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Erin Burnett Outfront
Hundreds Of Texas Troops Headed To Chicago Amid Trump Takeover; Trump Won't Rule Out Pardon For Ghislaine Maxwell; Civil War Prediction. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 06, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:21]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, up to 400 National Guard troops are on their way to Chicago, as Portland also braces for troops in Oregon. Trump tonight threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act so no court can stop him from sending troops to any other American city.
Also breaking, Trump not ruling out a pardon for Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, as he claims he hasn't even heard her name in a long time.
Plus, wait until you hear who is predicting the U.S. could soon find itself in a civil war and doesn't hold back when it comes to Trump.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett, on this Monday.
And OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news. Trump's military takeover. At this hour, up to 400 members of the Texas National Guard now making their way to Chicago as a federal judge just refused to block them.
And just in case any judge doesn't give Trump his way, the president tonight is threatening to do something different, to invoke the Insurrection Act that would bypass the courts so that he could deploy troops to multiple American cities. Illinois Governor, J.B. Pritzker, tonight says that Trump's takeover is not welcome in Chicago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D), ILLINOIS: We don't want troops on the streets of Chicago. There was never an insurrection or an invasion on the ground that justified the deployment of the military to our American city. Donald Trump's deranged depiction of Chicago as a hellhole, a war zone and the worst and most dangerous city in the world, was just complete B.S.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Well, Pritzker calling out what he says is Trump's B.S. The president, though, doubling down this afternoon on his depiction of America's third largest city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you look at Chicago, they've had probably 50 murders in the last six or seven months, eight months. Many, many people shot like 30, 40, 50 people shot. Didn't die, but they've been shot. It's like a war zone. It's probably worse than almost any city in the -- in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Just to get to the facts, of course, Chicago's crime is not the worst in the world. It is not even the worst in the United States. So, let's just go to the data that comes from the FBI and the Chicago Police Department.
And according to those two sources, Chicago ranks number 80 when it comes to violent crime per capita in the United States, number 80, 80, in terms of rank cities.
But that does not matter when it comes to Trump, right? He's got a narrative where he just doubled the number of people shot in the space of two seconds. He's got a plan to send troops, and he wants to do it.
And it is not only Chicago tonight that is facing Trump's intended military takeover. His administration is threatening to send one of Americas most elite and storied army units to Portland, Oregon, the 82nd Airborne.
Now, "The Minnesota Star Tribune" had some really interesting and important reporting today. They reported on text messages between top Trump officials over the weekend. And according to the paper, Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, his advisor, texted in public to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller's advisor.
So, these two advisers are texting and it goes likes like this. Quote, "82nd is like our top tier quick reaction force for abroad. So, it will cause a lot of headlines. Probably why he wants POTUS to tell him to do it."
Well, that was Pete Hegseth's adviser. The White House responding to this reporting saying nothing in the messages is new or classified information. The Pentagon saying they won't speculate on potential future operations. But I just, you know, to put context on this, again, it's important we talk about the 82nd airborne and anybody watching knows that that's a storied unit.
The last time that that particular unit was deployed to an American city because of violence was in 1968. That was because of riots in Washington, D.C., after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
That was the reason, OK? The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 57 years ago. As of tonight, though, Trump's plans to send troops into Oregon are on hold after a Trump judge, a Trump-appointed judge blocked Trump's attempt to send National Guard troops to Oregon twice. Judge Karin Immergut writing the claims you're about to hear from Trump are, quote, "untethered to facts"].
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Portland is burning to the ground. It's insurrectionists all over the place.
The place is burning down to the ground. And it has been for a long time.
[19:05:01]
Portland, Oregon, where it looks like a war zone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, the judge, Judge Immergut, citing law enforcement officials who said protests have remained small at the ICE facility where they were localized and were fully under control.
She added, quote, nothing in the record suggests anything of this sort was occurring every night outside the Portland ICE building, adding, quote, "this is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law." Comments that, of course, have made that judge, a Trump appointed judge, enemy number one for him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think her opinion is untethered in reality and in the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, Stephen Miller, the key architect of Trump's anti- immigration crusade, writes online, "Legal insurrection. The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces, not an Oregon judge. This is an organized terrorist attack on the federal government and its officers, and the deployment of troops is an absolute necessity to defend our personnel, our laws, our government, public order and the republic itself." Pretty stunning.
