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FBI Obtains Warrant to Search Clinton Aide's Emails. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired October 31, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the reason why they're investigating whether it affects the case that the FBI thought was completed back in July when the FBI director, James Comey, recommended that no charges be brought against Clinton or anyone else.

[07:00:20] Investigators found the e-mails weeks ago. Stumbling on them as they conducted an investigation on Abedin's estranged husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner. He's under investigation for allegedly exchanging sexually explicit messages with an underage girl.

That's leading to questions from the Clinton campaign about why all of this only became public on Friday when Comey sent a letter to Congress days before the presidential election. Law-enforcement officials tell CNN that investigators spent the past month doing a lot of work, trying to figure out how big of a deal this was. Technical experts spent time cataloguing the e-mails, analyzing metadata to determine that a significant number of the e-mails appeared to have gone through the Clinton server. But they were constrained by the fact that were operating under an existing search warrant that was limited to the Weiner sexting case.

Officials tell me they saw enough in the e-mails to know that there may be classified information in them and that some may not have been reviewed before. Some of them might have been deleted before.

Despite calls from the Clinton campaign and from Republicans to provide more information, Comey right now has no plans to say more while investigators are still doing their work -- Chris and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting, Evan. Thank you for that update.

So the FBI director is under fire from the left and some on the right with this move. This new e-mail probe is, of course, eclipsing other issues in this last week of the political race.

CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar is live in Washington with more. Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It really is unprecedented what this -- what's going on here, Alisyn. There's never been a major party candidate going in this close to the election who is under this cloud of FBI scrutiny. And so you have the Clinton campaign really stunned by this new development, trying to change the narrative and taking aim at FBI Director James Comey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election.

KEILAR (voice-over): Shockwaves through Hillary Clinton's campaign following a surprise letter Friday from FBI Director James Comey.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If she never heard the word "e-mail," do you think she'd be a very happy woman today?

KEILAR: Comey notifying members of Congress that the bureau discovered e-mails that appear to be pertinent to the now-closed Clinton server investigation. Those e-mails found on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the husband of Clinton's long-time aide, Huma Abedin, currently under investigation for sexting with a purportedly underage girl.

Comey can't say if the e-mails are significant. They could even be duplicates of those already reviewed. Now Democrats and some Republicans are criticizing Comey's decision to go public as political, worrying it could tip the scales in Trump's favor.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is an unprecedented move, as your folks were describing earlier, because it happens close to an election, which is in violation of normal Justice Department protocol, and it involves talking about an ongoing investigation, which also violates the protocol.

KEILAR: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid penning a damning letter to Comey, alleging that he, quote, "may have broken the law by violating the Hatch Act," a law that prohibits federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity. As 100 former federal prosecutors and high-ranking Justice Department officials, Democrats and Republicans, sign a letter criticizing Comey's actions.

TRUMP: Hillary has nobody to blame but herself. Her criminal action was willful, deliberate, intentional and purposeful.

KEILAR: But Trump's campaign hoping to capitalize on the issue.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We commend the FBI and the director on their decision to keep their word to the Congress and move forward.

KEILAR: House Speaker Paul Ryan called Comey's move, quote, "long overdue," and he's renewing his call to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved.

Clinton remaining confident that she is in the clear.

CLINTON: We've called on Director Comey to explain everything right away, put it all out on the table. Of course, Donald Trump is already making up lies about this.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KEILAR: Clinton is getting some backup from some big guns, including Eric Holder, former attorney general in the Obama administration. He is penning an op-ed that appears in today's "Washington Post." In part of it, he says he's deeply concerned by what he calls "a vague letter to Congress." He says the decision by Comey was incorrect.

And he also says that it violates rules. One being, you don't talk about an ongoing investigation. And the second one that -- that Holder put in place himself, which was not to take unnecessary action very close to an election. Is this unnecessary? That is really something we don't know. A lot of unanswered questions.

[07:05:10] CUOMO: All right, thank you very much, Brianna.

Let's bring back the panel. Evan Perez; out political pane: CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich; CNN political analyst and "New York Times" national political reporter, Alex Burns; and "Washington Post" reporter Abby Philip.

Evan, as the justice reporter for us here, everybody says who knows anything about the situation that Comey is dealing with a lot of political pressure in house and out of house. How true is that?

PEREZ: Boy, he's in the middle of all of this, Chris. He's getting -- you're right, he's getting pressure both inside his organization and outside.

