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Russian Skater with Failed Drug Test is a Minor; Family: Bob Saget Died after Accidental Blow to Head; National Archives Asks Justice Department to Investigate Trump's Handling of Official Records; Ex-Trump Advisor Peter Navarro Subpoenaed by January 6th Committee. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 10, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It is Thursday, February 10, and I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

[05:59:43]

And we are beginning with some breaking news this morning. A new and explosive scandal threatening to blow up the premier event at the Beijing Olympic Games.

CNN has learned a Russian figure skater has failed a drug test, and that person is a minor, which is a key clue here. The six-person Russian team has not yet received their gold medal for winning that team event this week. The medal ceremony was supposed to take place Tuesday night, but it was delayed for what's being described as legal consultations.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So we're being very precise with our language here, because it's important, but you can get the implications.

It's unclear exactly when the positive test was taken. The only minor on the Russian figure skating team is 15-year-old Kamila Valieva. She made history on Monday, becoming the first woman to ever land a quad at the games.

Joining us now, Coy Wire, CNN Sports anchor and correspondent; and Christine Brennan, CNN sports analyst and "USA Today" columnist.

And Christine, I want to start with you, because you broke this story. Where is it this morning? What new have you learned?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: John, where it is, is it's in a state of confusion.

For the second straight day, the International Olympic Committee, in their press briefing, basically didn't answer any questions. They said it's a legal matter, as you referred to, and we will have no further comment.

So now you have 48 hours of no medal ceremony. No one knows what's going on. One would assume that, if the Russians are disqualified based on the doping test, the positive test, U.S. would move up to the gold medal. But we don't know that.

The games are moving on. The next skating event's in a week. The women's competition is going on. Valieva is practicing. She's here. And it is really something where there's almost more inaction than action leading to confusion, uncertainty and real questions about how seriously the International Olympic Committee is taking this very important positive drug test.

KEILAR: Christine, there's also this issue of, when you disclose if someone has tested positive, there are protections afforded to a minor. Can you tell us about that?

BRENNAN: That's right, Brianna. And that -- that makes it very difficult. The WADA rules, World Anti-Doping Agency rules, are that you do not disclose the name of a minor who's tested positive, which is why in my reporting, I was told it was a minor, and then as you just described, John, of course there's only one minor on the six- member team. This was the team competition that occurred at the beginning of the Olympic Games in figure skating.

And so that's, you know, basically the issue right now, is we know it's Valieva. But no one will say it officially.

Is it possible that they might reprimand her but not actually throw her out of the Olympics? The sympathy factor for a 15-year-old, I'm sure we're all hearing it. It's like, Well, she did -- did she do this or did a coach or an adult get involved with this -- with this drug? So many questions.

And this void exists because of the International Olympic Committee basically saying nothing and doing nothing. And so the void is being filled with all kinds of conjecture.

I've covered a lot of Olympics, and I've seen a few scandals in my day. But this one has -- has the potential to really explode, because there's a competition that we're going towards, the women's event. It's not over. It's yet to come. And that leads to so many questions moving forward over the next week.

BERMAN: And it's the premier event of the Olympic Games. The women's figure skating is the premier event of the Winter Olympic Games.

The drug in question here, Coy, is trimetazidine, which is a heart drug. It treats stuff like angina. But to be clear, people have taken it and used it because it can help the blood flow. It helps, maybe, you train for longer. Which a lot of performance-enhancing drugs, that's what it does. It's not necessarily bigger. It's not like building your muscles or stuff. It's just making the training process easier, so you can train for longer.

Coy, you were a professional athlete. You know, what kind of an edge, in theory, can something like this give you?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Yes. An NFL player for nine years, John, and Brianna, cold medicines have substances that are banned by the league. This could be, as you mentioned, a heart condition. But it could be a

substance in there that could have an effect on the body that would give an advantage to an athlete, even if it isn't what you would typically think of as a performance-enhancing drug. There are certain medications out there that might calm you.

And in a big-stage event, whether you're an NFL football player or a figure skater in the Olympics, any sort of advantage you get to quiet the noise, calm your heart rate, increase blood flow, increase recovery time, that's why these -- these rules are in place. That's why certain medications are on the banned list.

Because whether it's to help a condition that maybe, as I said, aren't typically considered a performance-enhancing drug, it can have an effect on the body that would certainly give an edge.

KEILAR: Of course, all of this comes, Coy, with the back drop of, I mean, when you look at who she is competing for, the Russian Olympic Committee, I believe it's called.

BERMAN: Right. Not Russia.

KEILAR: Not Russia because of Russia's pretty recent doping scandal. That is the backdrop of this.