And the Department of Homeland Security posted this online, which, you know, I was sort of dumbfounded by, but I wanted to share it with you because they not only posted it, they posted it again. Quote, in all caps, "recapture our national identity, exclamation point." And they then continue in sentence case, this week, we arrested hundreds of criminal illegal aliens, terrorists and terrorist sympathizers across our country in Portland and Chicago. Now we need your help. Block communists, terrorists and globalists from entering our country."
Whitney Wild is OUTFRONT live outside the ICE facility at the center of the Chicago area protest. Shimon Prokupecz is in Portland tonight. I want to start with you, Whitney, because hundreds of National Guard
troops seemingly about to take over, right? So far, any effort to have a judge stop that has failed. What is the latest you're learning there about the situation tonight?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, our understanding is that DOJ has 48 hours to respond to that. As you said, the Illinois attorney general was seeking this temporary restraining order. They have not gotten it yet.
Let me take you to where this is all happening, Erin. A lot of this is focused on Broadview, Illinois. This is an area that's about 30 minutes depending on the traffic west of Chicago. And this is where we've seen protests for weeks erupting and then eventually clashing with federal law enforcement.
So let me just kind of walk you through what it looks like. It is very calm here. This is typical, Erin, for Monday through Thursday. It's Fridays where we really see these protests pop up and where there have been clashes with federal law enforcement.
What you're seeing right now are more and more ways that federal officials are trying to push back protesters. So, for example, as you can see, there are these concrete barricades. This is something new that went up within the last 10 days or so. Beyond that are fences.
These have been up here for several weeks, despite frustrations from local officials who want these taken down because they are concerned about a security risk. Erin, the other thing here that is kind of getting missed in this conversation is that the people who are getting caught in the middle of this are not just the protesters, but it's the local law enforcement.
The Illinois state police has been out here. They are out here right now. The Cook County sheriff's office is out here. They are also out here right now.
Earlier today, we asked Governor J.B. Pritzker if the National Guard does come out here to protect this facility. Is the local support going to go away? What is the role of local law enforcement if the National Guard is here? He said he expects that that local law enforcement, from the state police to the locals will continue, even if the National Guard is deployed here -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Whitney, thank you very much.
I suppose similar to what we saw in L.A., right. The National Guard is very limited to the buildings that they can be around. We'll see what happens there.
Let's go to Shimon Prokupecz because he's on the ground in Portland.
Shimon, Trump is warning of, quote/unquote, lawless mayhem in Portland. I don't see that where you are right now, but what have you seen? SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I
-- I mean, certainly in the last few hours, we just got here this late this afternoon. And in that time period, I could show you exactly what's -- what it's been like out here. I mean, you're seeing people standing outside here with signs, you know, voicing their displeasure at ICE, voicing their displeasure at the administration. And that's what we've been seeing throughout the day.
And this stretches all the way up the street here into this other area where many more of the protesters who have been camping out here just want to quickly show you this part, Erin. These are people who have been out here, in some cases for over 100 days. They've been living here as part of this protest.
And, you know, it's not un -- sort of typical here in Portland to see these kinds of protests. No doubt everything changes here at night, but it's all contained to this one area.
Erin, this is a half a block. This isn't even a full block. It's one block. Half of this block where its outside this ice facility. And what happens is there's an escalation and the federal officers will come out when there are vehicles that they want to bring out from their driveway where I was standing, and to move people out of the way, they'll come out, they'll push people back. And then sometimes there's tear gas and pepper balls, and that's the images we're seeing.
Those images that we're seeing are as a result of things that federal officers are doing with tear gas and pepper balls, certainly a nuisance here for this neighborhood, right? I mean, people live here, this residential area, their balconies here. So, this is definitely an inconvenience for these people.
We'll see how tonight goes. We'll see how the rest of the day here goes. But so far today, exactly what I'm showing you is exactly what we've been seeing.
BURNETT: Right, right. Well, I mean, just to make the point, and I -- you know, sometimes you just got to make the point, right? The burning to the ground that he referred to is, you know, we live in a world of social media. Everybody should be able to see what is. But, you know, it's important to bring those images.
Shimon, thank you very much.
And I want to go now to the two attorney generals at the center of this fight with the Trump administration, Dan Rayfield of Oregon and Kwame Raoul of Illinois.
I appreciate both of you very much.
