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Fierce Winds Expected To Stoke Fires Over Next Two Days; Judge Clears Way To Release Special Counsel Report On Election Case; New Optimism That Hostages-For-Ceasefire Deal Is In Sight. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 13, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:32:00]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Unfathomable devastation, immeasurable loss. Peggy Holter lived in her home for nearly half a century. Now that and everything she owned is gone.

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PEGGY HOLTER, LOST HOME IN PALISADES FIRES: I lived there since January 1st of 1978. People think, the Palisades as rich people, but it's not just rich people. It's older people who've lived in their homes since they cost, you know, $100,000.

So there are people who've lived there for 40 and 50 years, and now they've lost everything. My home was what I'd hoped to leave to my children. And now that's gone.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: Peggy, it's represented by Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who is joining me now. Lindsey Horvath also represents, in addition to Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Encino, Brentwood, Calabasas, and more.

Supervisor Horvath, thank you so much for being here. First, what is the situation on the ground? What are your biggest concerns at this hour?

LINDSEY HORVATH, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERVISOR: Well, right now we're going into a weather event that could mirror exactly what we saw last week. It's called a particularly dangerous situation, a PDS. It was upgraded from the red flag warning that we had yesterday. And so, it's a cause for serious concern for us on the ground.

We know that those who are on the front lines have been fighting this since last Tuesday morning. They faced those (technical difficulty) Wednesday, Thursday of last week. We hope that it doesn't get to that level, but we are seeing that there could be hurricane level winds. And so, it is very concerning at this time.

BASH: And what can you do now that didn't happen last week in terms of mitigation? Last week, of course, we saw countless homes and communities totally destroyed. Is there anything that you have now that you didn't have last week or that you need in the hours to come?

HORVATH: Well, I want to be very clear about what L.A. County did do in preparation for last week. We opened our emergency operations center in advance of the fire. We activated and deployed resources statewide before the fire ever broke out.

So on the L.A. County side, we were prepared. We have water redundancies to ensure that we do have water availability no matter the conditions. And what we now have in addition to all of that preparation that we've done on the county side, we have additional personnel here.

Not only those who will go on the front lines and they are from everywhere. I have seen firsthand at our command post the thousands of people who are on the front lines fighting this. We have the best, the brightest, the most capable and sophisticated firefighters from throughout the country.

And, in fact, throughout the region, we have folks coming in from Mexico. We have aircraft from Canada. We are deploying every resource we have available.

[12:35:03]

And so we are exceedingly prepared as much as we can be. But events like this are natural disasters and they're called so for a reason. They are not your typical conditions. And so we are doing all that we can in terms of preparation. And we hope that Mother Nature gives us a break a little bit, too.

BASH: Yes, I totally hear you on the fact that these are called natural disasters for a reason. And this is unprecedented when it comes to these suburban areas, these densely populated places where these fires are going.

I talked to one official earlier who said that it's the houses themselves that became the incinerators for other houses nearby. Having said that, you said that you were prepared before and yet we still saw so much devastation. What is your response to those who are your constituents, your residents, your neighbors who want political accountability?

HORVATH: People deserve answers. And that's why we are doing the best that we can to provide them in real time. And we are also already starting the process of documenting what we are learning in real time to create and inform our after action report.

The county, again, on our side of things, we had to contend with the Woolsey fire. And as a result of that fire, we learned that communication was an exceedingly bad problem. That's why we ran into trouble with evacuation in certain areas and communication was not centralized. So if you talk to the sheriff's department versus the fire department versus your county supervisor, you were getting different sets of information. We now have a unified communication through our Office of Emergency Management. We also learned that evacuation routes, depending on the path of wind travel, needed to be organized in different ways. We also learned that by bringing in personnel who didn't know some of the areas, you know, folks in these mountain communities in particular, they'll give you a landmark as a place of reference. They're not giving you cross streets.

And so to have people come in who really don't understand the landscape was also complicated. So what we've done is make sure that the people who really know the landscape in these very complicated areas are the ones who are on the front lines working with the community members.

And then we call in resources to, you know, hold some of the road closures or do some of the other things that don't require that hands on knowledge and communication with the residents who really understand these areas and then get confused when somebody doesn't know what's going on. So we've deployed resources in different ways from those lessons learned, and we will continue to do so going forward.

BASH: And last question is the water. What is your situation right now as you anticipate these winds to pick up and new fires to erupt? How equipped are you now to put out new fires in a way that you weren't? Is it just the help that you were talking about from Canada and from other regions inside the U.S.?

HORVATH: So again, on the county side, we have water redundancies. So we have several reservoirs. We have water agencies that we can call in water tanks and bring them into the area. We have coordinated this as a lesson learned from the Woolsey fire.

So in the areas that you saw where L.A. County has been the lead in terms of Topanga Canyon and in Malibu, a lot of those areas are served by -- the lead agency is the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and we have water redundancies.

