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Erin Burnett Outfront

Report: Trump Was "Cursing," Got Into "Shouting Match" With Zelenskyy; New Epstein Allegations As Survivor's Book Hours Aways From Release; Shutdown Now 3rd-Longest, Clash Over Pay, "Extreme Measures" Threat; James Comey Files To Dismiss Charges, Cites Trump's "Personal Spite". Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 20, 2025 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:24]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Breaking news, Trump turns on Ukraine again, warning Zelenskyy Putin will destroy him. The meeting, a shouting match, first reported by "The Financial Times". That reporter is OUTFRONT, along with the top U.S. national security analyst who met with Zelenskyy right after that meeting.

And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is OUTFRONT on the shutdown. Trump's A.I. video of him dumping all over the American people and the East Wing demolition.

Plus, the manhunt on for thieves who stole the Louvre's priceless jewels. My guest has personally helped recover more than $100 million of art for the FBI. And he says the jewels are not gone for good.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett on this Monday.

OUTFRONT tonight, Putin's puppet. That is how Russian state media is portraying Trump tonight, after the president did another complete 180. When it comes to the war in Ukraine. This time, after that two and a half hour phone call which Putin requested. Trump is now once again after that call coming to Putin's defense, telling Zelenskyy in a meeting that reportedly turned into a shouting match that Putin would destroy his country if he didn't agree to ending the war on Putin's terms, even tossing aside maps like this one, showing the front lines of the war, saying enough of that. This is according to the new explosive reporting from "The Financial Times'" Max Seddon, a regular here on the show, who will be OUTFRONT in just a moment.

But in Moscow tonight, it's a celebration of Trump's once again backing Putin. And it doesn't get more direct than this. I mean, just listen to this clip from Russian state TV that was uncovered by journalist Julia Davis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putin understands Trump all too well. Trump doesn't understand Putin. Putin can manipulate him very well and lead Trump by his nose. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, Russian state TV has some grounding in this. I mean, 27 days ago, Trump posted this. I'll read it. I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and win. Win is the word. Trump put in all caps. All of Ukraine, back in its original form.

Well, that shocked the world because it was an about face. But I mean all of Ukraine, its original form, that's Donbas, that's Luhansk, that's Crimea, it's all of it. And headlines blared, calling it a sudden and major shift.

But now, once again, the 180 of Trump saying he didn't say what he said because when he was asked today about that exact post, that exact post saying when all of Ukraine back, here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, they could. They could still win it. I don't think they will, but they could still win it. I never said they would win it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, of course he did. He did. He posted that 27 days ago.

And Russian state television is posting that clip today with the headline, does Trump still think Ukraine can win?

And Trump tonight taking it even further, echoing a specific lie of Putin's about not targeting civilians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We strike with high precision weapons at locations where they make decisions, where military personnel and mercenaries gather at other similar centers.

REPORTER: Did you discuss his ongoing attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine?

TRUMP: Yeah.

REPORTER: Did you talk? Did you say cut it out? Did you say show an article of good faith to me?

TRUMP: I did, I did. But as you know, most of the people dying are soldiers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Which is an incredible thing to say, because Trump knows what the world knows, which is. Putin hit city centers and civilians as a core part of his war. I've seen it myself in cities. I've seen it in Kyiv. Youve seen burning apartment buildings and hair salons and things where people live. I've seen it in small towns in Ukraine. Those precision missiles aim very precisely at civilian areas.

And according to the U.N., 14,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Putin invaded Ukraine. And tonight, Trump's decision to side with Putin is having major consequences.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, backing off a crucial vote -- a vote to finally it would have been finally hit Russia with punishing new sanctions, sanctions that Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham says could be the sledgehammer Trump needs to end the war. But now they're backing off that yet again.

Also, as if right on cue, the United States is also stalling plans to expand the use of frozen Russian money, right, military -- I mean, money that's in accounts around the world. Unfreeze that money and give it to support Ukraine. That's according to "Bloomberg's" latest reporting.

[19:05:03]

And Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House where, Kristen, I know you're talking to your sources. It is incredible the sort of the 180 pendulum on this and how consistent it is that you can say when Trump says one thing, you know, he most likely will say the opposite within days. Why is he backing away from -- from what he said now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, look, I think that there's a couple of things going on that we need to watch pretty carefully. And I'm sorry. I'm going to take my earpiece out here because I can hear myself in it.

We know that President Trump, when he believes that there is a deal on the precipice, that he ends up backing away from any kind of punishment for Russia or for Putin. Weve seen this time and time again. The fact that he'll say there's sanctions, he'll say he's frustrated that he has a conversation with Putin, and the next thing you know, they're putting everything on the table and they're tabling everything essentially to try and get a deal.

