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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump DOJ Subpoenaed Apple for Data on House Intel Committee Dems; Bipartisan Senators' Group Says It Has $1.2 Trillion Deal; Exceptional Drought Grips Western U.S.; Two Passengers Test Positive on Fully-Vaccinated Cruise Ship. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 11, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:26]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Democratic lawmakers, their staffers and their families are the latest known targets of a Trump Justice Department weaponized to find leaks.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: A bipartisan infrastructure plan is on the table. What's included, what's not and what the White House thinks about it.

ROMANS: And COVID cases found on the first major cruise with Americans on board since the start of the pandemic.

JARRETT: That's not good.

ROMANS: No.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Friday, June 11th. Happy Friday, everyone. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And we begin this morning with the extraordinary new revelations about the Justice Department under former President Trump, adding even more evidence of how he weaponized one co-equal branch of government against another. Sources say prosecutors had obtained a federal grand jury subpoena for Apple for the data from the accounts of Democrats on the House Intel Committee.

Why? Why such an extraordinary measure? Well, to find leakers behind new stories revealing the connections between Trump associates and Russia. This was first reported by "The New York Times" last night, but it wasn't just the Intel Committee members who were targeted in this probe, it was also their staff, even their family members including a minor child.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Shocked on the one hand, not surprised on the other. I did I wonder, you knew, for a few years with the president calling for committee to be investigated, calling for me to be investigated whether, you know, the department was going to do it.

While I can't go into who received these subpoenas or whose records were sought, I can say that it was extraordinarily broad, people having nothing to do with, you know, the intelligence matters that are at least being reported on. It just shows what a broad fishing expedition it was.

Going after a committee that was investigating him, you know, one guardrail after another just smashed by this unethical former president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Now, the subpoenas date back to 2018, hunting for data on more than 100 accounts. Prosecutors also obtained a gag order renewed three times before it expired this year, which means Apple couldn't say anything before now.

This is just the latest disclosure of the Trump administration's unheard of tactics in leak investigations. We now know that the DOJ secretly demanded and in some case obtained reporters records as well, among them CNN's Barbara Starr, and journalists from "The Washington Post" and other news organizations all doggedly reporting on the Trump White House.

JARRETT: Joining us now is CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig. He's also author of the upcoming book, "Hatchet Man: How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor's Code and Corrupted the Justice Department", which seems extremely timely this morning.

Elie, so great to have you this morning.

When I first woke up and saw this news I thought, okay, it must be the staff of the congressmen, but, no, it's the actual congressmen themselves and their children -- at least one minor child that we know about.

Have you ever seen anything like this before?

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: No, Laura, I was a prosecutor for 14 years. This is completely unprecedented and deeply wrong is really the most straightforward way to put it from a prosecutor's perspective.

Let's be clear about what happened here. The U.S. Department of Justice used its subpoena power. It's power to order private entities to turn over evidence. They subpoenaed phone companies, Apple and another company, to get the personal private phone records of not just members of Congress, Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, but reportedly family members and staff. That is remarkably invasive.

And for what reason we've seen? None. It seems to be purely a political for lack of a better term a witch-hunt by the Trump administration. And making it worse, they went and got a gag order. Meaning DOJ went to a judge and said, judge, this is so extraordinary that we have to order Apple under penalty of law, of criminal law, that they cannot tell anybody about these subpoenas. They can't tell Adam Schiff. They can't tell Eric Swalwell, meaning

this was a completely one-sided fight. Schiff, Swalwell, the other people who got these subpoenas didn't know about them at the time, didn't have the ability to fight them at the time. It is a wild abuse of discretion by DOJ.

ROMANS: You know, Bill Barr, the attorney general then, his fingerprints all over this report in "The Times." He even moved a prosecutor from New Jersey to the main Justice Department to work on the case related to Congressman Schiff.

Andrew McCabe who was also a political target of the Trump DOJ, he was on CNN last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FBI: The absolutely -- I don't want to say unprecedented -- the groundbreaking step of subpoenaing data, private data of a sitting member of Congress, like I had never -- I had no idea that that kind of stuff was going on.

[05:05:13]

I think that William Barr will go down in history as the person most responsible for undermining the Justice Department and using it as a political weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: What do you make of Barr's role here?

HONIG: We already knew, Christine, that Bill Barr had interrupted and weaponized the Justice Department. This is a new low. These subpoenas, that gag order that I talked about would have to have gone through the attorney general.

Now, this started reportedly before Bill Barr, but it was continued and renewed under him and Bill Barr has a couple very serious questions that he needs to be made to answer. Number one, where did the impetus for this come from? Did this come from Donald Trump? Did this come from the White House?

Number two, what was the basis? What was the factual basis you had for authorizing these drastic subpoenas? What was your good faith reason for this?

And if he's -- we'll see if he's able to point to anything substantial. We know these subpoenas did not uncover any evidence of a crime. So, were they just out there fishing, to be charitable, or did they have a legitimate purpose.