Attorney General Raoul, let me start with you, because the Trump administration says troops are on their way to Chicago as we speak because a federal judge did not immediately block their deployment today. I know you had requested that in court. The Trump administration has two days to respond to your lawsuit. But obviously the troops are on the way now. So, does that mean they can come? Is there anything else you can do? I
mean, what happens now, Attorney General?
KWAME RAOUL (D), ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, the judge did make clear that we should alert her of any change in circumstances that she may need to hear about. And so, you know, we will wait and see what happens. It's understandable. You know, our complaint and our -- the supporting documents are voluminous, and the judge wants to go over those documents and give the federal government an opportunity to respond.
We did urgently express our desire for a temporary restraining order based on the threats coming from the federal government and how they change from day to day, hour to hour with us learning about the Texas National Guard late last night. And so, we'll do what we can to communicate to the judge, such that she can act.
BURNETT: All right. And I understand what you're saying. It's voluminous. So, you take the -- you take the lack of the TRO, the temporary restraining order.
In that context, Attorney General Rayfield, from where you stand, a federal judge did block Trump from deploying the National Guard to Oregon, right? Trump is appealing that. Stephen Miller, who as we know is his top aide on this issue, said that there are many other options to deploy assets under the U.S. military to Portland.
And here's what Trump said just a few moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have an Insurrection Act for a reason. If I had to enact it, I do that. If people were being killed and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up -- sure, I'd do that. I mean, I want to make sure that people aren't killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Attorney General Rayfield, are you afraid about what's coming next?
DAN RAYFIELD (D), OREGON ATTORNEY GENERAL: I'm not afraid about anything. I mean, we've been prepared for this moment from day one. They've been talking about this since the election. So this isn't new.
And if they try to do some other creative approach to bring the United States military to the streets of Portland, we'll meet them in court. I mean, that's exactly what we need to do. This is America, the United States military does not belong on our streets unless it's extreme circumstances. That's what the judge found, right?
We don't have a rebellion here in Oregon. We don't have an insurrection. We don't have an invasion. We certainly don't have a place where the president can execute the laws of the United States. So, you want to be creative, Mr. President? We'll be creative right
back. And we'll meet you in court. And you can go back to the same judge that you've lost twice and explain to her why the circumstances have changed, because they absolutely have not.
BURNETT: Attorney General Raoul, though. What happens then in Chicago if the president invokes the Insurrection Act to send troops to Chicago?
RAOUL: The same, we will go into court. There is no insurrection. There is no evidence of such, same as you've demonstrated in Portland. There's peaceful protests.
The only acts that have been provocative acts have come by the hand of ICE and Border Patrol agents who have fired pepper balls and tear gas at law abiding protesters, at journalists, and even at Chicago police officers who have had to wipe pepper spray out of their eyes.
BURNETT: So, Attorney General Rayfield, when we were talking about the history there -- yeah.
[19:15:03]
Pete Hegseth said, you know, he's considering sending an elite U.S. Army strike force to Portland, or his -- one of his top staffers did in that exchange that was seen by the Minnesota newspaper, "The Minnesota Star Tribune".
Now, we've only seen this happen a few times in American history. I talked about Martin Luther King's assassination, right, in Washington, D.C. there was another moment. That was in 1957, when the Army's 101st airborne was sent by President Eisenhower to Little Rock, Arkansas. That was when state National Guard troops were blocking black students from entering school. After the Supreme Court had ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional, right? Two, as we all know, very important moments in American history, right? That's what happened when the 82nd and 101st airborne were sent in.
I'm just curious, Attorney General, when you look at the situation in Portland, is there anything in your mind that can that you could think of, even if you tried to imagine would, would justify this moment in Portland being equal to one of those?
RAYFIELD: Absolutely not. I mean, the thing about Pete Hegseth is I've never met a politician that likes the sound of his own voice more than he does. This guy says the most absurd things. But I think it's also interesting to look under the hood of what they're doing and what they're saying. I mean, they've deployed the military into California, D.C., Memphis, Illinois, Oregon. They're talking about training troops in our cities.
And you've got him talking about deploying the 82nd Airborne. It's wild what's coming out of these people's mouths.
And so, we're watching incredibly closely because this is dangerous. This is a dangerous point in American history where were normalizing the use of the military in our cities.
BURNETT: Well, I think there are many at least I suppose will take calm from the fact that both of you are relying on the courts and the law and following whatever that is. And I know in one of your cases, you're happy with the ruling and the other you're not, but you're abiding by it. And that, of course, is important.