But of course, the question remains, when does that stop? Because at this point, again, and I know we talked about this on Friday. We're talking about it again now. It is unclear what they believe they can get out of a second one on one meeting with just Putin and Trump when they already had one in Alaska. And really nothing came out of it.

Now, I will note that they do seem to be doing some preparation for this meeting in a way that we didn't see them doing for doing for Alaska. We know that the secretary of state has talked on the phone with his counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, trying to kind of lay the groundwork as they move forward. They didn't do any of that when it came to Alaska.

But these are raising a lot of questions here as to what exactly is going to happen. And we keep saying that this is the most important thing to President Trump. But it seems clear that Putin has gotten in his ear, at least gotten his ear after that 2-1/2-hour long phone call.

And I will note it's not just about land concessions. It's not just about Ukraine and what they're doing. It's also about this idea of Tomahawks. We know that Putin essentially convinced President Trump not to give over the Tomahawks to Zelensky.

So, this has been going on for quite some time. There's a lot of people raising questions as to when is "enough" enough.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Kristen, thank you very much. And as you point out the Tomahawks, right, it was sort of they were going to be a go. And then all of a sudden, no, after that 2-1/2-hour call between Trump and Putin.

Max Seddon is OUTFRONT now, as promised. He is the Moscow bureau chief for "The Financial Times". He broke that story about what really happened between Trump and Zelenskyy behind closed doors.

And also with us, Seth Jones, deep experience in the intelligence and military community.

And I know, Seth, you spoke with Zelensky right after his meeting with Trump.

So, both of you can give us this crucial insight of what happened in that room which matters to the world.

Max, you broke the story about the tension and the frustration in that room. How bad did it get between Trump and Zelenskyy in the meeting?

MAX SEDDON, MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF, FINANCIAL TIMES: Well, it wasn't as bad as the meeting that we all saw in the Oval Office in February, but it was pretty, you know, pretty dramatic. You know, Trump was, you know, according to our sources, he was swearing a lot. At one point, he cast aside some maps of the battlefield in Ukraine. So, he was sick of looking at these, these maps.

And really he did a lot to just repeat a lot of Russian talking points and put pressure on Ukraine to essentially accept Putin's conditions. And this would have been really shocking for Ukraine, because they had done a lot of work over the last few weeks and months to try to get Trump to a position where the U.S. would pivot to doing more to support Ukraine. And one call from Putin seems to have been all that it took for Trump to go against things that he said weeks ago.

He said that Russia's economy was a paper tiger. And then on Friday, he said that Zelenskyy, that it was doing great. He said that Russia was going to win on the battlefield, which, as you pointed out, you know, less than a month ago, he said that it looked like Ukraine was going to win.

And it seems that this has really undone months of work by Ukraine and its European allies. And we are back where we were a few in the summer, really bad point for Ukraine.

BURNETT: I mean, it is -- it is fascinating, right? Twenty-seven days ago, Trump says, I think Ukraine is in a position to fight and win -- win in all caps, all of Ukraine, back in its original form. You know, you hear that? That's the public record, Seth, if you're Vladimir Zelensky, you walk into this meeting. But this meeting happens to be right after Trump had a 2-1/2-hour call with Putin.

And so, you know, it's a complete about face. I know you talked to Zelenskyy after the meeting. What did he say to you?

SETH JONES, SPOKE WITH ZELENSKYY AFTER HEATED TRUMP MEETING: Well, Erin, actually, what was interesting is President Zelenskyy, after the meeting with president Trump, as he as he said to me and a few others, he also spoke to European leaders. So, he was gauging their views as well.

I think one of the biggest frustrations, frankly, for President Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian government, the Europeans, as well as I'm sure a number of folks in the U.S. government is it is not clear what the U.S. strategy is right now. There's just a lot of swinging back and forth about who's winning. Whether -- what types of aid the U.S. is going to provide.

[19:10:04]

It makes it very difficult to predict.

So going into meetings in Budapest, it is not clear again what the U.S. positions are on any meaningful issue because they're changing day to day, month to month and week to week. And the Ukrainians had discussions with the U.S. about the Tomahawks, which would be useful for targeting Russian military assets beyond where the Ukrainians can target right now. And then the president, the U.S. president got cold feet concerned about escalation.

BURNETT: I mean, Max, exactly. You know, concerned about escalation on those Tomahawks. I'm just curious, though, Max, because Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska, got incredibly frustrated, got lectured by Putin on 2,000-year history right of Russian-Ukrainian history.

