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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Justice Department Releases New Batch Of Epstein Files Overnight; Zelenskyy: Russia Launches "Massive" Aerial Attack On Ukraine; Record Number Of Air Travelers As Holiday Rush Begins In U.S.; CNN Poll Finds Many Voters Already Looking To 2028 Election. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired December 23, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:37]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the us and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon pleasure to be back with you. It is Tuesday, December 23rd, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And we begin this morning with breaking news. U.S. Justice Department has just released a new trove of the Epstein files, posting a slew of heavily redacted emails and documents related to the investigation overnight. Now, right now, CNN teams are reviewing those documents, and we will bring you those updates just as soon as we have them in the coming hours.

Meanwhile, the U.S. public and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say that they are outraged with what has come out so far. Democrats and Republicans are threatening to hold the Justice Department in contempt for failing to release the files in full by the legal deadline. The top Senate Democrat calls it a, quote, blatant cover-up, adding it shields Donald Trump from accountability.

Now, for his part, the U.S. president is bemoaning the fact that the partial file release is ruining people's reputations. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are the best in the world. They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built. The U.S. Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I'm a very esthetic person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now, more than a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse have slammed what they call the department's, quote, "abnormal and extreme redactions, with no explanations," end quote. The Justice Department says that it withheld information out of extreme caution to protect victims. But one survivor who identifies herself as Jane Doe, tells CNN that she was shocked to find that her name appeared multiple times in the released files. In a statement, survivors say that the lack of clear communication from the Justice Department suggests that its intent to keep survivors and the public in the dark.

Now, let's go to CNN's Katelyn Polantz with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:06:50]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

We want to return now to our breaking news. The U.S. Justice Department has just released a new trove of the Epstein files, hosting a slew of heavily redacted emails and documents related to the investigation overnight. Now, if you're just joining us, just a reminder that right now, our CNN teams are reviewing those documents.

We plan to bring you those updates just as soon as we have them. In the meantime, let's go to CNN's Katelyn Polantz with more on the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Nobody's happy with the Justice Department's release of the Epstein files, not the victims, not the members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and not the people, the general public who have so long demanded this release, including many people on social media who have been fact checking the attorney general and the deputy attorney general in real time when they are saying they are making transparent decisions around these documents.

This is a moment that is several days after the deadline that Congress set for the Justice Department to release the Epstein files and the Justice Department, they're just not done with the work. And then they've also selectively put out certain things and not processed other documents. That's created a situation where people like former President Bill Clinton say that this is an issue where they are insinuating with their choices of release, to accuse people of things that are just not factually correct. People who had been cleared previously, including former President Clinton, who has never been charged with a crime or accused of wrongdoing related to Jeffrey Epstein.

Now, whether there have been distinct choices made by the Justice Department on what to release first and not, we don't know the answer to that. But there are choices the justice department is making to hold back information. Right now that has not been spelled out in the law. That includes redacting. So blacking out information related to survivors of Epstein, the victims, and that category of possible victims is very, very large.

The Justice Department said they're going to err on the side of caution and redact. All women appearing in photos with Epstein because they don't have the ability to determine who may be a victim or not at this time. That's a lot of extra separate work. The other thing that they're redacting is what the Justice Department says are privileges. That's not something spelled out in the law, either, but it is something that the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, has told Congress they believe the justice department can do, keeping back attorney client work, product communications, deliberations inside the executive branch, the sort of thing that people often go to court and examine and challenge.

We'll see exactly if there will be lawsuits. We do know that at least one Democratic senator, the senate minority leader, he has said that he is interested in suing over this or going to court in some way. We also know that the members of the House on both sides, a Republican and a Democrat who called for transparency around this, they say that they want to hold the attorney general in contempt, but whether any member of Congress can do something like that still remains to be seen. There is a long road ahead, even to get the end of these files.