[06:05:01]

WIRE: Yes. Here we are with another Olympics where there are allegations of athletes from Russia being -- using banned substances. They were already unable to compete in these Olympics under their countries name, due to sanctions from the IOC, from the World Anti- Doping Agency, for failing to cooperate with anti-doping rules in the last Winter Games, in 2018.

So a nightmare situation for the IOC. Of course, you also have strict COVID protocols here, which have dampened the situation. You have the Peng Shuai controversy and concern for her, geopolitical rhetoric swirling all around these games. So certainly a nightmare situation for the International Olympic Committee.

BERMAN: All right. Coy, Christine, please keep us posted. To me it is shocking that we haven't heard anything more. And it only raises new questions about the possibility of poisonous politics at the games, where there is such a history of just bizarre back-room things happening. So God only knows what's going on now.

Keep us posted. Great work, both of you.

KEILAR: Also breaking overnight, the family of comedian and actor Bob Saget revealing the shocking cause of his death. CNN's Chloe Melas is joining us with more. Chloe, what can you tell us?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, ever since Bob Saget tragically and shockingly died last month in Orlando, Florida, following one of his comedy shows, there had been questions swirling as to what happened.

And now we know that answer. Bob Saget's cause of death was head trauma. So no drugs, no alcohol, no foul play. Head trauma.

So his family has released a statement saying that perhaps he might have hit his head following his show, thought nothing of it, gone to bed, and that is why he passed away.

Part of their statement reads, "As we continue to mourn together, we ask everyone to remember and love the laughter that Bob brought to this world, and the lessons he taught us all: to be kind to everyone, to let the people you love know you love them, and to face difficult times with hugs and laughter." They also said that, "As we continue to mourn together, we ask everyone to remember that no drugs or alcohol or foul play was involved."

I do want to say, though, this goes back to just how important and seriously you have to take head traumas when they happen. We saw it with Liam Neeson, with the death of his wife many years ago on that ski accident.

Again, sad morning for all of Bob Saget's fans but also some very important closure as everyone mourns his life and moves forward.

KEILAR: It is just so devastating, Chloe, to learn this. Thank you so much. Chloe Melas.

And developing this morning, as well, the National Archives asking the Justice Department to investigate former President Trump's handling of White House records that he took with him when leaving office.

According to a source, the Archives is seeking a review of whether Trump violated the Presidential Records Act and other possible violations, including the handling of classified information.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator and political anchor at Spectrum News, Errol Louis; and Margaret Hoover, CNN political commentator and host of PBS "Firing Line."

First off, Errol, to you. How significant is this?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, substantively, it's very significant. You don't want to have a former president breaking the law, taking things that he's not entitled to, being investigated after the fact, as we're going to see here.

Practically speaking, it's hard to imagine that this referral to the Justice Department is going to result in any kind of serious investigation that would be concluded in time to bring findings that will in any way be relevant to the 2024 election.

So politically speaking, my guess would be that Donald Trump gets away with it.

BERMAN: Can I add a wrinkle to this before you talk? Because there's some breaking news here. I think you're all going to want to hear this.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR I definitely want to hear it.

BERMAN: So Maggie Haberman, who's going to be on the show next hour, right? Maggie's coming in. She's got a new book coming out.

Inside this book, "Axios" is reporting this morning that Maggie reports that -- I'm going to read this: "While President Trump was in office, staff in the White House residence periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet and believed the president had flushed pieces of paper."

HOOVER: I don't know. I worked in the White House several years ago. We had burn bags. That would have been a lot easier.

OK. That was my facetious joke. There is outrageous that the president of the United States was trying to destroy documents. There's a Presidential Records Act. The National Archives and Records Administration is in charge of saving that information for posterity for the American people.

If he was throwing things down the toilet, what, because he caught them ripping them up and taping them back together? It is, again, it's one of those things. It's so outrageous that it's -- the lows never stop coming.

BERMAN: I mean, I'm not a lawyer. We are going to speak to an esteemed lawyer shortly. But one of the issues with these records, Errol, you point out it's hard to prosecute. You have to prove intent. Right? You have to prove some kind of intent to hide something.

Now, I've been alive for a long time. One doesn't flush stuff down the toilet unless they're trying to get rid of it for a reason. I mean, stuff like papers, I should say.

LOUIS: Yes.

[06:10:07]

BERMAN: I mean, does this raise questions about intent?

LOUIS: It obviously -- it's not something you do accidentally. It's not something you do for any reason other than to destroy the record and hope nobody sees it.

And of course, politically it's impossible to forget that in 2016, this was the issue that he ran on against Hillary Clinton. So, you know, this is going to be a question of is there political hypocrisy at work here?