Trump gets mad. He shifts towards Ukraine. He's angry at Putin. Then, all of a sudden, he has one phone call with Putin. It goes 2-1/2 hours. And even if you if you take time for translating, that's a lot.

And now he's coming out once again with Putin's lines, right? Oh, no. It's mostly soldiers. No Tomahawks. You got you got to give up or Putin is going to kill you to Zelenskyy.

I'm just curious, Max, from your reporting, how does Putin accomplish that? Being able to turn Trump around in a phone call after what happened in Alaska?

SEDDON: Well, I think he's appealed to the two things that you have really seen motivating Trump the most. And, the closest I've been to any kind of consistency throughout Trump's efforts to end this war.

The first one is that Putin knows that, that Trump just wants to be done with this, and he doesn't really care how. He just wants it to be over. And the fact that it's a very complex conflict where any, any kind of settlement would require dealing with some very sophisticated security issues. He's not really interested in that.

It's quite clear from what he said, that he just wants to have a sort of a ceasefire. And you have the two leaders in for a photo op, ideally in the in the oval office with him. And they'll -- they'll pose for the cameras and they'll say that they want him to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

That's what happened with Armenia and Azerbaijan to a certain extent. That is what happened with Israel and Hamas.

And the other thing that Putin has done is he's very much appealed to the proverbial wallet by pushing all sorts of economic and trade deals that Russia and the U.S. could do if they manage to broker an end to the war. We've seen talk from, his special investment envoy, of building a tunnel, with the help of Elon Musk, between Alaska and remote northeastern Russia. And this is what seems to appeal to Trump is getting it over and making money for the U.S. once it's all done.

BURNETT: Right. And Putin, of course, has said Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. Important to note, just you know, that the exposure of U.S. companies to Russia, even prior to this was quite de minimis. So that's an interesting argument that they make.

But, Seth, why does Zelenskyy believe -- why does he believe that Trump, after saying Ukraine is going to win and switching returns again and again to Putin's talking points?

JONES: Well, Erin, that's a very good question. I think the Ukrainians at this point and President Zelenskyy expect moving forward. That the U.S. position, President Trump's position will continue to change.

I think what he has said on a number of occasions is the future of Ukraine largely sits in Europe's hands right now. And so, I think this is going to be the focus of President Zelenskyy going forward. It's pushing the Germans to provide the Taurus missile, for example, if the U.S. is not going to provide the Tomahawk to get the Europeans to release the frozen assets so that the Ukrainians can get the money for the European industrial base to provide assistance to Ukraine moving forward. That's just a much more reliable partner.

And one other thing, Erin, that's interesting, that President Zelenskyy did say was, you know, I think another aspect that does puzzle the Ukrainians is that Russia continues to get significant assistance, both direct and through components from the Chinese and from the North Koreans and from the Iranians. And that does not appear to bother the White House right now. And which is -- which is which is striking. Lots of Chinese aid to the Russians right now.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you both. Really grateful for your unique perspective and reporting. Seth and Max, thanks.

And we've got new details next from the book that will certainly have some very powerful men nervous tonight. Jeffrey Epstein's most outspoken accuser with new accounts just in to OUTFRONT.

Plus, this --

[19:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: He is using satire to make a point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Speaker Mike Johnson defending Trump's A.I. video, showing the president wearing a crown, dropping waist on protesters. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries OUTFRONT tonight to respond.

And breaking news, the former FBI Director James Comey taking on Trump unafraid, now launching a major effort to have the case against him thrown out. Will it work?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight, hours away from the release of Jeffrey Epstein's survivor, Virginia Giuffre's bombshell memoir, "Nobody's Girl". That book should have some of her alleged abusers on edge tonight, because it proves that this isn't going anywhere.

[19:20:06]

And according to new excerpts from the BBC, Jeffrey writes in the book, quote, "In my years with them, they lent me out to scores of wealthy, powerful people. I was habitually used and humiliated, and in some instances choked, beaten and bloodied. I believed that I might die a sex slave."

Jeffrey also writes in graphic detail what she experienced at the hands of Epstein. I'll share just one thing that she said. She writes, "In session after session, he would play out various fantasies with me as the victim." She writes, she says the chains and contraptions he used on her caused so much pain that I prayed I would black out when I did, I'd awakened to more abuse."

Giuffre suffered through this for years and years. She did marry and have children of her own and died by suicide this past April at the age of 41. But this book, coming as calls to release all of the Epstein files to find out all of the names of people who knew, people who participated, are hitting roadblocks from the Trump DOJ and from the House Speaker Mike Johnson.