[05:10:03]

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Jess Michaels is the lead writer of a new statement from Epstein survivors. The statement raises multiple concerns about the way the release of files has been handled. She explained to CNN that no one from the Justice Department reached out to survivors for their input.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESS MICHAELS, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: To me, what we're seeing is just an incredibly sloppy and inconsistent and thoughtless process that is that is been done to try to redact names or leaving things haphazardly unredacted. I felt very strongly that this was a clear cut, black and white moment. Friday, December 19th at 1159. If all of the files had not been released publicly, this DOJ had broken the law. The law that took an act of congress to pass and that the president signed.

And to me, that is a point we need to keep talking about. We want to see financial records. We want to see all of the -- the long list of indictments. Indictments for Jeffrey Epstein back in that sweetheart deal, the Alex Acosta deal. We want to see all of that paperwork because it proves the negligence that we've been with -- that we've been talking about all along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now to the latest confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela. The U.S. military says that one person was killed in a strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern pacific. And that brings the death toll to 105 since the start of Operation Southern Spear in early September.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is again warning Venezuela's president to step down. He says that if Nicolas Maduro wants to play tough, it will be the last time he's ever able to play tough. Trump confirmed that the U.S. is still an active pursuit of an oil tanker near Venezuela, accused of carrying sanctioned oil. Now, if the U.S. seizes it, the ship would be the third taken by American forces since early December. President Trump's comments come as he announced plans for a new fleet of, quote, Trump class battleships for the U.S. Navy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are the best in the world. They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built. The U.S. Navy will lead the design of these ships along with me, because I'm a very esthetic person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: The president says he envisions building 20 to 25 of the new ships as part of what he calls the Navy's Golden Fleet.

The Ukrainian president says that Russia has launched a, quote, massive aerial attack on at least 13 regions of Ukraine that killed at least three people, and he says that it's not over yet. Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X that more than 650 drones and 30 missiles were used in the airstrikes. He had warned of possible Russian attacks during Christmas.

Now, earlier, President Zelenskyy had expressed some optimism about negotiations on ending the war. He said, quote, we are very close to a real outcome. Following those talks in Miami, adding that there are still certain points that Ukraine is not prepared to accept and that he's sure that the same is true for Russia.

Let's get now to CNN's Clare Sebastian, who is live for us following all of this in London.

Clare, good to see you again. So, what is the Kremlin's view of these talks? Are they feeling as optimistic?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, definitely not real. They have been signaling even before the latest round of talks that happened in Miami over the weekend between the U.S. and Ukraine and the Europeans, on the one hand, and then between the U.S. and Russia, they had already signaled that they were likely to find a lot of the changes to the peace document that came out of that are unacceptable.

And we're hearing similar noises. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, saying yesterday in an interview to Russian newspaper Izvestia, refuting essentially the language used by J.D. Vance, the U.S. vice president, that there had been some kind of breakthrough, saying, no, this is not a breakthrough. This is a work in progress. He said and, you know, we need a lot more work to happen at expert level.

So, I think there's some snowballing there. Russia I think certainly by their actions overnight and in words as well, has made it clear that they refute any idea of a ceasefire so that these negotiations don't have to happen. Essentially under the gun, under bombs and explosions, which have become an almost daily reality for Ukraine.

But look, on the U.S. and Ukrainian track of these negotiations, which has involved the Europeans, we are seeing positive noises coming from President Zelensky. Take a listen to what he had to say on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: And here it is important that this is the work of both us and the United States of America. This suggests that we are very close to a real result. And the first draft of the agreement on the recovery of Ukraine has also been worked out. An economic strategy, so to speak, that is in principle the basic block of all documents, in my opinion, is ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, we're talking about a number of different documents that are under discussion. Now, there's, of course, the 20 point peace plan that is being worked on. There's the issue of sort of economic recovery and resilience for Ukraine. And then there's two different documents on security guarantees as we understand it, one involving the Europeans and a separate one involving the U.S.

And I think this is where you can see real progress, even though were not seeing Russia and Ukraine actually come together for peace talks at this point. And I certainly think the sense that were getting from the Ukrainian side and the Europeans is that if they can all come to a point where they've done enough work on these documents that they all agree, and then they present it to Russia and Russia, as it has signaled it might roundly rejects it, then that is the point at which pressure really needs to step up on Russia.