Now inside, there's a lot of palace intrigue. Look, there's -- the problem here is that there is a New York field office which first began handling the Clinton matter, the e-mail server investigation, and it was moved to headquarters where Comey was closely monitoring the investigation.

There's a lot of people in New York who are very angry about that, and they, frankly, are getting a little bit of revenge now, which you see in some of these stories that are out over the weekend.

There's also some disagreement behind the scenes about whether or not the FBI has been going hard enough on the Clinton Foundation. There's some agents who have been wanting to send subpoenas and do more investigative work, while others, including people at the Justice Department, feel that there just is not enough proof there to warrant more activity.

So he's been facing all of this and managing all of this. And now you have this Anthony Weiner sexting investigation, and that's why we're here where we are. Because of these new revelations that -- that really prompted the FBI to take a further look at this, at what we thought was a closed case.

CAMEROTA: Alex, in Comey's defense, he -- if he was worried about leaks from agents or whomever coming out, he wanted to get ahead of that. That makes sense. And he also promised Congress if there are more developments on this, "I promised you that this investigation is completed, but if there are more developments, I will come back and update you."

Didn't he have to send this letter to them, given that he had learned there were new developments?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, one of things that's sort of special about the American justice system is that there's very little that the FBI director has to do in terms of responding to political pressure or responding to the demands of, you know, just moment to moment news.

But yes, I think you can see -- certainly see why his thinking would have led him to behave as he did. And I think one of the big questions is did he anticipate that it would set off this kind of nuclear bomb in the political scene if he felt that he was essentially doing the most cautious and conservative version of the various actions that he could have taken?

You know, put yourself in his shoes. You could also imagine sending that letter and keeping it minimalist for a reason: to not introduce too much information into the mix.

CUOMO: He had no duty to send a letter to Congress, period.

CAMEROTA: No, but he promised them he would, is what I'm saying.

CUOMO: He promised if there was a development. So, if it had leaked. "Hey, we hear you're looking at these e-mails."

"Yes, they are. They have some. If anything comes out of them, I'll tell you."

That's the way the FBI usually works, if you get anything out of them at all. So there's no question that he's playing politics with this. We'll see how it turns out. May lead to needing a special prosecutor, if Hillary Clinton becomes president, because if he brings a case -- if he doesn't bring a case, he really looks like a fool. If he brings a case, who's going to try it? She can't put someone in at the A.G., because it's an inherent conflict, because they're going to wind up bringing a case, or not, against her.

So, you've got to keep lynch. She's compromised because of the political optics of this. So you're going to hear Congress asking for a special prosecutor, which has to be Hillary Clinton's biggest fears.

Donald Trump, though, playing this perfectly: "I think they found the deleted e-mails." He can say it. No basis for it, but he can say it. "This is worse than since Watergate." That's, you know, B.S., but he can say it. "Intentional acts by Clinton." He can say it.

But what is he not doing? Where is Donald Trump this morning? Not on TV. This is the best move of his campaign. My opinion. That they don't have him on TV this morning where he could screw this up.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Because this letter was so vague, it does kind of become a choose your own adventure. I mean, we're talking about special prosecutors. We don't know what are in these e-mails at this point. You don't know a lot of things.

CUOMO: You don't have to know to ask for a special prosecutor.

KUCINICH: No, you don't. But what I'm saying is that, because the language was so vague, it does leave open to -- a lot to the imagination. And Donald Trump is taking and running with that and using it to inflict maximum political damage eight days out. It's starting 11 days out and, you know, you have to imagine if the shoe was on the other foot, Hillary Clinton would be doing the exact same thing.

CUOMO: But Trump usually would be on TV.

KUCINICH: But the hardest thing about this for the Clinton campaign is that they don't even know what they're defending against at this point. And you saw that play out on the Sunday shows over the weekend, where they really -- they're saying that nothing's wrong. But do they really know what they're being -- what they're being charged with or not charged with? There are so many unknowns. It's really put them in a bad spot.

[07:10:02] CAMEROTA: Abby, is the word -- the term "special prosecutor" enough to repel some Democrats from the polls?

ABBY PHILLIP, REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": Well, you know, I talked to some Democrats over the weekend, and many of them are worried about this in a very narrow sense. That for people who are already kind of unsure, on the fence, about Hillary Clinton, they're worried about the so-called Clinton scandals. This plays into that narrative, that not only is this a feature of the candidate, but that it would be a feature of the candidate's presidency.

And so, there is a potential for this to sort of depress or even potentially delay votes. Because what we're talking about here is, in many states, particularly in these battleground states, people who are already going to the polls, who are making decisions every single day about whether they're going to go to the polls and vote for Hillary Clinton.