OUTFRONT now, Tara Palmeri, who is named in Giuffre's book because obviously you and Virginia, Tara, traveled together around the country to find people that she says were involved, who worked for Epstein to corroborate her story. You spent so much time on this.

Claire Howorth is the deputy editor at "Vanity Fair", which obtained the first exclusive excerpt of Giuffre's memoir. And I know you've got it with you. And I know you've read the entire

thing and done your own exhaustive reporting. So, Claire, when you've had a chance to read it, were looking at it there. And I think it's so interesting when you look at the cover, it's "Nobody's Girl" and she's sort of -- she's fading out, right? As if she almost isn't visible to people.

What -- how much does she shed new light on these crucial questions of the who knew who participated, who has not been held to account to this time?

CLAIRE HOWORTH, DEPUTY EDITOR, VANITY FAIR: They're sort of two -- first of all, thanks for having me. It's nice to see you too, Tara. She writes very lovingly of her experience with Tara.

There are two levels here of detail. One is the graphic nature of the detail itself. A lot of things we know are now illuminated in a way that only a survivor of these crimes could be able to detail them, and the other is how much we really don't know. She refers to a lot of these men as billionaires one, two and three. Theres a prime minister, a head of state, and, you realize -- you kind of suspect you know who the characters are, but we still don't know this information publicly.

BURNETT: So she talks about those individuals, which she names specifically, but also says there were many more.

HOWORTH: Many more.

BURNETT: People who abused her, right? So many more men. But she doesn't put a number on. And then, of course, that we don't know.

HOWORTH: That dozens.

BURNETT: Dozens. And then what about all the other women and the other -- right? I mean, it is unbelievable --

HOWORTH: These are women.

BURNETT: -- that we -- that this is -- I mean, Tara, in another excerpt that was published by "The New York Post", she talks about the prime minister declared just referred to. She said she was raped by this man. She writes, he repeatedly choked me until I lost consciousness and took pleasure in seeing me in fear for my life.

And then she said she begged Epstein not to send her back to this man, to the prime minister. I got down on my knees and pleaded with him. I don't know if Epstein feared the man or if he owed him a favor, but he wouldn't make any promises, saying coldly of the politicians brutality, you'll get that sometimes.

You knew her. So for you, there are things that are even more graphic and horrific than are put in this book. And yet, for so many of us, this is just absolutely stunning graphic detail.

TARA PALMERI, HOST, "THE TARA PALMERI SHOW": I knew this was going to happen with her book. I had a feeling that it was going to be explosive because I don't think people understood the brutality of what she lived through.

I remember when we were driving past the Palm Beach Airport. It was February 2020, and the Lolita Express, Epstein's private plane, was parked there and we drove past it and I watched her body just recoil and she recounted the type of abuse she endured from the same prime minister up in the air and the way that she was just truly treated inhumanely and I'm really proud of her that she's put -- that she's put these details out there and its worse even than she writes.

And it's -- it's incredibly upsetting. And there was no one there to help. There was no one there to help her. She was nobody's girl. Nobody saw her as the daughter of somebody that was worth saving. After two years of abuse and these are the people that we look up to. These are the leaders.

BURNETT: Well, I mean, this is the thing, prime minister, billionaire one, billionaire two, billionaire three, and many more were those individuals came from, Claire who were rich and powerful. And every time I say it who have not been held to account and are right now being protected by people who don't want to put the Epstein files out there in part, you know, I mean --

HOWORTH: Well, it's -- as you say, it's not just that there were so many men who abused her. There was a network of people who really helped him make his abuse possible, whether it was the finance, you know, involved in the sex trafficking, the people on the periphery watching the abuse take place. It's just -- it's really shocking that it -- the level of detail that she describes is appalling.

BURNETT: Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of being his accomplice, was central to Virginia Giuffre's experience and to many others. And I'm just going to say, after her meeting with the number two at the DOJ, right, she gets moved to this minimum security prison in a residential neighborhood where no one convicted of her crimes would ordinarily be. That's where she is now after her meeting with the Trump DOJ.

In the excerpt you published at the "Vanity Fair", right, she talks about when she met Ghislaine Maxwell and she talks about she's been recruited by Maxwell, one of the first times she goes into Jeffrey Epstein's home, Tara, and the excerpt that Claire has, says walking behind her, I tried not to stare at the walls, which were crowded with photos and paintings of nude women.