HOOVER: But also, you know, we say this clause in this statute doesn't have the teeth to really lead to a significant prosecution. But the investigation and the discovery of the information is highly important to the American people. Because this man may very well run for president again. And it is -- it is important for us to continue to live in a country,

A, where the rule of law exists and, B, where transparency governs the information that voters take with them to the voting booth when they vote.

KEILAR: Yesterday someone made a joke about potentially papers being eaten for them to be concealed. And that seemed so far afield. And yet today, it seems more possible when you're talking about flushing -- This is like one click away from flushing stuff down a toilet.

HOOVER: But we know what he liked to eat. He didn't really like to eat paper. He liked the fast food.

BERMAN: I will say, you know, I was -- I was bearish on this story in general. I thought it was interesting. This to me raises it a little bit. I mean, maybe a significant bit here.

If you now have documents being destroyed and ripped up, a president being warned not to do so, which the reporting is. That two chiefs of staff and White House counsel talked to Trump about destroying records. If you have that.

If you have classified things being found at Mar-a-Lago, and now if you have this reporting we're going to hear from Maggie, stuff being flushed down the toilet, there's a pattern.

I mean, how much pressure is there now on Merrick Garland? Because this puts it back in his court. So much is in his court. He's got to choose to investigate.

LOUIS: There's going to be -- there's going to be pressure on Merrick Garland. I would not expect that pressure to result in him doing anything different. I mean, he's a down -- down the middle of the lane kind of, by-the-book prosecutor. He's not going to, I think, be swayed by the letters and the discussion by pundits.

On the other hand, you know, there's going to be a real possibility, I think, that we'll find that nothing really important was destroyed, that this is just something that Donald Trump does.

I come back to -- it was a brief scene, but if you remember at the end of one of the debates -- it might have been the final debate back in the 2016 campaign -- there was footage of him ripping up his own notes, you know, in disgust. That there's anger, there's emotion, that there's bad news, that perhaps he takes it out on the paper.

HOOVER: A little different than going down the toilet.

LOUIS: But, you know what? He -- if you're talking about -- about trying to break the law, the man was impeached twice. You know? He did a lot of stuff that was hidden, and it didn't involve clumsy actions like ripping up paper and flushing it down the toilet.

HOOVER: Real quick, though, the other reason it's important to look at, to prosecute -- to investigate, is that there are several episodes throughout the course of this presidency that merit consideration about whether laws are strong enough and ought to be strengthened. And this may just very well be another one.

KEILAR: Maybe in the case -- yes.

BERMAN: May I -- Nixon had the plumbers, right? Nixon almost was impeached for the plumbers. Trump always liked Nixon. Maybe this is what he was going for.

KEILAR: He really needed a plumber.

I think, though -- OK, let's look at this, though. You have a, let's say, the CEO of a major corporation under investigation or being looked at, and they're caught flushing papers down the toilet. What happens to them?

Why -- I think any reasonable just sort of normal person looking at this who hasn't covered every in and out of this where we just have kind of come to expect that there are no consequences for this bad, arguably, potentially criminal behavior, says, what the heck? There are no ramifications?

LOUIS: In the "what the heck" category, where are we if we have to try and criminally prosecute an ex-president for this kind of behavior? Something has gone very badly off the rails if we allow somebody to get to that position of power and then still have to police whether or not they're flushing papers down the toilet.

BERMAN: Just one step back here, again. Because this comes amid a flurry of new information today.

"The Washington Post" also reporting, Margaret, Rudy Giuliani at one point between the election and January 6th, went to Michigan to ask a county prosecutor to turn over voting machines, right? This just shows -- I mean, we can talk about different patterns of things. This consistent effort to do things to overturn the election.

HOOVER: There's -- yes, a consistent habit of Rudy Giuliani breaking the law, trying to support Trump in his sort of crusade to roll back the results of the election.

[06:15:08]

There's also, you know, Donald Trump has just been very, very clear that he's not going back. And what I think the -- the line in the sand that is emerging, especially in the Senate, is that some senators demonstrate -- are beginning to demonstrate some more courage, are beginning to demonstrate that laws need to be changed in order to prevent the Electoral Count Act, for example, from potentially being abused again in the future.

So my hope is that there is beginning to emerge a new rift amongst senators who will be around beyond 2024, in order to prevent Donald Trump and this wild crusade that is anti-constitutional and anti- American from succeeding.

KEILAR: It is, at least, dipping a toe in the water, which is essential. BERMAN: The toilet water?

KEILAR: Yes. Perhaps it is the toilet water.

BERMAN: Just saying.

KEILAR: Margaret and Errol, thank you so much for the conversation.