Thank you both so very much. I appreciate it.
And next, breaking news, a popular airport in Los Angeles County right now has no air traffic controllers because of the government shutdown.
Plus, Trump refusing to rule out a pardon for Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I can say this, that I'd have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And a tense hearing over the fate of the Maryland father, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. A federal judge losing patience with Trump's DOJ as efforts to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia again stalled. His attorney will be OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:45]
BURNETT: Breaking news, California Governor Gavin Newsom trying to make President Trump own the effects of the government shutdown. He just tweeted, "Thanks at real Donald Trump. Burbank airport has zero air traffic controllers from 4:15 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. today because of your government shutdown."
This as Senate Democrats are standing their ground. Another vote just moments ago on the GOP funding bill to end the shutdown showed no new cracks among Democrats, only sonly senators Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman and Angus King, the independent who caucuses with the Democrats, voted with Republicans. And those are the same three who did the first time around.
So there has been no movement of anyone else into that camp, which means that the shutdown is going to continue, and it is hours away now from entering the seventh day, despite this prediction last week from Vice President Vance that this would all be done fast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think you already saw some evidence that moderate Democrats are cracking a little bit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and the former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Okay, so much to talk to you about. But, Andrew, let me start with you. You saw J.D. Vance last week. You saw some evidence. Moderate Democrats are cracking a little bit, but there was a vote today and there was no crack visible to anybody.
ANDREW YANG, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Erin, my concern the whole time was that if this shutdown went into effect, that both sides were going to retreat into their corners. And if you look at the politics of it, Trump is not going to all of a sudden say, hey, you guys win.
BURNETT: Here's your health care. Yeah.
YANG: Yeah. I mean, that's the opposite of Trump's M.O.
BURNETT: Yeah.
YANG: And for Democrats now they have to show persistent combativeness because that's what they're presenting to their base.
So, in that environment, how does this end? I think it ends after things get a lot worse. In my opinion. We might be in the early innings of this rather than the later innings.
BURNETT: Do you agree, Governor? The early rather than the later innings of this?
TIM PAWLENTY (R), FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: I do unfortunately agree with Andrew. And good evening to you and your viewers.
Negotiations are about leverage. And if you show me who has the leverage in any particular negotiation setting, I'll tell you who's going to win. In this case, you have the Democrats needing to fight because their base felt like they got run over with the big, beautiful bill.
But as to President Trump, you know, you don't play chicken with somebody who's willing to actually crash his car and he's willing to crash the car. So I don't think -- I do not think the Democrats are in a very good spot here.
BURNETT: Wait, but willing to crash your car. I mean, that would be -- that would mean that the president has more to lose than the Democrats, in a sense. Is that -- what -- it sounds like? Which way are you going here?
PAWLENTY: In relative terms, Erin, just on the politics, setting aside the obvious human --
BURNETT: Yes.
PAWLENTY: -- suffering that occurs because of this. Just on the politics, the Republicans can tolerate this better than the Democrats because the shutdown impacts disproportionately Democratic constituencies. And for example, the public employee unions. If President Trump starts treating public employees not as furloughed, but as permanently fired, you're going to have the public employee unions start to really turn up the heat on the Democrats.
BURNETT: You know, Andrew, what about things? And obviously, Burbank is in -- is in a Democratic area of California. But what about no air traffic controllers for, whatever, 4:15 until 10:00 p.m. in Burbank? Theres going to be a lot more things like that that are specific to the shutdown, that affect people more and more of those.
YANG: I happen to be flying to California tomorrow, not that airport, but ordinary Americans are going to look up and mistrust, whether FAA air traffic controllers are in effect. Theres also a cybersecurity, FDA, goes on and on, and you can do without these officials actively for a number of hours or days. But if it gets into the weeks, then you're going to actually see some real life effects that are going to disrupt a lot of activity.
BURNETT: And we're at almost at a week here, right?
YANG: Yeah.
BURNETT: So, we're on that path.
Governor, in that context, you have the issue with the Trump, the Trump administration wanting to put troops in multiple American cities. Okay? Right now, Portland and Chicago are the ones in focus.