Maybe this was how wealthy people with sophisticated tastes decorated their homes. Be cool, I thought. We made a U-turn around a king sized bed, then entered an adjoining room with a turquoise green massage table. A naked man lay face down on top of it, his head resting, resting on his folded arms. Say hello to Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell instructed. Before I could do so, the man spoke to me. You can just call me Jeffrey.

PALMERI: Yeah.

BURNETT: This is a woman who recently showered with praise in the hopes of a pardon. PALMERI: Yeah. No, this is a -- I think when people read this book,

they will have zero mercy for Ghislaine Maxwell. I think when people read this book, they will scream louder for the files.

She has a harrowing tale. And I think the thing about Virginia and to -- and I hope that you can see this in the book, but she was a hopeful person. She was a great person, but she was abused throughout her life from as a child, you know, she writes that her father molested her and she goes on to being, you know, trafficked on the streets, homeless by 11 and then and then re-trafficked again, just as she's trying to build her life back together.

You just see her as this person who has just been so abused and neglected her entire life. I mean, the title "Nobody's Girl" is perfect and in so many ways, and I just think that you can't not read Virginia's story, know Virginia, and not feel compassion for her for so. And I'm so happy that the narrative is finally changing because for so long, Epstein's defense attorney, Alan Dershowitz, called her a child, a teen prostitute. As if a teenager could be a prostitute. You know, the tabloids were ruthless to her when she accused Prince Andrew of abuse.

She has been dragged through the mud, maligned for a decade, it took almost a decade for the crown to finally acknowledge her.

BURNETT: And now, of course, he's been stripped of his titles. Although not the title of prince. Right. You know which Virginias brother was expressing his frustration to me the other day about but again, just to make the point of how many more women there are who suffered and how many men there are who are walking around right now thinking that this won't come.

HOWORTH: Won't come for them. That's right.

And she details her allegations again against Prince Andrew. Three encounters and she, you know, of course he denies them. But yeah, like you say, Maxwell was very deeply rooted in the abuse.

And the insidious thing about her is that she kind of capitalized on this vulnerability of Virginia's and this person who Maxwell spotted as being broken. She sought her out. She picked her. And that was very much the way that Epstein and Maxwell worked together to find these 150-plus girls and women who they abused.

BURNETT: Claire and Tara, thank you very much. I'm so grateful to talk to you and to hear all of your reporting. And of course, I hope everyone's going to read this.

And next, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is OUTFRONT. His response to the shutdown and Trump's A.I. video showing the president in a jet dropping human waste on protesters.

Plus, demolition crews are now tearing down part of the White House. This isn't the onion. It's real life. And they're doing it to build a ballroom for Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:33:39]

BURNETT: Breaking news, Senate Majority Leader Thune throwing cold water on a push to pay federal workers furloughed by the government shutdown. We are now 20 days into that shutdown, so three weeks with no end in sight after the Senate failed yet again to advance a Republican bill to reopen the government. President Trump's top economic adviser is now warning Democrats about dire consequences if they do not give in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: If they don't open the government next week, I really don't know how long it's going to take. Maybe the Republicans are going to have to take extreme measures. We could stop virtually anything that we want other than defense and so on. And national security matters. The president can pick the Democrats' favorite things and stop them forever, legally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Stop them forever legally.

OUTFRONT now, the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

So, Leader Jeffries, you hear Kevin Hassett. He says that the president can stop legally. Democrat, Democratic favored issues and programs indefinitely, and he can do it legally. Are you worried? He's right.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): I have no idea who this random individual is, and his comments are deeply unhinged, but reflect the fact that for the longest period of time, Donald Trump and Republicans want to go after things like Social Security and Medicare. And certainly, the health care of the American people.

But we're seeing that right now.

[19:35:01]

This is day 20 of the Trump Republican shutdown, and the government remains closed because Republicans have zero interest in actually providing affordable health care to everyday Americans. That's the challenge that the country faces right now.

BURNETT: So, Kevin Hassett is the top economic adviser for the president. So I guess he's speaking from that capacity. But he says the shutdown can end next week, if Democrats cave and vote on the GOP bill, right. That's what he's saying.

But when it comes to that, it was the Republican senator, Leader Jeffries, John Kennedy, who said, and I quote him, I think this will be the longest shutdown in the history of ever, which would put it well past Thanksgiving. Do you think that's what we're looking at here? JEFFRIES: Well, our view is that we as Democrats, in both the House

and the Senate, Leader Schumer has been clear that well sit down with anyone, any time, any place, either here at the Capitol or back at the White House in order to reopen the government, find a path toward a bipartisan spending agreement. But that agreement actually needs to meet the needs of the American people and improve the quality of life of everyday Americans, while at the same time decisively addressing the health care crisis that Republicans have created.