Don't forget, they are already under new U.S. sanctions that came in in the last couple of months on their oil giants. They are having an impact. I think potentially, although we don't know, can't rule out that the U.S. could go further if these talks stall again because of Russia's intransigence.

SOLOMON: So it sounds like progress, but perhaps not a, quote, breakthrough, at least according to the Russians.

Clare Sebastian live for us there in London, Clare, thank you.

It will be a warm Christmas for many Americans across the central and southern U.S. this week. Some places are set to see temperatures as high as 30 degrees above normal. But the West Coast, well, they're more concerned with heavy rain and the threat of flooding set to begin in the coming hours. Parts of southern California are forecast to reach a rare, high risk threat level.

Ahead of that, evacuation warnings have been issued in parts of Los Angeles County near burn scars. Now this all comes after northern California was hit with severe weather over the weekend. One county seeing nearly a month worth of rain fall in just two days.

And holiday travel is well underway across the U.S. and according to Airlines for America, about 52.6 million people are expected to pass through airports this season.

CNN's Pete Muntean has the latest on what travelers can expect. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Travel on Monday. Looking pretty good here at Reagan national airport and at airports across the country. The TSA says it screened 2.8 million people at airports on Friday and then again on Saturday, and then again on Sunday.

Monday, not anticipated to break any records. But what happens is during the holiday travel rush. So spread out that the numbers are pretty big overall. Take a look here at the baggage drop off point at the terminal two north end for American Airlines. Things have really picked up here as so many folks are getting moving. It's the evening when things are happening a lot at airports across the country, and AAA warns us that if you are going to one of these airports during this holiday travel rush, you should build in some extra time driving into the airport, because we've seen traffic build at airports over and over again.

If you're driving just in general, the worst times to drive according to AAA are between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. your local time, so you should try and avoid driving then. And on Monday and on Tuesday, those numbers will be especially tough because its a lot of folks not only traveling for the holiday, but also work commutes, because it's still a workday for a lot of folks.

Now back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right. Pete, thank you.

New CNN polling shows many Americans are already looking forward to the next presidential election in 2028. It will be the first since 2016 without a sitting president on the ballot for reelection.

Our Jeff Zeleny breaks down who's at the top of mind for some voters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Half of all Americans say that they have the 2028 presidential election already on their minds. Yes, we are just in the final days of 2025, but that does not mean the competition is not already starting for 2028. A new CNN poll shows a fascinating place where this is beginning. Let's look at the Republicans first. Now, yes, it's true that Vice President J.D. Vance is largely thought to be the heir apparent. Of course, he is almost certain to have competition as well. Twenty-two percent of respondents say that they now favor him for a presidential candidate. They would like to see him run again.

But look at that number of people who really have no one in mind. More than six in 10 Americans say that they do not have anyone in mind on the Republican side of the ticket. Marco Rubio, of course, a small percentage there as well.

But on the Democratic side also so very interesting, asked an open ended question about who Democrats would like to see run. California Governor Gavin Newsom leads the pack in that respect with some 11 percent. Perhaps not surprising because he has been in the news so much this year with his redistricting fight been leading the way. As far as Democrats go, pushing back against the Trump administration. But he's ahead of even former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Now, we should point out this is going to be the first open contest without a sitting president since 2016. But for the Democratic side, it could be one of the most wide open in nearly three decades. Why is that? There is no clear leader. There is no major candidate.

Think back to a 2008, if you will. Hillary Clinton, a big name. She was the major candidate. Of course, she did not go on to win the nomination then.

[05:20:00]

A young Illinois Senator, Barack Obama did, before she went on to become the nominee in 2016.

So as we take a breath and end 2025, looking ahead to 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential campaign, there is no doubt that Democrats are more interested right now than Republicans. And thinking ahead to that presidential campaign, but it is a wide open race. There's no doubt about it.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: All right, Jeff, thank you.

George Conway, meantime, throwing his hat in the ring to be a congressman for New York. The lawyer and outspoken Trump critic has joined the Democratic primary for New York's 12th congressional district, which is currently represented by Jerry Nadler. It's a crowded race, though, with at least nine other Democrats running for the seat, including Jack Schlossberg, grandson of former President John F. Kennedy.