We have tanks stationed strategically throughout the Santa Monica Mountains area. We are also able to bring in water resources from other regions, and we have activated all of those resources in preparation for this event.

We know that when the winds reach around 40 miles an hour in a sustained way or with the big gusts of wind, it grounds our aircraft too. So that adds to the complication that we see on the ground. But in terms of the water supply and all of the areas where we have been the lead agency on the public worksite, we have water redundancies that allow us to continue to have a water resource.

BASH: It's good to hear that. Good luck to you and to everybody there in the next day or two as the weather is not clearly on your side.

Lindsey Horvath, Los Angeles County supervisor, appreciate you being here.

HORVATH: Thank you.

BASH: And coming up, we are going to look at what could potentially be going on with regard to talks for a hostages for ceasefire deal, which officials on all sides continue to say is closed. We've heard that before. Some insist this time may be different. Let's hope so. Stay with us.

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[12:44:36]

BASH: We've breaking news right now, and that is a judge just cleared the way for the Justice Department to release the special counsel report into the Trump election subversion case. I want to go straight to CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid following this.

Paula, this is big news for a lot of reasons, especially who the judge is that decided to clear the way for this release.

[12:45:01]

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. You're referring to Trump appointed federal judge Aileen Cannon, which really surprised a lot of legal experts over the past few years with decisions she has made related to the special counsel's case.

Over the summer, she really shocked a lot of people by tossing the classified documents case entirely, saying the special counsel, Jack Smith, had not been properly appointed. That decision was appealed. But what we're looking for today is whether she would try to block both of Jack Smith's reports.

As a special counsel, he is required by regulation to submit reports detailing his investigative decisions to the attorney general. He has submitted two reports to Attorney General Merrick Garland, one on his investigation into alleged election interference and one into Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents.

And the classified documents report is not expected to be released anytime soon because that case is still active. Trump had co- defendants in that case. Their cases are still active even though Trump's has been dismissed. So all eyes are on the January 6th report.

And in this decision, just a few minutes ago, Judge Cannon, she cleared the way for this report to possibly be released. But in speaking with sources familiar with the Trump legal strategy, I would not be surprised if they appeal higher up the legal food chain to try to block this release.

Because even though sources on both sides of this case, Dana, tell me there's not a lot of news in this report. They've already had a committee investigation, a committee report, an indictment detailing the evidence and a really unusual release of a lot of evidence back in October in this case. The Trump team has made it clear they are going to fight Jack Smith and the Justice Department every step of the way. And so far, they have been extremely successful. They have managed to completely stave off this case and any consequences for their client.

So I'm waiting to hear back to see if they will appeal this to try to block this report, even though, again, we don't expect there's really going to be a lot of news in the January 6th report, the classified documents report. That could have some news, but that's not what we're waiting for right now.

BASH: All right, Paula, thank you so much for that.

I want to get right to Elie Honig. Elie, Paula just mentioned one of the questions I had for you, which is the appeals. Let's just go with the fact that the Trump legal team will appeal this. Hard to imagine they won't.

Then ultimately, it could get to the Supreme Court, this Supreme Court, which on a very different matter, but obviously it had a lot of political ramifications last week, said that the sentencing in the hush money trial could go forward for Donald Trump. Does that give you any sense of how it could go down if the Supreme Court gets this in their lap in the, you know, next couple of days?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Dana, I don't think Donald Trump's -- yes, I don't think Donald Trump's team has any legal standing here. I don't think they're going to succeed either at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals or even at the Supreme Court, because what the Trump team would essentially be asking to do here is to prohibit DOJ from releasing the January 6th special report.

That's separate, as Paula said, from a classified documents report. There is simply no legal basis on which a court can stop DOJ from releasing that. So first of all, the special counsel, Jack Smith, has to create that report. He's already done that. We know that.

Then it's up to the attorney general whether he wants to release it. And there's simply no legal basis for a court, whether the Supreme Court on down, to come in and say, no, attorney general, you cannot do that. More to the point, Donald Trump really can't show any ongoing prejudice here because he's already been dismissed from these two cases.

That's actually why the classified documents decision to hold that one back and to keep that one just with Congress, it's a different case because there's still two defendants live in that case. So, ultimately, I do think this report is going to come out. But then it's all about managing the calendar and the clock here.

If Donald Trump can hold this thing up another week, almost to the moment when he will become the next president, then his DOJ can choose not to release it. So just to sum up, I don't think he has any legal basis to get a court to stop it. But if he can gum things up for another seven days, then it becomes his DOJ. And I'm sure they will not release it. BASH: Yes, such a good point. Thank you so much, Elie.

And again, to Paula, and here at the table, that is the Trump strategy at the -- from the beginning of all of his legal troubles back when he first said that he was going to run for president, which is delay, delay, delay. And in the hopes that his candidacy, his political situation and ultimately his wish, and he got his wish, his status as president-elect would wipe it all away.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: No question. And look, one week right now in this hour --

BASH: Yes.