But it's been Washington. It's been Memphis. It's been Baltimore. It's been Los Angeles. And now, it's Chicago and Portland. And President Trump says he's bringing National Guard from Texas up to Illinois. And that other Republican governors, he says, are waiting to deploy their National Guard members. They're ready to go. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Every one of them is willing to offer whatever we need. We thank Governor Abbott of Texas. Every one of the red state, as you call them, red state governors, is willing to give whatever we need because they want our agents protected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You know, Governor, I will just say to tell you that this is about red states. It's going into blue cities. It is -- it is a fault line of violence along political lines that I think is very unsettling and should be for anybody.
But if you were still the governor of Minnesota, a Republican governor, and the president came to you as a red state governor and said, I want your National Guard ready to go into Chicago or anywhere else, would you say, yes?
PAWLENTY: I actually did deploy the Minnesota National Guard to the border when I was governor to help with border missions and reinforcing the border. So, I have some experience with that. And I don't think this is a question of a governor agreeing to send his or her troops to another state, because you still have to have either the host governor invite that, or the president to federalize those troops and then deploy them to that state.
So simply having a red state governor be willing to do it doesn't solve the ultimate legal issues that you've been talking about tonight.
BURNETT: Andrew, before we go and there's a lot I would want to ask you, but I actually want to ask you about phones.
YANG: Oh, yeah. Please?
BURNETT: Something really important. And this is a project you've been working on.
YANG: Yes.
BURNETT: But actually making a tangible difference on something that in every conversation I have with people comes up, and that is the fact that everyone is addicted to their phones and nobody can pull away, and its destroying relationships. And frankly, a lot of the problems that we're facing in this country could be because of that, too.
What is it?
YANG: It's social media making us angry and afraid, Erin, and Noble Mobile, the company I started, is trying to tackle two problems. One is financial insecurity. And two is anxiety, depression and polarization born of social media and people watching this at home right now.
If you think about the things that upset you, probably 85 percent of it is coming from your phone. It's not that someone in real life is going in your face and coming --
BURNETT: It's coming and saying these things, right.
YANG: You just feel that way because you experience that via your device. And that's a major problem. If we can turn down our addiction to our phones, then it can reduce polarization and maybe even improve our politics, our culture, our relationships with each other.
BURNETT: So, this is paying people essentially to do less screen time.
YANG: Yes, it is. People like money. So if you doomscroll a little bit less, you'll get paid a little bit more at Noble Mobile. Huh. See what I did there.
BURNETT: I know. Okay, no, I get it. But you know what? I think its important because the one thing that we should all realize is all the big media companies, social media companies, are incentivized financially to do one thing, which is to keep you on the screens longer. So financial incentives to do the other is hopefully part of the answer. But as we say this and see when you doomscroll, you see what's
happening in Portland, whatever images you see, I think we all know it makes you feel pretty bad.
Thank you both very much.
And next, coming up on CNN, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joins Laura Coates at 11:00 on the latest on the government shutdown. So, we'll see where things stand then. What goes beyond Burbank?
And next, breaking news, President Trump telling reporters he's going to speak to the DOJ about any potential pardon requests from Jeffrey Epstein's former accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Plus, a Putin ally turning on Trump, accusing him of spouting gibberish while also predicting a U.S. civil war is on the horizon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:33:39]
BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump not ruling out a pardon for Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Listen to this exchange with Kaitlan Collins.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know, I haven't heard the name in so long. I can say this that I'd have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look. Did they reject that?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: She wanted to appeal her conviction.
TRUMP: And what happened?
COLLINS: And they said that they were not going to hear her appeal.
TRUMP: I see. Well, I'll take a look at it. I'll speak to -- I will speak to the DOJ. I wouldn't consider it or not consider it. I don't know anything about it, so -- but I'll speak. I will speak to the DOJ.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Trump's comments coming just hours after the Supreme Court rejected Maxwell's bid for an appeal where Maxwell claimed her 20-year sentence should be thrown out because she should have been shielded from prosecution under Epstein's controversial plea deal.
OUTFRONT now, Barry Levine, the former editor of "The National Enquirer", and our viewers know also, the author of "The Spider", about Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. You have obviously done so much reporting over so many years.
So, when you hear President Trump say that so long since he's heard her name and I'm not ruling it in and I'm not ruling it out, and, you know, his -- just waffling through the situation. What do you hear?
BARRY LEVINE, AUTHOR OF "THE SPIDER": Well, Erin, I have to say -- I mean, Maxwell and Epstein were the talk of the summer and the Epstein files. This has been bantered about for so long and has caused such a dilemma for the Trump administration and for his MAGA base.