Erin, we're talking about the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. Hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health clinics are closing all across America.

Just earlier today, it was announced that more than 50 hospitals in rural Alabama are at risk of closing because of what Republicans have done in their one big ugly bill. And now, as a result of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, we know that tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically increased premium co-pays, premiums, co-pays and deductibles, including in places like West Virginia, Wyoming, Alaska, Mississippi and Tennessee.

BURNETT: Well, you know, when you talk about that, those premiums are set to go up. It all came in the context of the protests we saw this weekend, which, of course, as you know, are some of the biggest in American history. And as that was happening, the president went on social media and he posted that A.I. generated video which showed him with a crown flying in a plane bombing the No Kings protesters with piles of waste, a family program. I'll use that word.

House Speaker Mike Johnson says that it's just Trump using social media and satire. Satire is the word that he used to make a point.

How do you see it?

JEFFRIES: Well, that video is deeply unserious, deeply unpresidential, and deeply un-American. But unfortunately, it's the type of erratic, extreme behavior that the American people have continued to see from this president and from this administration from the very beginning. And, of course, it's no surprise to us that House Republicans continue to behave as nothing more than reckless rubber stamps for Donald Trump's extreme agenda that's hurting the American people. And, of course, for his extreme behavior that they continue to whitewash.

BURNETT: Speaker Johnson today did point something out about the No Kings protests. Obviously, as I said, millions across the country over the weekend, biggest in history, and there were full of lots of harmless signs, right?

I had so many of them I saw on social media, IKEA has better cabinets, No kings only queens, you know, ladies in their 80s for democracy. Tons of these things.

People showed up wearing inflatable costumes like chickens. But Speaker Johnson said this about some of the other protesters and signs that he also saw. Here he is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents. And that's what these people are doing. I mean, in one of these photos, I think there's a picture of the president hanging in effigy by a noose on one of these one on the far end. I mean, it's unconscionable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And Leader Jeffries, just because the cameras on him there, I'll show everyone some of the signs. Johnson was standing next to make that point. One says 8647. Another included the effigy that he just referenced with the initials DJT, another one saying the only good fascist is a dead one.

Do you agree with speaker Johnson on the specific point? Leader Jeffries, that that rhetoric and those images are unconscionable?

JEFFRIES: We've made clear throughout the year that political violence or threats of violence, wherever they may come from, directed at anyone based on their ideology, is unacceptable. And I'm certainly hopeful that my Republican colleagues and that the current president of the United States, at some point will actually lean into that principle that we need to bring people together as opposed to behaving in ways that are continuing to tear the country apart.

And so, Democrats have been clear that we denounce political violence or threats of it, wherever that may come from.

[19:40:10]

But what was clear to me, more than 7 million Americans, the overwhelming majority of people were there to protest peacefully, patriotically and in a very powerful way to express dissent in a manner entirely consistent with the First Amendment, where Americans have the ability to petition their government for a change in direction, and certainly in this year, in this presidency, we've seen Donald Trump unleash unprecedented extremism attacks on the economy, on health care, on nutritional assistance, on hardworking federal employees, on veterans, on farmers, on law abiding immigrant families, on the American way of life and on democracy itself.

And that is why millions of people peacefully took to the streets on No Kings day.

BURNETT: All right. Leader, thank you very much. Leader Jeffries, I appreciate your time.

JEFFRIES: Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, James Comey making a major move tonight to have the case against him tossed tonight, going after Trump's handpicked attorney. And we're going to get into the details here. It's unprecedented, but it certainly would change precedent. Plus, masked thieves stealing priceless jewels and seven minutes from

the Louvre. Not out of a thriller, not out of 50 years ago. It happened today. But our guest helped recover more than $100 million of stolen art. And he says the jewels might be found.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:47]

BURNETT: Breaking news, former FBI Director James Comey asking a judge to throw out the criminal case against him, calling it a selective and vindictive prosecution driven by what he says is President Trump's long standing personal hate for him, accusing Trump of personally instigating the case.

Comey also argues the case should be thrown out because Lindsey Halligan, who Trump tapped to prosecute the case because no career prosecutors would put their name on it. So, it was only her name on there, and that when she signed it, she was not properly appointed and not going gone through the actual formal process. And therefore, it was an illegitimate indictment.

OUTFRONT now, Ryan goodman, New York University law professor, former special counsel at the Department of Defense and of course, editor in chief of Just Security.