The Clinton campaign wants those people to go immediately. And I think there's no question that's news like this can have a potentially depressive effect. We know, for a fact, that on Saturday, for example, it did not necessarily, in some of these states, slow down early voting. But this story is just developing. It's just getting started, and I expect it to continue in a way that is really unfavorable to the Clinton campaign at this point.

We now have a number that Trump is working with: 650,000 e-mails. How he characterizes it is not always necessarily the most accurate. But...

CUOMO: Not always necessarily the most accurate.

PHILIP: He's using it as a lever.

CUOMO: Understatement of the day, Abby Philip. CAMEROTA: Evan, Evan, just to make sure that I heard you right, did

-- is your new reporting that James Comey does not plan to update voters in the next eight days?

PEREZ: He has absolutely no plan to speak out. I think they're going to put him behind a closed door and lock the door and throw away the key, if they have any choice at the FBI headquarters.

Look, they don't know a lot about what is -- about what's going on. They still don't know the content of a lot of these e-mails.

CAMEROTA: But they could learn it. I mean, but Evan, they could learn it. They have a warrant now. They could learn something in the next eight days.

PEREZ: They could learn. But then -- then in order to figure out whether there is classified information, they have to bring in the CIA and other agencies to review this. This is stuff that takes a while.

Plus, you probably have to re-interview Huma Abedin. That's another thing that has to happen before you can wrap this up. I don't think it's incumbent upon Comey to give an incomplete update, when he's probably still going to get criticized if he does that.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

So, as we have been discussing -- Chris is exhausted. Donald Trump is seizing on this new e-mail Clinton probe, claiming it's bigger than Watergate. Is he going too far? We'll talk to Trump's senior communication's adviser, next.

We have a lot of understated statements today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:16:50] CUOMO: Donald Trump jumping on the news that the FBI is reviewing e-mails from a top Clinton aide, saying it's the worst thing, even worse than Watergate. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We all know about Hillary's mounting legal troubles. That she has brought on to herself with her serial, willful, purposeful and deliberate criminal conduct. This is the single biggest Watergate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Let's discuss with Jason Miller, senior communications adviser for the Trump campaign.

Worst scandal since Watergate. Fair point. Scandal doesn't have any legal meaning. But it being worse than Watergate. Watergate was a crime. You know, what, you have a conspiracy of 48 people.

Is there any line that you're in danger of crossing in terms of how you describe what's going on with Clinton versus Nixon? JASON MILLER, SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well,

Chris, good morning. And thank you very much for having me.

CUOMO: Always.

MILLER: Thank you. But what I think we're going to find as this investigation concludes and we finally find out everything that went into this, from the intent to what was actually carried out, that Mr. Trump will be proven exactly right.

I mean, keep in mind: this is a case we're talking about where already we've had five different people take the Fifth Amendment in this whole system. And keep in mind, yes, we're talking about the State Department, and we're talking about e-mails that were set up, and confidential and classified information and top-secret information that the different devices, the national security risks that were exposed, the extreme carelessness that we've seen.

But here's why this matters to the American voter. The fact that you have this system that was deliberately set up to go around the norm so things couldn't be filleted (ph) and things couldn't be looked at, ultimately, tying back into the Clinton Foundation and the Clintons themselves getting rich.

And so, you have everything from national security secrets to the Clintons going from dead broke when they left the White House to being worth hundreds of millions of dollars without so much as building or inventing anything.

This thing runs so deep, and it goes to the core of why Americans are frustrated with Washington. Quite frankly, this then goes toward that movement of why Mr. Trump is essentially -- has become so big, because people want to change, and they want to do something different in Washington.

CUOMO: Compelling, except there is no proof of any crime. You say when this is all over he'll be proven right. You believe that what Comey's guys are looking at right now, 600-plus thousand mails. They don't know how many are Huma's. But you think there's going to be proof in there of intentional conduct by Hillary Clinton to take classified information and put it places where she knew she shouldn't?

MILLER: Well, again, the -- I don't work at the FBI or the DOJ.

CUOMO: You just said, that's why I'm asking. You just said, when it's conducted, he'll be proven right.

MILLER: I'm saying the...

CUOMO: Trump says she intentionally broke the law. You think that that's what they're going to show?

MILLER: Well, I think when you go through and when you combine everything with the ultimate Clinton Foundation and the pay-for-play that we saw with the memo last week with Doug Band, and here's how we can make upwards of $66 million. And keep in mind, don't just listen to what I'm saying. The fact that

the Clinton Foundation had to go and hire outside legal counsel to see if this for-profit enterprise would go and jeopardize their tax status shows that there was an intent with this organization and with the way it was set to go and make money.