[19:35:07]
But I have to say, tonight I shuddered to think how the Epstein and Maxwell survivors are reacting just to the fact that he's saying that he would consider this.
BURNETT: Right.
LEVINE: Okay? This is trauma that's being inflicted here.
You have to remember that one of the women who testified courageously against Maxwell at trial, Carolyn Andriano, died of an accidental drug overdose in the years since that trial. The trauma for these women is very, very real.
BURNETT: And ongoing now.
LEVINE: Yes.
BURNETT: And by the way, and by the way, Trump saying, I haven't heard that name in so long, that is just not -- that just doesn't add up to any kind of sense of reality.
LEVINE: Yeah.
BURNETT: Right? He has said that wanting to have Epstein files released is a hostile act to this administration. The speaker of the House has refused to seat a new Democratic congresswoman because she would be the decisive name on a petition to get those files out.
Okay. Ghislaine Maxwell had a meeting with Trump's deputy attorney general and then ends up getting moved to a minimum security prison in a residential neighborhood where nobody with her record would be.
So, for him to say he hasn't heard name in so long, as if that is a lie. Okay? That is not true, but yet here we are, you know, and he -- with playing this game.
LEVINE: Well, if he talks to the DOJ, of course, they strongly supported the fact that her conviction stands and they told that to the Supreme Court, not to hear that. But the fact is, he -- you know, he's an absolute wild card. You don't know how he's going to react.
And if you look at things, he always looks back at things personally, even though he said he's going to talk to the DOJ. You have to remember that his relationship with Ms. Maxwell goes back to the late 1980s.
BURNETT: Right.
LEVINE: With her father, Robert Maxwell, when they --
BURNETT: And in her interview with Todd Blanche, she said very, very positive things about Trump.
LEVINE: Oh, that was an infomercial. That was like an infomercial for Donald Trump. In terms of the glowing things that she said. And he's never said anything disparaging about her. When she was arrested the first time around when he was president, he could not say anything negative about that arrest. He said, I can only say positive things about her.
So that relationship that's gone on so long scares the survivors tremendously.
BURNETT: All right. Barry, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
And next, leaked documents reveal Russia is training China's military for a possible invasion.
Plus, a major setback for Trump's DOJ and their efforts to send the Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador, to a tiny African country called Eswatini.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:41:55]
BURNETT: Tonight, a Russian lawmaker and former KGB agent, Andrei Lugovoi, predicting civil war in America is coming. And that's a quote blasting President Trump, accusing him of, quote, spouting nonsense, gibberish and stupidity in his speech to America's generals and admirals last week. That was the same speech in which Trump talked about using American cities as, quote, training grounds for the military, and talked about the enemy of America being the enemy within the country.
This as new leaked documents reveal that Russia may be working closely with another American adversary to train its military for an invasion.
Let's begin first here with Will Ripley, with this special report OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A trove of leaked documents verified by a leading think tank reveals Russia may be teaching China how to drop tanks and troops from a plane. This Cold War maneuver, Russian airborne forces call landing in a train.
A former Ukrainian intelligence officer who helped verify the leaked documents says it's clear why the Chinese want this training.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's actually very critical component which is needed for China being ready to invade Taiwan. RIPLEY (voice-over): Oleksandr Danyliuk (ph) and a team at Royal
United Services Institute examined 800 pages of documents leaked by hackers. They suggest Russia's more experienced airborne forces may be helping China prepare for a Taiwan invasion. Moscow may also supply armored vehicles, weapons and training. A battalion of Chinese paratroopers, the documents say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you have this full airborne regiment landing on Taiwanese soil, and it's all around the capital. So, like, the capital could be taken in just a few days.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Chinese military planners have long been looking for ways to seize control of Taiwan's sea and air, within the first 72 hours before the U.S. and others have time to respond.
CNN has not verified the leaked documents, and it's not clear if the deal is in effect.
Taiwan's foreign ministry says they've taken notice of Beijing and Moscow's recent military cooperation. We also asked the Chinese and Russian defense ministries for comment. So far, no response.
U.S. intelligence says China's People's Liberation Army is also rapidly expanding its rocket force, well over 3,000 missiles, new missile bases up and down the Chinese coast facing Taiwan. This base, built in just two years. Look at these satellite images from 2020 and 2022. They're even putting new bases in old buildings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is where the artillery brigade of the 73rd Army Group is stationed. Now what's unique? They used a deserted textile factory as their base.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Joseph Nguyen is an open source researcher in Taiwan. For the past four years, he's been using satellite imagery to map out China's massive military footprint.