ZELENY: -- he will be the 47th president. Presumably by then, Pam Bondi, who's been nominated to lead the Department of Justice, her confirmation will be forthcoming. So there's not that much time to run out the clock, but they certainly will try and do that.

But it's just interesting that this ruling is coming from Judge Cannon now. You know, it just goes to show that, you know, she's acting independently, I guess. I mean, she's been his favorite. We'll see what -- how he responds to it.

[12:50:10]

BASH: Yes, she's -- and just for people who don't remember, she has been in charge of both of these cases, but particularly on January 6th and classified documents. She has ruled again and again and again, in a way that helped the Trump legal team slow walk a lot of this. She's a Trump appointee. I'm not saying that one has to do with the other, but she has been somebody who Donald Trump has been speaking very favorably of because of that.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Absolutely. And you know that when his favor changes, we're going to hear about it. But it isn't that much time. He's certainly going to try and run out the clock. But even were this to come out, if there isn't that much new information in it, people know about these cases. People have heard a lot about them.

It's not really clear what it does besides entered into the record in terms of his fortunes. And he'll be president in a week.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I would be interested to see what Pam Bondi says when she testifies on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Elie is probably right that they're -- they may not have a legal basis to stop it, but they could run out the clock.

What will she do if she gets confirmed? And what will she say when she's asked about this? Will she say, we're not going to release this report if I have the opportunity? Or will she muddy the waters? Will she not answer directly? That'll be an instructive exchange.

BASH: Yes. RAJU: Undoubtedly, that will come up.

BASH: Yes, no question. Wow. OK.

Coming up, we are going to go back to the news that we told you we might have this segment, but then we got other breaking news. We are going to look at the Israel-Hamas negotiations. What we're hearing from the White House as we speak, coming up.

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[12:56:03]

BASH: This just in, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is expressing new optimism that Israel and Hamas are very close to announcing a ceasefire and hostage release deal. Here he is just a few moments ago in the White House briefing room.

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JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We are close to a deal, and it can get done this week. I'm not making a promise or a prediction, but it is there for the taking, and we are going to work to make it happen.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: MJ Lee is now with us live from the White House. MJ, we have heard optimism before from the White House. There are lots of differences between then and now, not the least of which is that, according to your reporting, the Biden White House is working with the incoming Trump White House, because everybody wants this done in the next few days.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Dana, you're not wrong that we have been here before, where we have sensed momentum, sensed cautious optimism, and having covered this conflict for over a year from the White House, I will say this is the first time that we have sensed this kind of serious optimism from American officials in many, many months.

What sources are telling us is that American officials at this moment in time do believe that there is a deal in sight. Now, of course, nothing is final until it is final. These sources that are involved are always going to be cautiously, and emphasis on that word, cautiously optimistic, but there is a real belief that a ceasefire and a hostages release deal could get done and could be announced in the coming days in the very final week of Joe Biden's presidency.

And just to give you a sense of what these negotiations have actually looked like in practice on the ground, we know that President Biden's Middle East coordinator, Brett McGurk, has been in the region for at least the last week or so, and incoming President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has joined him for the last several days. And the two men have actually been working together and have been closely engaged in trying to hammer out sort of these last-minute final obstacles to getting to a deal. They've even had joint phone calls, I'm told, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Just gives you a really interesting sense of how the two teams are working together in these final days of the Biden administration.

Now, we heard what Jake Sullivan just told reporters in the White House briefing room. He, of course, has been intimately involved speaking just today with the Qatari prime minister and David Barnea, of course, the head of the Mossad. Biden himself, the president, has spoken with the emir of Qatar earlier today as well.

I think we just cannot underestimate the will and the sheer desire by the incoming president to get this conflict resolved before he takes office. He has said publicly all hell is going to break loose in the region if that doesn't get done before January 20th. It's not a coincidence that we are seeing his incoming national security team so closely involved.

I mean, given how much this has cost politically President Biden, I think it's not hard to imagine why President Trump, as he is coming in, would like to avoid this war continuing to go on --

BASH: Yes.

LEE: -- as he is getting ready to take office.

BASH: Yes. And the pressure that Donald Trump is putting on not just Israel but Hamas is really, really key in all of these discussions.

Real quick, this time, one week from now, Donald Trump will be president. And that means that Joe Biden has one week left and he is going to make a series of speeches. Today is on foreign policy. Real quick, what do we know about that?

LEE: Yes, I mean, first of all, of course, we expect that President Biden is going to touch on this issue, the situation in Israel and Gaza, and just the U.S.'s enduring support for Israel throughout this time. He's going to, of course, point to the conflict in Ukraine as well as another example of the U.S.'s continuing support for democracies around the world.

Just keep in mind, he is going to argue that when he came into office four years ago, the world was a different place then, and that he really made a promise to the American people and to world leaders across the globe that he was going to restore American leadership.

And based on everything we had heard, he is going to argue that he has successfully done that over the last four years, Dana.

BASH: Thank you so much, MJ.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics on this very busy Monday. CNN News Central starts after the break.