JARRETT: Like so many of the things that Barr did under Trump, though, he wouldn't have had to explicitly get an instruction. Everyone knew what interest Trump wanted, he was on TV saying it all the time, he was calling this a witch-hunt constantly. Everyone who was paying any attention knew exactly what he wanted. I wonder what you think Merrick Garland does with this now. We have a

new administration, President Biden has said that these tactics were inappropriate at least as they come related to reporters, I would imagine he would feel the same way about members of Congress, we don't yet know, he hasn't been asked about it publicly.

What does he do with us? There are at least, according to "The Times", people who worked on these investigations still at DOJ like John Demers who was running the national security division.

HONIG: Yeah, Laura, this is yet another cleanup project for Merrick Garland. First thing he needs to do is disclose everything that he legally can. Let us know how far and how deep this went, don't let it just sort of trickle out piece by piece.

Second of all, he needs to authorize DOJ's inspector general to do a full investigation and public report on what happened here. And third, he needs to make sure that anyone who is in the department now responds to a subpoena if and when they are subpoenaed which Congress. Anyone who receives that kind of subpoena needs to get in front of Congress, get in front of the cameras and answer these questions.

ROMANS: Hey, Elie, quick question to button this up. Apple at the center of this, too, Apple couldn't say anything to these people until this gag order was finally lifted just last month.

What role does Apple play here? I mean, if they are subpoenaed, they have to provide this information.

HONIG: Correct. Yeah. It's hard to hold Apple at any fault here. They get that subpoena, it comes with an order from a federal judge saying you are to, A, turn over this information and, b, you are not to disclose it.

They could have challenged it in court if they felt strongly enough about it, but they received the subpoena with a written instruction from the judge, hey, you are to keep this secret.

ROMANS: All right. Elie Honig, CNN legal analyst, thank you so much for that.

JARRETT: Thanks, Elie.

HONIG: Thanks.

ROMANS: Okay. Eight minutes past the hour.

We have a deal sort of. A bipartisan group of ten senators announcing they have agreed on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, a key Biden priority. Note: this is just over half of Biden's initial infrastructure proposal. The deal includes $579 billion in new spending and focused on core physical hard infrastructure.

JARRETT: That's right. The White House says it considers the proposal worth exploring but says there are still questions to answer relating to policy and, of course, how to pay for it among other things. But if the White House signs on the deal still faces skeptics on both sides of the aisle.

Our senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju has the latest from Capitol Hill on all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Laura.

Now, this is a critical month and critical time for Joe Biden's agenda, namely the centerpiece of his domestic agenda how to move forward with a massive infrastructure package. He has one significantly ramp up spending for roads, bridges and other major infrastructure projects, but also to expand dramatically the social safety net in this country.

They are moving along two tracks, one of them is a bipartisan negotiation and another one is a straight partisan effort that Democrats plan to employ next month. Now, the bipartisan negotiation, there was an agreement announced last night over to the broad framework of what this deal ultimately will look like. We're still waiting for a lot of the details here, but what the senators, five Democrats, five Republicans are saying here is that they will not raise taxes and they say it will be fully paid for.

What I'm hearing from senators is that essentially it will be paid for by redirecting already enacted COVID relief money and also raising the gas tax subject to inflation. That has gotten some push back, particularly on the left, particularly from someone like Senator Richard Blumenthal who told me yesterday it is time to pull the plug on these bipartisan talks and move along straight party lines.

[05:10:09]

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I really think it's time to pull the plug now and take action promptly, robustly, because every indication is that Republicans simply aren't serious.

RAJU: Now, as Chuck Schumer, the majority leader was leaving the Senate yesterday, I did ask him about those bipartisan talks and he said we are moving forward on two tracks, both on the budget reconciliation process, that partisan process, as well as these bipartisan talks. He would not give me his assessment on how he thought -- thinks these talks were going.

But any deal that will be reached by this group, it is still drafted, they get into all the fine print they have to sell it to the respective caucuses and get enough support in both chambers and both houses of Congress -- not an easy task and already push back from the left and certainly there will be some from the right to see whether this deal can actually become law -- guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Manu, thanks for that. We will be watching.

All right. Ten minutes past the hour.

A pregnant woman pulled over for speeding ended up having her car dangerously flipped by police. Hear from the driver, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:20]

JARRETT: New this morning, the Oregon House of Representatives expelling Republican lawmaker Mike Nearman overnight after recent video appears to show him telling an audience how to breach the state capitol building and giving out his own phone number to aid the effort. He is also the one you might recall that left a side door open there just long enough for protesters to slip into the building while lawmakers were debating COVID health restrictions.

The vote to expel him was unanimous except of course for Nearman himself who was unapologetic about the incident. It's the first time in the history the Oregon House has expelled a member.

ROMANS: All right. An already severe drought out West worsening after another dry week with temperatures well above average. Four states now entirely under drought conditions, California, Oregon, Utah, Nevada. The Hoover Dam reservoir is at a record low level. The situation is expected to get worse over the next week with no rain in the areas that desperately need it.

And now, a reservoir shut down is pitting neighbor against neighbor in a water war.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov has more from the drought-stricken California/Oregon border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Laura, we are at the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. I'm literally standing on a lakebed, right here I'm supposed to be under four feet of water, there is not a drop in sight.