[19:45:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What you're looking at on this map now is Pingtung, the closest point of China to Taiwan. And there are many long-range artillery units at this location, established at the end of 2022, right after Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
RIPLEY: So, what does it tell you that China is bolstering its artillery bases that are within firing range of Taiwan.?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In recent years, China has put more focus on lower cost and higher volume long range artillery, which could deplete Taiwan's reserve of air defense missiles.
RIPLEY (voice-over): China's rocket force has been rocked by corruption scandals, and no one knows how well its missiles perform in actual combat. Experts warn sheer numbers could overwhelm Taiwan's defenses.
The island is responding with military drills, turning city streets into combat zones, subway stations into mock battlegrounds. A message to the public: be ready.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY (on camera): There are thousands of bomb shelters here in Taipei because people would have a matter of maybe two or three minutes if China were to fire those missiles before they would arrive here in Taiwan, Erin. Experts say China's military buildup is the largest the world has seen since before World War II. And while the PLA has surpassed Russia in almost all areas militarily, the airborne forces, I'm told, are an exception because Russia's airborne forces actually have combat experience, while the PLA does not. But, Erin, they certainly seem to be preparing for it.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Will Ripley.
OUTFRONT now, legendary Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter Bob Woodward.
And, Bob, in your book, "War", you wrote that Trump and Putin spoke. You said maybe as many as seven times after Trump left office. Of course, Trump denied that. But since then, he has literally rolled out the red carpet for Putin, Bob, as we've seen.
What drives Trump to do this?
BOB WOODWARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, WASHINGTON POST: Well, I mean, obviously, the most important diplomatic and real relationship he has. What's very important is that -- and the CIA knows this. Putin manipulates. He always has a plan to manipulate the other side.
Former KGB officer is trained to do this. And he has a plan how to manipulate and run Trump. And I'm sure the CIA has told that to Trump. So he should be careful. But as we know, being careful is not necessarily Trump's trademark.
BURNETT: No. But fascinating the word you use if he knows how to run Trump, right? As in some sort of a, you know, someone who would be an agent for him or useful to him in that regard.
I want to ask you about something Jane Goodall said in the context of us talking about Trump and Putin. She's obviously the same primatologist. She just passed away and she recorded an interview, actually, in anticipation of her death. And it's really quite fascinating in so many ways.
But in it, she says, this about Trump. I'll play it for you, Bob.
WOODWARD: Thank you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE GOODALL, WORLD-RENOWNED PRIMATOLOGIST & CONSERVATIONIST: Absolutely. There are people I don't like, and I would like to put them on one of Musk's spaceships and send them all off to the planet. He sure he's going to discover.
INTERVIEWER: Would he be -- would he be one of them?
GOODALL: Oh, absolutely. He'd be the host. And you can imagine who id put on that spaceship.
INTERVIEWER: Who?
GOODALL: Along with Musk would be Trump and some of Trump's real supporters. And then I would put Putin in there, and I would put President Xi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Obviously, Bob, she doesn't like Trump. We know that. But watching that, what struck me wasn't -- wasn't that. It was actually how she put Trump, Putin and Xi together in the same sentence in the way that she actually did.
You know, when you think about that, how -- how do you see that?
WOODWARD: Well, the real alliance to worry about is the one between Putin and Russia and Xi and China. As you know, there's intelligence on that that's coming out. And of course, these would be two autocracies that carry a punch by themselves. But if you put them together, that's a double whammy. And something I know over decades really the CIA has always reported on and various administrations have thought how to make sure that this alliance doesn't materialize.
BURNETT: How much do you fear with the perspective of history and all of your work covering Nixon? How much do you fear what many are talking about as seeing as a -- as a terrible and frightening slide to autocracy in the United States?
[19:50:11]
WOODWARD: Well, of course, that's what Trump wants. He wants control back. Several years ago, I did an interview with him and which he talks about everything is mine. He thinks everything is mine.
Well, of course we know as president, even under the constitution, everything is not his mind. This is false.
But as we see daily, he operates more and more that way. He is -- there is in the real world. The courts are out there. A check on him. Who knows where that goes? Congress is not a check on him. They are supporter.
