lot of time on the phone with real estate lawyers, and they told me, first of all, that what the Trump administration is saying is evidence of mortgage fraud has been mischaracterized and that sometimes there might be legitimate reasons why you might have two of these mortgages. And you really have to look at the facts of each case, figure out intent.
But, you know, as you said, by the standard they have put out there, all three of these cabinet officials, I think the strongest example is the labor secretary have two of these primary residence mortgages that tend to get lower interest rates. In the case of the labor secretary, Chavez-DeRemer, you know, these two mortgages were secured within 2 or 3 months of each other by both her and her husband, one for residence in Oregon, one in Arizona.
As far as we've been able to tell, they didn't actually move to the home in Arizona, even though their signatures are on a mortgage document that says they have to move there.
BURNETT: And they were known from your reporting to use it for vacations.
ELLIOTT: Yeah, they'd been -- they'd been spending time in Arizona vacationing. So, it seems like it may be a vacation home. So, they -- she certainly has not moved there. And the mortgage document in black and white says you have to at least intend to live there as your principal residence for a year. By the way, I should also add, we did go directly to Bill Pulte, who's been leading the charge on this.
BURNETT: Right, we showed there.
ELLIOTT: And presented these cases. And we just did not get any comment.
BURNETT: No answer. No. Oh, gosh. If that's the case, we're going to be hot and hot on it, right? No.
ELLIOTT: They didn't respond.
BURNETT: They didn't respond.
Okay. So what are the similarities between Trump administration officials and Trump's, you know, I guess there's no other way to describe it. Cook and Letitia James and Adam Schiff, other than his enemies, his rivals, in terms of the mortgages.
ELLIOTT: So each of these cases have, again, like their own set of specific facts. And also each of these cases, including with Cook and Schiff, we just don't have all the information around what their intent was, the exact circumstances. But with Schiff's -- under Schiff, for example, one of the allegations against him by the administration has been exactly what we saw with the labor secretary and also the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, which is that he got two of these primary residence mortgages for two properties in a relatively short time span in the same year.
BURNETT: Yeah.
ELLIOTT: That's exactly what we saw with the labor secretary, Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, and his wife, who's a Fox News host here in New York. They got a primary residence mortgage for their place in New Jersey. They just bought a new place in Washington, D.C., also primary residence.
One thing we found looking at that case was Fox News had a segment a couple of months ago featuring them cooking breakfast at home together. And that was in New Jersey, not in their new place in D.C., that their mortgage documents say are supposed to be their principal residence. So, it's -- and they did not respond to us when we asked, where do they live.
BURNETT: Right. No, of course, they all deny wrongdoing.
But I mean, Mimi, I guess I'm just looking back to the original comment made by the person who is supposedly in charge of looking into this, Bill Pulte. If somebody is claiming two primary residences, that is not appropriate, and we will refer it for criminal investigation.
So, putting aside the legal standard right of every case is its own unique fingerprint, right?
[19:10:00]
By their own standard, every single one of these things that you have just uncovered me, Mimi, right, would be criminal investigation, right?
MIMI ROCAH, FORMER SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DIVISION CHIEF: By the standard that Pulte said yes, that he should now go refer them for criminal investigation. But the point here is this. First of all, these are not normally the kind of mortgage -- mortgage fraud is a common crime charged federally. This type of mortgage fraud, though, about --
BURNETT: Secondary residence.
ROCAH: Right.
BURNETT: Yeah.
ROCAH: Not usually a standalone crime. It's usually part -- I mean, in the federal prosecutor toolbox, like, they have bigger other things to do, but what's going on here, which is so typical of this administration, is they are targeting particular people. It's not about -- I mean, whether or not anyone has committed any kind of mortgage fraud is fact specific. They are intent crimes. I don't know the answer to that sitting here.
What I do know is, is very obvious. The people who they have singled out for this very specific type of crime, that they are putting this magnifying glass to, are people who have legitimate claims of vindictive prosecution, which is rare and hard to make. But if ever there was a case for it, I mean, you've got, Ed Martin in his, you know, dressed up Detective Inspector Clouseau outfit standing outside the attorney general's house doing some kind of inspection, like this is an unheard of level of scrutiny.
BURNETT: I think, also, maybe they're not even. Theres not even an effort tonight to say, oh, okay, were going to look into the "ProPublica" stuff. And if that's the case, it's not okay. There's not even an effort.