And this is indicative of the water crisis that's gripping the West. There is an unprecedented drought affecting western states but here on the California/Oregon border locals say the crisis is largely manmade.

At issue is the Bureau of Reclamations decision's to cut off water deliveries from the Klamath Basin, a large body of water here which delivers water to hundreds if not thousands of farmers in the region. Because of the unprecedented drought and because of the threat to two endangered fish species, the government decided not to release any water here for the first time in over a century. That's creating an economic disaster for some of the farmers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got an entire community that's feeling the pressure and the stress. You are looking at a fallow field because there has been no available irrigation water. If they get to see me tear up and get upset and the weight that it puts on them, it's not fair.

KAFANOV: It's also creating an ecological disaster for the wildlife refuge. So many different species of birds and other wildlife depend on areas like this to survive and this is very much hurting their chances of survival going forward.

There is a lot of different stakeholders with very understandable unique points of view, but unfortunately to solve this crisis, they all have to come together and reach some sort of agreement and in this increasingly divisive time that's simply not a reality and the cones sequence of that, well, you can see it all around me.

Christine, Laura, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Lucy, thank you. Those pictures are just incredible.

Now to a disturbing case out of Arkansas where a woman is suing a state trooper after he caused her car to flip over during a traffic stop. Dash cam video shows the officer trying to pull over Janice Nicole Harper, trying to pull her over for speeding. She tells CNN there was no room on the shoulder to safely stop.

You can see earlier, her hazard lights were turned on, but the officer still use that had dangerous maneuver that caused her car to crash. Harper was two months pregnant at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANICE NICOLE HARPER, SUING ARKANSAS POLICE AFTER THEY FLIPPED HER CAR: Just after he hit me the road kind of turned and it opens up and the shoulder does get bigger. There is more space. In my mind, I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing and I was -- I was trying to keep us both safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Harper says at the time she thought she had lost her baby but thankfully she delivered a healthy baby back in February. State police in Arkansas have not responded to CNN's request for comment on this. Just not proportional.

ROMANS: That's exactly right. You know, a pit maneuver is what I think it's called in law enforcement and what --

JARRETT: For speeding.

ROMANS: -- with her hazards on and clearly over to the side, why was -- why was stopping the car in such a dangerous manner necessary? I don't know. I guess the judge will decide that.

JARRETT: Yeah.

ROMANS: All right. The president's first G7 summit is about to begin, why he's comparing the global pandemic fight to World War II. CNN live in England.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:24:12]

ROMANS: Cruises are back and so is COVID. Two guests on a cruise ship with fully vaccinated crew and passengers have tested positive for COVID. Celebrity Cruise Lines says the positive test came on a seven- day cruise that departed from St. Maarten on Saturday. This was the first cruise ship allowing American passengers back on board.

Cruise ships were an early breeding ground for COVID at the start of the pandemic. And the industry was essentially docked for more than a year. The cruise line says the two passengers are asymptomatic and in isolation aboard the ship.

JARRETT: The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is in short supply and the government has shipped no doses in weeks. CNN has learned the holdup is directly linked to issues at the plant of a biopharmaceutical company in Baltimore. The facility is waiting for regulatory approval after millions of doses were contaminated at that site.

[05:25:00]

On Thursday, the FDA said it extended the shelf life for Johnson & Johnson vaccines from three months to four and a half months. That's good news because millions of doses were set to expire at the end of this month if they go unused.

ROMANS: A booming economy means a record number of help wanted signs in America, 9.3 million job openings in April. So where are the workers to fill them?

Well, 25 GOP led states are cutting get off extra jobless benefits early to try to lure people back to the job market. What are Democratic governors doing? They're keeping those extra jobless checks, that money goes right into their state economies but they're restarting work search requirements and telling the jobless they may lose those benefits this they don't accept suitable job offers.

At least two states, Colorado and Connecticut, are offering return to work bonuses, but bonuses and work search requirements may not address why people aren't rushing back to work.

Economists at the San Francisco Fed found jobless benefits are only a very small part of the problem. Child care, school and health concerns mean family responsibilities are holding millions of workers back and some people need help looking for work or getting to interviews and others a year into this pandemic don't want to go back to low wage jobs and that seems to be a real issue here -- the quality of life in some of these jobs. About half of these job openings we're told are in leisure and hospitality, restaurants and bars where there could be low pay.

I'll show you though, Laura, this got my attention this morning, this is the cover of "The New York Post", American idle. "The Post" casting this as fat and lazy Americans who don't want to go back to work, but clearly we know the reopening has been successful, the economy is booming stocks are at record highs and there is this dislocation at the labor market that needs to be worked out.

JARRETT: Well, I guess the question is, can you pay someone enough in a bonus to cover their child care expenses, right? Or to take care of them in a way that allows them to go back to work?

ROMANS: And, you know, there's been huge disruptions in the child care economy. There might not be that child care to go back to work. It's not as simple as something drinking Diet Cokes and eating bonbons and not wanting to go back to work. That's not --

JARRETT: That's not reality.

ROMANS: No.

JARRETT: All right. Is the former president being investigated for his role in the Capitol riots? Hear from the FBI director, next.

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