CUOMO: The foundation wasn't for profit. You're saying that Hillary -- that Bill Clinton's making money through Doug Band as his agent was for-profit, just to be clear.

MILLER: Absolutely, yes. But what I'm saying is that what the result, then, of all of this was that you had confidential and classified information and things like that going outside through this whole system on the secured e-mail system.

CUOMO: None of this seems to be a crime. All of it has been reviewed except what we're waiting for right now. And I'm just saying, where is the basis to say, "They just recovered those deleted e-mails. It's intentional actions to break the law by Hillary Clinton." That's what your candidate has been saying. There's no proof of any of that.

MILLER: Well, I think when this is concluded. Obviously, there are the issues of classified and confidential material being put out there. But then, there are also issues of obstruction of justice. And to what lengths is it clear when we come out of this that there were intentional steps to go around the conventional system for the specific goal of evading existing laws and regulations.

And I think it will be very clear when this is concluded that that was the intent; that was the effort. I mean, I think there are a number of things in this investigation that are worth pointing out, as well. The fact that we've gotten this far into the process, and we're just now finding a laptop that has 650,000 e-mails on it, thousands of which has been reported or estimated, I should say...

CUOMO: You guys are using that 650 number as if they're all Huma Abedin's, though. You don't mean to do that, do you? There's zero chance that they're all hers. Zero. All our sources from inside the FBI say exactly that. It's his computer. There are plenty there that are hers, enough that they went for a warrant to independently review them. Nobody is disputing that. But 650, is that the right number to use?

MILLER: Well, Chris, you read the same "Wall Street Journal" report as I did last night, which said that there were 650,000 e-mails on the computer...

CUOMO: Right.

MILLER: ... thousands of which, at least thousands of which...

CUOMO: That's accurate.

MILLER: As was the 650,000.

CUOMO: Yes, but you were ascribing them to Huma. But, let me -- let me switch topics here real quickly, because I want you to be able to respond to this instead of it just being a spin cycle. Clinton has a new ad out, smacks of something I suggest we saw in the '60s, the daisy ad about nuclear weapons. This time, it's directed at your candidate. Let's take a look and get your comment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I'm Hillary Clinton, and I approve this message.

MONIQUE LUIZ, ACTED IN 1964 "DAISY" AD: This was me in 1964. The fear of nuclear war that we had as children, I never thought our children would ever have to deal with that again. And to see that coming forward in this election is really scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump asked three times...

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: Three times, why can't we use nuclear weapons?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I want to be unpredictable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What safeguards are there to stop any president who may not be stable from launching a nuclear attack?

MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER HEAD OF THE CIA AND NSA: The commander in chief is the commander in chief.

TRUMP: Bomb the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now, what's the thrust of the ad? That it's one thing to play fast and loose with the facts about an e-mail investigation. But when he's quick, and someone suggested without thinking, even his old buddy, Joe Scarborough in that ad saying he doesn't think through these things. That's too risky when it comes to nuclear capability. Fair criticism?

MILLER: I think the ad is a sad and a desperate attempt, with a week to go in this election, to try to get attention away from this e-mail and FBI investigation.

The fact of the matter is, the world has become a less safe place during the Obama and Clinton administration. You look at Secretary Clinton's role with pulling out of Iraq. You look at what's happened with Libya and Syria and, quite frankly, the rise of ISIS on her watch. These are specific things that we can point to where the world has become a less safe place.

CUOMO: But why should it not concern voters if they're going to elect a man president who has said several times in the past, "Well, maybe we should use nukes in a situation like that" and has been casual in references about who should have nuclear capabilities and whether or not it should become part of the current status of how we deal with situations. Why should that not be troubling? MILLER: Chris, I've got to set you straight. He hasn't said that

maybe we should use nukes. He's talked about -- and Mr. Trump is one of the -- opposes the U.S. getting involved in places where it doesn't need to be. And nobody is out there saying that we should -- respect your characterizing it like that. But I would just wholeheartedly disagree.

But the fact of the matter is the world has become a more dangerous place under Secretary Clinton. I think when we look back at this race and look at where a Trump presidency goes, we'll say that he's been right not only with his temperament, with his respect to where we need to be in the Middle East. You can point to the Russian reset, for example, of a place where we become less safe and we showed our card -- basically gave away the farm when we talk about Secretary Clinton.