ROCAH: They're not pretending to give what --
BURNETT: That's why I think is almost -- is not even -- there isn't even a fig leaf being put up here. I mean, Brian, the Trump official who referred, you know, Trump's right. You know, Schiff and Letitia James and Cook for prosecution.
Bill Pulte was asked today, why -- why did you look into Lisa Cook at the Fed, her mortgages specifically. Right? What would target this? Right?
She's a Biden appointee and a 14-year term. She's voted against him on interest rates. Why her and not someone else?
And his answer was he gets tips. He gets tips. And I just want to play what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PULTE: I'm not going to explain our sources and methods where we get tips from who, our whistleblowers. It would be reckless for me to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And, Brian, it's pretty incredible, getting tips on mortgage fraud, right, about specific people.
BRIAN BARRETT, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, WIRED: Yeah, I mean, that's sort of defies a little bit of belief. If anything, I think Bill Pulte, if he got a tip, you could imagine it might be on social media where he has 3 million followers or something like that. He is a huge MAGA diehard on social media who is now in a position of power in the administration.
So, if you get a tip, maybe someone tweeted at him. But yeah, it is -- it is clearly sort of the selective targeting that we've seen.
BURNETT: I mean, Justin, just to be clear here, you don't need a tip. I mean, you actually just went and got the documents, right? If you wanted to look, you could look right.
ELLIOTT: I mean, I don't want to put my colleagues and myself down. I think we're decent reporters, but -- BURNETT: That was not my intent.
ELLIOTT: No, no, but this -- but this was a I mean, this was about a week of work going to the counties where we thought folks --
BURNETT: It's a lot of work, and you had to take time but it wasn't as if you had to get these tips.
ELLIOTT: No, these are -- these are -- these are fully public documents at the county level. Sometimes you have to pay 25 bucks to get them or something like that, or show up at some obscure county office.
But these are out there and, it's, you know, it's relatively easy. And certainly, the federal housing agency that Bill Pulte runs has all kinds of other documents that they could draw from if they, you know --
BURNETT: If they -- if they wanted to look.
So, Trump was asked about this last week, Brian, I want to just play the exchange. When he was asked about it. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Is your administration weaponizing government --
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No.
REPORTER: -- by digging into the mortgage records of officials you don't like?
TRUMP: No. They're public. I mean, you can find out those records. You can go check out the records yourself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Brian, he said it.
BARRETT: Yeah. It's right. You can go check them out yourself, I think.
What is concerning here, though, is that as we've alluded to before, they also have a lot more records that you cannot go look for yourself. And as we see the administration continue to weaponize data, files, whatever they have on hand, you could see that going really bad places. You already see it, in fact, in the world of immigration enforcement, where IRS and ICE now have an unprecedented memorandum of understanding where ICE can tap into IRS data, pretty much as much as they please.
It's a really bad precedent, and it's a bad sign about where this might go, especially the mortgage stuff doesn't stick. Who knows if they might just move on to the next thing?
I think they've got a lot of powerful data that they can use. They've shown that they're willing to use it. I think that's alarming for anyone who runs afoul of the Trump administration.
[19:15:02]
BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, Mimi, and also if they're going to do criminal referrals, I mean, what is -- what sort of check and balance? And I don't say this sarcastically, what even exists in the system to say, well, I'm only going after him and not after you. Is there anything to stop that other than people like us sitting here and saying, this is blatant hypocrisy?
ROCAH: That is exactly the right question to be asking. And it is a terrifying one right now, because we can't look at this in isolation. I mean, this is an important issue to dig into, but it is part of a broader pattern. We use the word weaponization. It's an abuse of power because power of the criminal justice system, which is what we're talking about here, the power to criminally investigate people, charge them, et cetera, that's prosecutorial discretion, that has existed always. And we count on, you know, prosecutors doing the right thing in the right way for the right reasons. That's the motto.
It is now being turned on its head, and it is being used as a way to retaliate against, for example, Tish James, because she's a political opponent. I mean, she's been a thorn in his side. Against, you know, the -- Cook, because they need to justify something against Schiff, because he's a political opponent.
That is not how our justice system in America is supposed to work. It is not supposed to be selective that we decide, no, I'm not going to refer that one because I like that guy and he's in my administration. It has to be equally applied. And that is, if it's not, that's an abuse of power and that's what's going on here in the bigger scheme of things.
BURNETT: Mimi, Brian, Justin, thank you so very much. And, Justin, really such crucial reporting.