So, Ryan, these are huge motions because they would they would have a real effect on precedent and law in this country, depending how this goes. So, he's filing two motions to get rid of the case against him. The first is arguing this vindictive and selective prosecution, 51 pages making the argument that Trump hates him. And here's the litany of comments Trump has made to prove that.

Do you think Comey can win to get this case thrown out on that claim alone?

RYAN GOODMAN, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL AT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Yes. And that's an unusual thing to say, because that kind of claim is usually a very uphill battle. But there's the strongest brief anybody's ever going to read. And certainly over the last 30 years of a vindictive prosecution claim and, the defendant, Abrego Garcia as a defendant, he recently won before the court on vindictive prosecution to the point that it now goes to discovery. Evidence has to be produced, and the burden of proof is on the government to show that they were not vindictively prosecuting him.

And Mr. Comey has an even stronger case, because part of it is about how weak the government's argument is against him in the first place. And he also previews that which shows how we could really.

BURNETT: Okay, so when we get to how weak it is, I know that's part of that first filing, but the second filing is really at the heart of that, which is Lindsey Halligan, who has never prosecuted a case before. Trump puts in the job a couple days before the deadline. In other words, you file by this day against your statute of limitations takes effect. So, she gets in, she does it. Nobody who works there will do it. So

only her name is on it. She hasn't gone through the full and normal process that you would to become a U.S. attorney. So now the second filing is she is not legitimate, and her name is the only name on there. We're past the statute of limitations. This whole thing is garbage.

Does that work on its own?

GOODMAN: It very well might. I think Mr. Comey has the stronger argument right now, but we can -- we'll see how that turns out. But two other interim U.S. attorneys in the Trump administration have, in fact, been disqualified by district courts. And that's Alina Habba, the New Jersey district and jurisdiction. And there's another one in Nevada.

In Nevada, luckily for the government, the indictments that were signed by that interim U.S. attorney were signed by others as well. So, the indictment remains. Indictment holds. But that's not the situation when Mr. Comey, if he knocks out Halligan, then it knocks out the indictment.

BURNETT: Then the whole case goes away. Okay.

So in this context, your team at Justice Security have gone through all the cases, hundreds of cases with the Trump Justice Department. And you have found judges from both parties or judges that were nominated by people from both parties using strikingly similar language to describe the DOJs conduct, right? So when we talk about naming someone like Lindsey Halligan, highly misleading, bad faith, gleeful boasts clearly hasn't complied flagrant violation. All words that you found from judges appointed by both parties.

What does that add up to?

GOODMAN: So it's really remarkable. It's more astonishing than I ever would have imagined. A lot of the strongest language is actually by Trump appointed judges and Republican appointed judges. Judge McElroy, who in a case about freezing of the inflation reduction act funds and said it was a blatant disregard for her orders.

Judge Stephanie Gallagher, another Trump appointee, said that the government made no effort to justify what was a blatant lack of effort, even just effort, to comply with her orders, and that actually amounted to 20 cases of noncompliance that the courts called out, and over 40 cases, 40 of the courts actually saying to the government, you've given me false information, including sworn declarations, that you had to pull back and then submit another one because they were false.

And it just shows a growing lack of distrust on the part of the courts. Republican and Democratic appointed judges towards the DOJ.

[19:50:04]

BURNETT: Right, which is hugely significant, as you point, especially since a lot of these are Trump appointed judges, right? It's not political. It's about the third branch. It's about the judicial branch.

GOODMAN: Yeah.

BURNETT: All right. Ryan Goodman, thank you very much, as always.

And next, priceless jewels stolen from one of the most popular museums in the world. Now experts worrying that the crime may never be solved.

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BURNETT: Breaking now, an international manhunt underway after masked thieves stole priceless jewels from the most famous museum in the world, The Louvre. Still shuttered after French crown jewels. Literally including a sapphire tiara and an emerald necklace set among 1,000 diamonds, were taken in a wild seven-minute heist on Sunday. Only four of those minutes were spent inside the museum. The rest was getting in and out undetected. You don't do that without prior planning.

Isa Soares is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diversion. Make a lot of noise over there. So over here in this room, you can take $100 million off the wall and waltz right out the front door.

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No diversion was needed for the four masked robbers who broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday morning, stealing priceless French crown jewels in broad daylight, just minutes after the world's largest museum opened its doors. The Louvre remained closed on Monday as France grappled with one question how could the world's most visited museum be robbed with such brazen audacity?

It was a plot that played out like a Hollywood movie. Around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, four thieves posing as workers wearing yellow vests used a moving elevator ladder to reach the second floor balcony of the museum.