So, the -- everything is mine philosophy is operational.
BURNETT: Trump has a Gaza plan, as you know, and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which has, of course, you know, fought indefatigably to get the release of the Israeli hostages, dead or alive from Gaza, has today urged the Nobel committee to consider Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, which, of course, is something he very much wants. And it's been very clear that he wants that.
Do you think that he will get the Nobel Peace Prize, Bob? WOODWARD: I have no idea. But the committees that make those awards have done a good job in history, and I'm sure they can make that assessment. There are always surprises, but there are also, in the prize-winning business, disappointments.
BURNETT: All right. Bob, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
WOODWARD: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Trump's DOJ suffering a setback as it tries to deport the Maryland father of two to a tiny African country. Kilmar Abrego Garcia's attorney is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:20]
BURNETT: Breaking news, a federal judge dealing a major blow to the Trump administration plans to send Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man from Maryland to a tiny African country called Eswatini. Abrego Garcia, as you know, made international headlines when the Trump administration mistakenly deported him to El Salvador and then continued to go ahead and do that even when told they could not. He has no ties to Eswatini.
The judge in the case is given Trump's team 48 hours to file any evidence supporting in its case, but obviously, we're going to see what happens here.
So, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg is an attorney for Abrego Garcia, and he joins me now.
So, Simon, at this point, where does it stand? How likely are the chances that Abrego Garcia is sent to the country of Eswatini?
SIMON SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG, ATTORNEY FOR KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA: Well, so far, we don't even have any confirmation that the country of Eswatini has even been asked to receive Mr. Garcia, much less that they've agreed, right?
When he was first arrested by ICE six weeks ago, when he was first rearrested that is to say --
BURNETT: Yeah.
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: -- they designated Uganda as the country of removal, but then it quickly became clear through media reporting that the government of Uganda had never been asked and was not very interested in that. And so that's why they pivoted now to Eswatini.
Six weeks later, what was very clear in court this morning is that absolutely nothing has been done, right? And so, it becomes obvious that they're not actually trying to deport him. They're just trying to keep him locked up.
BURNETT: Okay. So I guess that's the real question, because he is now sitting in a prison in Pennsylvania. And as you mentioned, the government did try to send him to Uganda at one at one point. I mean, what is the end game here? They are spending an extraordinary amount of time and effort on him.
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: Yeah, this is a situation in which he's willing to be deported, but he's only willing to be deported to a country that offers assurances that it's not going to re-deport him to El Salvador, where he was tortured in the -- in the CECOT prison earlier this year.
So far, one country has offered those assurances, and that's Costa Rica. Mr. Abrego Garcia signed a document six weeks ago saying that because of Costa Rica's offer of refugee status and commitment to deportation, he's willing to go there.
So, if the government's purpose, if what the government wanted was to get this guy out of the country, they could have done that weeks ago weeks ago by sending him to Costa Rica. They haven't done that. They've offered no reason whatsoever. The judge asked them, and they were -- the lawyers were unable to come up with one.
BURNETT: Yes. So, what do you think it is? Right. If the goal was to deport him, as they originally said it was, and he has said I'm willing to be deported. And there is a country in central America that he's willing to be deported to, and they're not doing that, then deportation isn't the top goal. Then what is?
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: It's sending a message to anyone else who might have the temerity to fight back in the same manner that Kilmar Abrego Garcia did, right? They want total submission by the immigrant community. Even people like Mr. Abrego Garcia, who were living here legally with a work permit for half a decade, they want to be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want to, whomever they want, with no one raising their voices. And they're using his case to show what happens if you fight back.
BURNETT: So then there's a hearing on Friday. I know about the Eswatini issue. What do you expect to happen at that when you say the lawyers don't have an answer? I mean, are these -- are these lawyers up on the case? Are they up to the job?
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: Yeah. I mean, yet again, since we filed this case in March, the governments number one strategy has been sending lawyers into court who have no information and don't know anything. And they pulled out the old playbook yet again this morning. But the judge was not having any of it. She was clearly fed up with it.
And that's why she ordered them to bring a witness from the government to explain what's going on.
And if, you know, if that witness isn't able to explain what's going on, I don't think the judge is going to authorize continued detention.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Well, that could be where this goes Friday.
Thank you so much, Simon. I always appreciate talking to you.
And thanks to all of you for being with us. "AC360" starts now.