ELLIOTT: Thanks so much.
BURNETT: I imagined.
All right. Thank you all.
And next, more breaking news. Republicans -- now more of them breaking with President Trump taking on his top health official. But does this actually put RFK, Jr.'s future in doubt?
And a Republican congressman upping the ante, now threatening to read a list of Epstein's clients publicly on the House floor if the Trump administration will not release the Epstein files. Epstein's ex- girlfriend, who alleges Trump groped her in front of Epstein, speaks out.
And Trump's son cashing in now big time. Eric Trump's wealth is soaring, half a billion dollars richer now. So, what's fueling it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:21:51]
BURNETT: Tonight, RFK Jr. ripped by Republicans. The very same senators who voted to confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as the nation's top health official are now starting to waver.
Just listen to the number two Senate Republican, who is also an orthopedic surgeon, questioned Kennedy during the heated hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): I support vaccines, I'm a doctor. Vaccines work.
Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearing, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks. The leadership of the National Institute of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don't know who to rely on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: This type of criticism from Republicans is rare, especially because Kennedy still has Trump's full throated backing. Democrats used the hearing to confront Kennedy with a series of combative questions, sounding the alarm over the damage that they say Kennedy is doing to America's public health.
But all of it calling into question Kennedy's credibility.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARIA CANTWELL (D-WA): Sir, you're a charlatan. That's what you are. You're the ones who conflate chronic disease with the need for vaccines.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): You promised that you would not take away vaccines from anyone who wanted them. You just changed the classification of the COVID vaccine.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: I'm not taking them away from people, Senator.
WARREN: Did you hold up a big sign saying that you were lying when you said that?
SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO): I'm asking the questions, Mr. Kennedy, on behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America who deserve so much better than your leadership. That's what this conversation is about, Mr. Chairman.
KENNEDY: Senator, Senator, they deserve the truth.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Are President Trump and the medical community right, or do you still believe that the COVID vaccine was, quote, the deadliest vaccine ever made?
KENNEDY: Well, first of all, I didn't say that -- I said that in terms of affairs reports a while ago. I said today, I think that President Trump should get the Nobel prize.
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Would you accept the fact that a million Americans died from COVID?
KENNEDY: I don't know how many died.
WARNER: You don't have any idea how many Americans died from COVID? How can you be that ignorant?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, the Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, he's on a committee that oversees HHS.
So, Senator, so much appreciate your time. I mean, the Republican senators today who were especially tough on Kennedy, Senators Barrasso and Senator Cassidy, they both are medical doctors, right? They know of what they speak.
So, I guess the question is, as you sit there, is this a growing sentiment that you're hearing, among other Republican colleagues?
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, listen, I appreciate their tough questioning today. But what we really need is for Republicans to go to the White House and say, enough is enough. HHS and CDC are in an absolute meltdown right now.
[19:25:03]
There is not going to be any respected scientist or doctor who is going to sign up to work for the federal government to try to help protect America from a pandemic, or a virus or an infectious disease. And that means the only people who will take these jobs are wacko conspiracy theorists who think, as RFK, Jr. does, that vaccines kill people, not the disease.
So, the questions were good from Senator Cassidy today and Senator Barrasso, but we need them to tell Trump to move on and get somebody new to run HHS. And they need to do it now.
BURNETT: So, the CDC, you know, you talk about the chaos that's going on, right? The Senate confirmed director of the CDC was fired last week, Dr. Monarez. Hundreds of officials have been terminated. Thousands within HHS say Kennedy must go.
You know, Dr. Sanjay Gupta was talking about how extraordinary that is, right? That there would be such a loud voice being raised.
Former CDC directors have come out, and they have been very direct. They've said Kennedy is actually endangering this country's health. But today, when Kennedy was asked about it, he put it a completely different way. Let me just play it for you, Senator. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: We are the sickest country in the world. Thats why we have to fire people at CDC. They did not do their job. Americans have lost faith in CDC, and we need to restore that faith. And we're going to do that by telling the truth and not through propaganda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And what do you say to that? That he's going to do that by telling the truth and not through propaganda, Senator?
MURPHY: Yeah, he's doing the opposite. He's not telling the truth. He's lying to the American people. He's telling the American people that these vaccines don't work, that they do more harm than good. He makes wild claims about what's in our water. It's all based on sort of wild Internet-based conspiracy theories.