[19:55:05]

The perpetrators then forced open a window using an angle grinder and entered the Apollo gallery, soaring open the display location for the treasures of the French crown jewels.

As alarm bells rang, they grabbed nine of the Louvre's most valuable treasures, the priceless 19th century French crown jewels, among them a dazzling crown adorned with 24 sapphires, 1,083 diamonds. Also stolen, a diamond and sapphire necklace and a pair of earrings, seen here in this painting of Queen Marie-Amelie in 1836, and a glittering bow with more than 2,000 diamonds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clever to use a cherry picker and a glass cutter to steal priceless -- well, sentimentally priceless jewels from the Louvre. The fact that it was done in daylight is also astounding.

SOARES (voice-over): It took only seven minutes for the robbers to reemerge with nine pieces of jewelry, apparently from the same window.

GERALD DARMANIN, FRENCH JUSTICE MINISTER: What shows we failed because someone was able to put up an elevator truck in the open in the streets of Paris, have people woke up for a few minutes and take priceless jewels and give France a deplorable image.

SOARES (voice-over): Thankfully, one of the most precious items a crown Napoleon gave his wife, Empress Eugenie, was dropped by the thieves as it sped away on high powered scooters along the banks of the Seine.

French police says the first 48 hours are key to track down the thieves, who so far are still on the run.

Isa Soares, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: It's a simply incredible story. Geoffrey Kelly is OUTFRONT now. He's a retired FBI agent, founding member of the FBI art crime team which, Geoffrey, I know has recovered more than 20,000 items valued at over $1 billion.

So, in this case, obviously active manhunt. But the amount of preparation that must have gone into this is extraordinary, right? Seven minutes, only four of them in the museum and no sign of them yet, 40 hours passed. All these items being stolen.

How much is time of the essence right now? Just 40 hours give you make you worried?

GEOFFREY KELLY, ORIGINAL MEMBER OF FBI'S ELITE ART CRIME TEAM: No, 40 hours doesn't worry me. It's certainly not, going to be solved overnight. When you look at art theft, it's going to be -- recoveries are going to be made very shortly after the theft, or its going to be generational.

The French police right now are doing everything that they would do for, for an investigation. They're looking at surveillance video. They're processing the truck that was recovered. I believe that the subjects had planned to burn it and it wasn't burned. So there's going to be potential DNA evidence that can be recovered, and they're going to be -- reviewing surveillance video and conducting, and not just throughout France, but throughout Europe. Intelligence sources to see if anybody has any information of value.

So, it's going to take time. They're going to be in this for the long haul, I'm sure.

BURNETT: A Paris prosecutor told reporters today that its possible that an art collector actually commissioned the heist. Do you think something like that is possible? I mean, who do you think is behind this? KELLY: Well, I'm assuming that's speculation. If the French prosecutor

has specific information that this was a contract robbery, then she probably shouldn't be talking about it to the international media. I think it's probably more speculation on her part. It's -- we've seen this so many times throughout my career. We call it the Dr. No theory. It's very Hollywood like the idea of some reclusive billionaire who has his underground lair filled with illicit treasures.

We've never seen that ever happen. We've never had any reclusive billionaire die. And his family comes upon the underground lair filled with priceless artwork.

It was most likely organized crime. It was, you know, they were good at what they did. And sometimes when you're that brazen, you're able to catch everybody off guard. And that's exactly what happened. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

BURNETT: It is amazing, though. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, you know, you think about the things that go missing and that are just never found, right? Because no one tries to sell them or what? I mean, just these, these, these mysteries. I mean, what are the odds that this becomes that?

KELLY: Well, it's two different things, right? We've seen throughout history, including, of course, the Gardner Museum, paintings are stolen. You steal iconic artwork, and then what are you going to do with it? It's too hot for anybody to buy it. And so you've seen thieves now are shifting the focus to jewels because obviously jewels can be broken down. The gems can be recut and the settings can be melted down.

I would hope, and I'm optimistic here, that, of course, the clock is ticking, but hopefully we have a little bit of time. Because if these guys are smart and they seem to be professionals, they're going to hold on to it for a little while. They're not going to break it up immediately, because if the French police come knocking on their door, they're going to need to get out of jail. Free card. And those jewels are their get out of free card, get out of jail free card.

And so, hopefully, they're going to hold on to it for a while. We saw it with the green vault robbery in Dresden in 2019. When they were recovered in 2022 and the jewels were recovered when they were arrested.

BURNETT: All right. Well, we shall see. Fascinating. And Geoffrey, thank you so much.

And thanks to all of you.

"AC360" starts now.