Still ahead for us, a flight from Mexico carrying burn victims has crashed in Texas. We'll have details on the tragic incident coming up next.

Then, why one of Israel's oldest media outlets will soon be knocked off the air.

We'll be right back after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05SOLOMON: Welcome back.

At least five people, including a two-year-old child, were killed when a Mexican naval plane crashed in Texas. The plane was transporting burn victims and went down in the waters of Galveston Bay on Monday afternoon. That's according to officials there. Mexican navy says that eight people were on board, four naval crew members and four civilians. Search and rescue crews recovered two people alive, but one person they say is still unaccounted for.

A witness to the crash described weather conditions at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not a pilot. But I can tell you right now, I don't know how these guys do it on a daily basis. It was a very, very, very low visibility. I mean, low enough visibility where you really can't even see the high lines or see the causeway. And that's why we thought it was a wreck on the causeway because you couldn't see anything. You could hear something, but you didn't know what. You didn't know what you heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: In other news, this morning, one of Israel's oldest media institutions will soon be off the air. After 75 years, the Israeli government is pulling the plug on the country's Army Radio come March, and that's raising concerns over press freedom. The attorney general called the decision part of a broader move to undermine public broadcasting and restrict freedom of expression. Army Radio is a unit of the Israeli military, but also has a vibrant news department operated by soldiers and civilian journalists. Several media and civil society groups say that they will challenge the decision before the Supreme Court.

Also, another controversial new law from the Knesset affecting foreign media. Let's get to CNN's Matthew Chance, who is live for us in Jerusalem with details.

Matthew, let's start with Army Radio. What more can you share with us there?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, look, it's an army station, which has been, as you mentioned, around for 75 years. And so, it's sort of got this very traditional status in Israel, and people use it as a source of information about what's going on in various military operations and a source of information about government policy. It's got some very popular shows on it, even though its run by the military, and often shows that carry voices that are critical of Israeli policy and Israeli military as well.

And so that's why it's being its closure is being seen as a sort of another attempt by the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to sort of muzzle the media in some way. Now, the Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu has come out and said, look, the reason for this closure is its only countries like North Korea and other countries that have you know, media institutions that are controlled by army command.

And Israel as a democracy doesn't need to be part of that. That group of countries. But again, you know, you know, press freedom activists, the opposition in this country, very critical, are concerned about how this is part of a broader crackdown on the independent media. The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, has said that. Look, you know, the

government doesn't know how to deal with the cost-of-living issues. It doesn't know how to deal with neglect of security. And so, it shuts down the media. And so that that's why the closure of Army Radio here is seen as so controversial -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: And, Matthew, happening at the same time. This extension of what's been called the Al Jazeera Law. What's happening there?

CHANCE: Yeah. I mean this is another example of, you know, how the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu is accused of trying to muzzle the media, the Al Jazeera Law is a set of, you know, it's a legislation which was which was, which was put out, you know, to, you know, to basically control the foreign media to kick out any media organizations that were seen as being, a concrete -- I'm trying to think of the, quote, a concrete threat to national security. That's the criteria for closing down these media organizations.

And it's been applied to Al Jazeera, the Qatar based media channel, already after Israeli officials accused its coverage of the Gaza war of being hostile, and biased. Now it's meant to be an emergency measure during times of war. But what's happened now is the Israeli government has extended those powers up through 2027, even when Israel is not at war.

And so, again, that's fueled concerns of the Israeli government, you know, really kind of trying to control the media landscape. And of course, it all comes against the backdrop of an increasingly hostile environment for journalists working both in Israel and in the Palestinian territories as well, for instance, in Gaza in the past couple of years, since the war has been on there more than 200 journalists and media workers have been killed in that conflict. And so, you know, that's the context in which we can see these recent developments -- Rahel.

SOLOMON: Matthew Chance, appreciate the reporting live for us there in Jerusalem -- Matthew, thank you.

All right. Still ahead, intense scrutiny on CBS as the news boss shelves a "60 Minutes" segment. We'll bring you those details.