And he's going to get people killed. I mean, that's just the truth here. As I said, there's no way at this point to restore the credibility of the CDC because nobody worth anything is going to go work there. So, the only way to restore the credibility of our federal public health agencies is for somebody new to be in charge.
But Donald Trump's not going to do that, Erin, because Donald Trump doesn't want there to be any conception of objective truth any longer because he wants you to look the other way as he uses the oval office in order to enrich himself and his friends. And so there being a dispute about science and truth at the CDC, it serves Donald Trump's interest to really wants, you know, no one to question the propaganda and the lies that are coming out of the White House, just like the lies and the propaganda that are coming out of the CDC and HHS.
BURNETT: So, before you became a senator, Senator, you were you practiced real estate law. And so, I wanted to ask you about the breaking story tonight in "ProPublica". I don't even know if you've had a chance to read it, but what they're reporting is they say that three cabinet secretaries in the Trump administration, three, have claimed primary residences on different mortgages, right? So having different residences and declaring multiple residences, primary residences.
That is, of course, what Trump has used as a justification for going after several of his political opponents and critics, right, accusing them of mortgage fraud based upon the very same thing. Now it comes out that three of his own -- that his own members of his own cabinet are doing this. What do you make of this?
MURPHY: Well, I mean, this is essentially a paperwork error, but the news here is really important because its confirmation that the Department of Justice is being used to target Donald Trump's political enemies. So, when a Democrat engages in one of these paperwork errors, they are getting targeted with prosecution. But when Republicans that are close to Donald Trump do it, they just look the other way.
This should be really alarming to every single American citizen, because the word is out that the Department of Justice is going to be used to put you away for crimes if you oppose Donald Trump. But if you support Donald Trump, then you largely have immunity.
That's what happened to Eric Adams. He was literally going to go to jail for mass scale public corruption, but he got pardoned. The case got dropped because he pledged political allegiance to Donald Trump.
That's not a democracy any longer. We are not living in a democracy. There is no rule of law if you pledge allegiance to the leader and you get immunity, even if it's a paperwork violation. But if you oppose the president, you're going to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. That revelation in "ProPublica" today, it's a really, really big deal.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Well, Senator, so much appreciate your time. And thank you, sir.
MURPHY: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Epstein's former girlfriend speaking out tonight, calling on Trump to release the Epstein documents. She's next.
Plus, Eric Trump raking in half a billion dollars, thanks to crypto, thanks to his father being in the White House.
[19:30:06]
A "Forbes" reporter with breaking new details is OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: New tonight, the Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who is now the leading face of the push to release all the Epstein files, that's an effort, of course, that the White House has explicitly called his effort a hostile act, in fact, a very hostile act.
[19:35:05]
Massie is now threatening to read a list of Epstein's clients publicly on the House floor if a list of -- the list is compiled by Epstein's accusers, you know, that if they put it together, he will go and he will read the name of those clients.
It comes as our next guest, a former "Sports Illustrated" model who dated Epstein in the early 1990s, is speaking out to push for the release of those files.
Stacey Williams alleges Trump had groped her in front of Epstein at Trump Tower in 1993.
So, you may remember from that. But Trump's campaign, of course, denied her claim when she first came forward. They said, quote, "It's obvious this fake story was contrived by Kamala Harris's campaign."
But tonight, Williams writes in a new op-ed, and I quote her, it is time to put politics aside. Release the Epstein files and help free the women at the center of this tragedy from a nightmare that has lasted for decades.
And Stacey Williams is OUTFRONT with me now.
And, Stacey, I'm grateful for your decision to speak out here. I know you spent time with both Trump and Epstein together in the 1990s. You know, what do you make right now of the lengths that Trump is going to right. He's calling Massie's efforts to get all the files out a very hostile act to his administration. What do you make of the lengths Trump is going to, to block the files, release?
STACEY WILLIAMS, FORMER EPSTEIN GIRLFRIEND, ALLEGES TRUMP GROPED HER IN FRONT OF EPSTEIN: I think, you know, what's really painful for me is knowing what these survivors have endured, the years they've had to spend, you know, trying to recover from the trauma of being trafficked and raped as children. And now, they're coming forward and demanding justice and transparency. And they're not receiving it.
It's horrific. It's gaslighting. It's the very essence of gaslighting. And it's retraumatizing.