And so, look, the bottom line is ads like this in the final week of a campaign smacks of desperation. I think everyone at home can look at it and see exactly what's going on.

CUOMO: Everyone is desperate at the end of this election. They all want it to be over.

MILLER: Although I think -- but, you know, I'd say the one thing you can look at where people are already voting. And so when you look at Florida, where example, Republican turnout is already up by 7 percent and Democratic turnout is already down by 10 percent. You know, we're doing 100,000 votes better in that early voting delta between the Republican ticket and the Democratic ticket.

[06:25:09] In North Carolina, we're ahead by -- we're 35,000 votes ahead of the pace. In Iowa, 17,000 votes ahead of the pace from where we were four years ago as a party. These early indicators, the polling we've seen, two polls in the last several days showing Mr. Trump ahead by four points in Florida. We're looking good in Iowa and North Carolina. And you look at his schedule. Mr. Trump was in New Mexico last night.

CUOMO: Not on TV this morning, though, Jason Miller. And that is very impressive to me. I've got to cut it here for now. You're welcome back any time this week you want to meet before the election. I know it's important. Surprised that Donald Trump is not on TV himself this morning talking about this.

MILLER: Thank you.

CUOMO: Speaks to good control by the campaign -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Let's get Hillary Clinton's side now. Clinton says that Donald Trump is lying about the e-mail probe. So we are joined now by Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings. He is supporting Hillary Clinton. Good morning, Congressman.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Congressman, were you shocked when you got this letter from Director Comey on Friday? CUMMINGS: I was surprised that the director, who has told our

committee on several occasions that his No. 1 concern is his reputation, that he would issue a letter that, No. 1, was so vague and that basically gave Donald Trump a softball to hit over the fence. And he knew, I'm sure, that this is exactly what Donald Trump would do. He would exaggerate. And, again, it's vague.

We don't know how many of these e-mails are duplicates. And we don't have very much information at all.

But the fact still remains that, you know, he -- it doesn't surprise me, though, in a way, that he did this. Because I don't think the American people have a clue as to how hard the Republicans, particularly on my committee, have been on the FBI. This is a man, that is Director Comey, who they love. They said, oh, he was the greatest thing in the world at one time. Very honorable.

And when he came out with the decision in July not to recommend prosecution of Ms. Clinton, they suddenly turned against him.

And, so, you know, and now -- and by the way, now what they're doing is trying to get every note, every -- they've gotten the interviews of the FBI. They've gotten everything...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUMMINGS: ... involved in their investigation. And now, as I told Mr. -- Director Comey at the time of the hearing back in July. I said to him, "Sir, they are now going to investigate you and your agency." And that's exactly what they're doing. So you asked me was I surprised? In a way, I wasn't.

CAMEROTA: But Congressman, are you saying that you think that Director Comey acquiesced or caved to Republican pressure and that he's doing this for purely partisan reasons?

CUMMINGS: I can't say that. I think -- first of all, I have a lot of respect for Director Comey. But I think what has happened is that he knows that the Republicans, if he makes any misstep, the Republicans are going to be all over him. And they are going to try to get -- they're going to try to bring harm to him.

And he doesn't want to -- I think his position is, "Look, they're looking at everything I do. So I want to make sure that I let them know what's going on."

But I've got to tell you, that thing that he did say in our hearing and stuck with me is he said, "I do not believe that there should be a double standard to the disadvantage of Secretary Clinton." And that's exactly what's happening.

CAMEROTA: Senator...

CUMMINGS: And one of the things that you all have not talked about -- and I want to get this in. One of the things you all have not talked about and I listened to the interview with Jason Miller. You know, there has been a lot of information out there about Mr. Trump, Mr. Manafort and Russian government and alleged efforts to take over our election. Members of Congress, including myself, have asked for months for the FBI to provide us with information as to whether Mr. Trump, Mr. Manafort, other associates and the Russian government have any coordination or connection with each other.

CAMEROTA: Yes. And have they? Have the FBI given you information?

CUMMINGS: We have not -- not one syllable. So, the question is, do we have a double standard here?

Here you have Hillary Clinton and Ms. Abedin, who has cooperated with the FBI. And keep in mind that when the FBI came before my committee, this is what the director said. He said, "I had 20 of my all-star FBI agents, senior FBI agents who agreed unanimously that there was no reason to bring charges in this case, and no reasonable prosecutor would do it."

CAMEROTA: Yes. And so Senator Harry...

CUMMINGS: But on the other hand -- but on the other hand, we have not gotten one shred, not one syllable about what's going on with regard to Mr. Trump. Give me a break.