BURNETT: And we know that there are over a thousand names from Tara Palmeri's reporting in those files of victims -- of girls who are victims who want this justice. And, you know, you reveal in your op- eds something, Stacey, that I did not know that you say Epstein filmed you without your consent. And I want to read what you wrote.
You wrote, Epstein once told me over tea at Zabar -- and Zabar's walnut bread at his mansion, that he had video of me disrobed in a bedroom in his home. He described it as the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Now, of course, Stacey, we've not been able to confirm or deny the existence of a video like this. And, and obviously this is not video of the alleged incident at Trump Tower. You say that this happened inside Epstein's mansion. You're sitting there eating with the bread and tea.
Can you tell us more about that moment?
WILLIAMS: You know, it was horrifying. But to get back to your point, I don't know that it exists either. You know, he looked at me and said that. And I want to know -- I want to know if it exists. We all want to know. We all want to know.
When the FBI raided his home and we all watched it, we watched it here on this, on this news channel. We watched them raiding both homes. We saw cartons of evidence removed.
I'm assuming in those cartons, there weren't just lists, but, you know, possibly video. There have been other survivors who have come forward and referenced video surveillance.
So, you know, I'd like to know, where is it? I mean, wouldn't you? I was horrified when he said it to me. I mean, my blood ran cold, and, you know, I stopped seeing him not long after that.
So we -- you know, we need some transparency, and none of us are getting it.
BURNETT: No, I mean, okay, so then Trump's name. Right? It was invoked multiple times at the press conference with some of Epstein's survivors outside the Capitol yesterday. One of them, Ms. Davies, said this. Let me play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAUNTAE DAVIES, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: The truth is, Epstein had a free pass. He bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president, Donald Trump. It was his biggest brag, actually.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, you know, you heard her there, and she explained, Epstein talked about Trump more than any of his other friends. There's been many people who knew Trump over the years. Epstein over the years that I've spoken to who described them as best friends for a period of time. Do you agree that Epstein talked a lot about Trump?
WILLIAMS: Oh, I lived it. I experienced it. You know, Jeffrey and I dated for a period of about four months, and there was only one friend other than Ghislaine, who I crossed paths with in his home a couple times. There was only one friend who he spoke about regularly, who he was spending a lot of time with, and it was Donald Trump.
BURNETT: Well, that's incredible. So, over that four-month time period, you're saying there's only two friends that you would run into in his home, Ghislaine and Donald Trump?
WILLIAMS: No, no, no, I did not run into Donald in his home.
BURNETT: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: I ran into Ghislaine in his home. But I never ran into Donald Trump in Jeffrey Epstein's home.
When I was groped by Donald, it was in his office. And Jeffrey delivered me to him and stood there and watched as it happened.
[19:40:03]
So, yeah. So again, and, you know, to get back to your earlier point about -- about when he told me about the video, you know, this and to my point about transparency and the need for transparency, it's very upsetting to me to see an op-ed get a lot of attention, you know, written by someone like Alan Dershowitz, who said there was no surveillance. There was simply normal security cameras, when that flies in the face of my experiences and what Jeffrey said to me and what other survivors have mentioned.
BURNETT: Right. Of course, you know, were not able to speak to what Alan Dershowitz could say or claim about what the evidence is, right? And no one knows what the evidence is.
WILLIAMS: Right. We all want to know. It's really simple. I mean, you know, the boxes are there, the evidence is there. Just -- why hide it? Just -- let's put this to bed.
BURNETT: When he calls it -- when Trump says to Thomas Massie, that it's a very hostile act to ask for all of the documents to be put out when he refers to all of this as a hoax, which he has done repeatedly, that is the go to word. Why do you think that is?
WILLIAMS: You know, I don't want to sit here and, you know, sort of guess about what his intentions are. It wasn't a hoax to me. And obviously my passing a polygraph test and having all the corroboration, having Michael Wolff confirm with Jeffrey Epstein what they did to me together -- you know, I have all these receipts. And, you know, I got to be honest with you, I'm getting a little tired of jumping through hoops, you know, and I'm sure these other survivors, too.
You know, survivors have this horrible burden of having to survive trauma and process it, and then to come out and ask for justice and transparency and have to jump through all these hoops constantly and put through the wringer. I've been put through the wringer for months.
It is a -- it is a horrible experience. It broke my heart. Sorry. It broke my heart to see those women and to hear their stories on the Hill these last couple of days. You know, how -- how as a congress member, can you in good conscience, not come be an ally to these women and help them with their healing through transparency, through doing what they're asking, which is to release everything.
To turn this into some kind of crazy, Washington-based, partisan kabuki theater is abhorrent. It's absolutely abhorrent. And that's what drove me to write that op-ed.
BURNETT: Well, I'm glad you did, and I'm glad you came on. And as I said, I know it's not easy to do. You have to have emotions like that rise as they do, right? You could avoid it. You're choosing not to. You're choosing to do it. And a lot of people are grateful to you for that.
WILLIAMS: Thank you so much. Yeah. No personal gain whatsoever from this other than catharsis and wanting to be an ally to these women. Thank you so much for having me.
BURNETT: Thank you.
And we're going to take a break. When we come back, you'll see how Eric Trump has added about half a billion dollars to his net worth. And what role having a father is president plays in that. A reporter with breaking new details is next.
Plus, MAGA turning on India, floating the idea of barring immigrants from India to America. Why?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:37]
BURNETT: Tonight. Trump's family getting even richer. His son, Eric -- Eric's wealth is soaring, now about half a billion dollars. Billion. Not million. Billion richer, thanks to a massive stake in a cryptocurrency mining company, which just went public. It's market debut.
The amount that Eric made from that is more than any of his family's individual real estate holdings, according to Forbes. And Eric has been touting the importance of crypto ever since his dad went back to the White House.
And since Trump's reelection, the price of cryptocurrency, the most valuable one specifically, bitcoin, has surged up 63 percent since Trump was elected to his second term. And Trump's been very vocal about backing crypto. Eric Trump has been traveling the world promoting Trump family, crypto ventures.
This week in Japan, his wealth wasn't the only thing soaring and sort of a pr stunt. He had a high-ranking sumo wrestler match picked up, carried out of the ring. All of that to promote what's going on with cryptocurrency.
And earlier this week, he was in Hong Kong, where he made this prediction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC TRUMP, SON OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: I really believe in the next several years, bitcoin hits $1 million. There's no question bitcoin hits $1 million.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Ten times what it is now. It's now $110,000.
The more that Eric Trump promotes it though, the higher it seems to go. He's got friends in powerful places.
Dan Alexander is with us now, senior editor of "Forbes".
So, Dan, I guess let's just start with this very basic thing. Eric Trump is Trump's youngest son. Just how? Well, Barron, of course, I mean by his first marriage.
How rich is Eric Trump right now? And how much of that wealth is tied to crypto?
DAN ALEXANDER, SENIOR EDITOR, FORBES : Well, he's got about a half a billion dollars stake in this new company, as you just mentioned. And then he has a couple hundred million dollars outside of that. And a lot of that is crypto, too. So, if you look as a percentage, you know, probably 90, 95 percent of his wealth is in crypto right now. So, this is the key of his fortune. It's not just the core, but it's really almost the whole thing at this point.
BURNETT: Which is pretty stunning, right? You go from real estate to, something so intangible, but it is stunning. How easy was it for him to get all this wealth in crypto? ALEXANDER: Well, you know, the idea of a bitcoin mining company isn't
new. What's new is that it's a Trump family member who's leading the show.
[19:50:02]
And so if you combine those two things and you have this trading on the public markets where, you know, public markets, mom and pop shareholders have shown themselves willing to pay extremely high prices for Trump connected assets. You can get these massive valuations because people are just bidding up shares of these to sort of unreasonable heights. And then if the Trump's hang on to a big chunk of those companies, as Eric has in this case, then it inflates their wealth and incredible amount.
BURNETT: Right. And this is -- I mean, obviously, there's a surge in crypto. A lot of that, you know, maybe in part, you know, you could discuss that because of the president's backing and support for crypto, right? But even within that, there's sort of who wins and who loses and who are the relative winners in that world.
So, it's a very basic question. Would Eric Trump have gotten this rich if his dad weren't president?
ALEXANDER: Certainly not. If you rewind a year ago, Donald Trump was worth about $4.3 billion, and most of his fortune was wrapped up in the Trump media and technology group, the parent company to Truth Social. That company had few followers, wasn't making any money. Its relevance really seemed to depend on whether or not Trump was reelected.
Once he was, though, then the Trump family's essentially copied that formula that they used with that company. Create an asset. Who cares if it makes money or not? Let's put it on the public markets and hold on to a big chunk of it.
And that's exactly what they've done in this case. Just following that formula, none of that would have been possible had Trump not become president again.
BURNETT: It's really incredible.
Dan, thank you so much as always, for your excellent reporting and sharing it. Thanks.
ALEXANDER: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, MAGA blasting the leader of India, threatening no more visas for Indians after Modi held hands with Putin. But where's the outrage after Trump rolled out the literal red carpet for Putin?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:08]
BURNETT: Tonight, banning immigrants from India to the U.S. MAGA on a tear after Indian Prime Minister Modi held hands with Putin earlier this week and then spent two hours with him alone in a limo. Modi signaling that he's choosing Putin over Trump. And that was the signal for sure.
Trump's been threatening sanctions on India for buying Russian oil and all that's been going down. And then Modi goes and spends two hours in a limo with Putin. You get the message.
Well, MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk posted, quote, America does not need more visas for people from India. Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We're full. Let's finally put our own people first.
And Jack Posobiec, responding to a Trump post on India with this post, saying, quote, tear off the call centers. All of them.
But if MAGA voices are outraged by Modi's embrace of Putin -- well, then they should be equally outraged by Trump's embrace of Putin. Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for Putin just weeks ago in Alaska, right, on that summit, Trump invited Putin to join him in his limo for their own private ride together before the meeting.
And after standing side by side with Putin after the summit, Putin gushed -- Trump gushed about Putin. Watch this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TRUMP: There's a warmth there that you cant, you know, there's a -- there's a decent feeling and it's a good thing, not a bad thing.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: But now MAGA is going after India.
Okay. The question is, though, is there a price to pay for this or is this just, you know, a small skirmish going on, on the side?
Harry Enten OUTFRONT to tell us something we don't know.
Harry, this may be no small skirmish. How many Indian Americans, right, is a powerful group, voted for Trump in the last election.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yeah. This is horrible politics. Because I was looking at the precinct level data. Then I was looking at the polling data. And what we see is Indian Americans are increasingly becoming more friendly towards Donald Trump.
What are we talking about here? Well, in 2020 election, Donald Trump only got about 30 percent of the vote. Look at where it got in 2024. Thats a seven-point rise. He was able to get up to 37 percent, close that margin. That Democratic lead down from about 30 points all the way down to about 15 points.
So, the bottom line is Donald Trump is gaining among Indian Americans. And the garbage that you're hearing right now from certain members of the right, certain members of MAGA, it's just bad politics. BURNETT: Okay, so India is the most populous country in the world,
that did not used to be true 10 or 15 years ago, right.
ENTEN: Yes.
BURNETT: Swapped with China. Now they're number one. Also, though, one of the fastest growing populations in the United States, right, when we're talking about Indian Americans.
ENTEN: Absolutely true. You know, I looked at all the different countries from Asia, and I basically found two things. Number one, that Indian Americans now make up the largest share of any Asian group in the United States. And more than that, their growth. Look at their growth over the last ten years, from 2020 to -- 2010 to 2020. Look at that, 55 percent, the fastest growing Asian group --
BURNETT: More than China.
ENTEN: More -- more than China.
BURNETT: Wow.
ENTEN: More than any other group. We're talking about the amount. They were a little less than 3 million back in 2010, and now they're more than 4 million folks.
BURNETT: Okay. As usual, you have already told me several things I don't know, but now I say, tell me something else I don't know.
ENTEN: I'll tell you something else that you don't know. You know, it's not just about Indian Americans and Indian Americans. It's also about residents of India. And they actually like Donald Trump more than Americans like Donald Trump.
What are we talking about here? Well, let's take a look at this. Confident in Trump on world affairs. A majority of residents of India are confident Trump on world affairs, compared to just 43 percent of Americans who like Trump on world affairs.
It's not just there. What about honesty? Okay. Look at honesty. Look at this. What do we see? We see that 50 percent, the plurality of Indians think that. In fact, Trump is honest compared to just 36 percent of all Americans who think that Trump is honest.
So again, we're just shooting ourselves in the foot with this type of talk. The right is shooting themselves in the foot with this type of talk, because the bottom line is, Indian Americans and residents of India really are more going towards the Republican direction. And now stuff like right is shooting themselves in the foot with this type of talk, because the bottom line is, Indian Americans and residents of India really are more going towards the Republican direction. And now stuff like this -- we'll just have to wait and see, right.
BURNETT: Right, see if it -- what happens with it.
All right. Harry, thank you so much as always. And thanks so much to all of you.
It's time for Anderson.