BERMAN: So in addition to all of that, before we got to Toilet-gate, another piece of big news was that the January 6th panel has subpoenaed Peter Navarro, who worked hard, admittedly; brags about trying to throw out the election results. What the committee is now looking to get out of him.

Plus, a new warning from the Department of Homeland Security about the trucker protests in Canada and how it could potentially affect the Super Bowl.

KEILAR: And the U.S. says that Russia could launch an invasion in Ukraine at any moment. We have some new CNN reporting on the signs that U.S. officials are closely monitoring.

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[06:21:23]

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning is we learned moments ago that Maggie Haberman of "The New York Times" has got a new book coming out that "Axios" wrote about this morning. It's reporting that there were documents found in White House toilets; apparently, the president's toilet. And there are questions about what he was trying to flush down the toilet.

So we have a lot to talk about in terms of Toilet-gate. But before that came out, some of the biggest news surrounding the former president was that the January 6th Committee has now issued a subpoena for former White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, who was more than a trade advisor, right? He was one of the guys who proudly admits that he wanted to find a way to throw out or block the election results and throw it back to Congress. He writes about this entire plan. He has now been subpoenaed.

So where does that fit into everything? Joining us now, CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, John, it continues to rain subpoenas from the committee. Over 80 that we know of now in total.

Let's start with those that have been issued to former Trump White House officials. Peter Navarro. Like you said, trade adviser, by the way. Why is he involved in election stuff? He got a subpoena yesterday.

He was behind one of the plans to try to disrupt the counting of the electoral votes in college. They called it the Green Bay sweep after the Green Bay Packers. And he has said publicly Donald Trump knew about this. And over 100

members of Congress were in on this. So we will see if he testifies.

Before him, of course, Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, who was in that first batch of subpoena recipients. He got the subpoena. He started to cooperate. He stopped. And then the committee held him in contempt, sent it over to DOJ. DOJ has now been sitting on the Mark Meadows case for -- nobody is counting, except me -- 58 days we're waiting to hear whether DOJ will prosecute Mark Meadows.

Importantly, the committee heard testimony, six to seven hours each, from two key aides, Ben Williamson and Kayleigh McEnany. You don't spend six, seven hours with someone unless you think they have something interesting.

And then Ivanka Trump, notably, she did not get a subpoena. She got a little bit of a softer touch, a polite interview request. We'll see if the committee ups that to a subpoena, because she's shown no inclination to testify.

BERMAN: The committee is focused also on people in the former vice president, Mike Pence's, inner circle.

HONIG: Yes. The Mike Pence aides, I think, are going to be crucial here. They had access. They were in the room. And they don't have that kind of loyalty to Donald Trump.

We know the committee has heard from Keith Kellogg, the general, Marc Short, Greg Jacob. The big question, though, is will they try to get testimony from this guy, from the former vice president, Mike Pence? Will he testify?

I think it's unlikely. But we are seeing a growing rift between Mike Pence and Donald Trump. If he wants to make a clean break, he has the ability to come forward and testify.

BERMAN: Although notably, Keith Kellogg just put out a tweet, basically saying if he had to choose between Pence and Trump, he chooses Trump. He says, "I'm with Trump." Keith Kellogg.

There were also some outside advisers here.

HONIG: Yes. This is a colorful group. We have Steve Bannon, of course. He was subpoenaed. He outright defied his subpoena. He was held in contempt. DOJ is prosecuting Steve Bannon, at this point, the only person who's prosecuted for contempt of Congress. He will be tried in July.

Roger Stone was subpoenaed. Now, he took the Fifth. He has the constitutional right to do that. Knowing Roger Stone, probably a smart move. He will not be testifying.

Michael Flynn was subpoenaed. He filed a lawsuit to try to block the subpoena. He lost that.

And let's not forget, Sean Hannity. He was sending texts in to Mark Meadows as this was all going down. Not subpoenaed but, again, a polite informal interview request. We'll see if they up that to a subpoena.

BERMAN: There are the lawyers also.

HONIG: Yes, not the proudest day for the legal profession. Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official, he was subpoenaed. He took the Fifth. Smart move by a lawyer.

John Eastman also took the Fifth. You have to ask why are these smart lawyers taking the Fifth. They're entitled. But we're entitled to ask why.

And then, of course, the self-titled Elite Strike Force -- Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell. They were actually scheduled to go in yesterday. Mysteriously got rescheduled. Rudy, in particular, ought to think about taking the Fifth here. I'd be surprised if any of them ever do testify.

[06:25:12]

BERMAN: And then the lawmakers.

HONIG: Yes. This is a bit of a head scratcher. On the one hand, we know Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry had key communications with Donald Trump and others leading up to and on January 6.

Now, the committee is being very careful around its own here. No subpoenas yet but informal interview requests to all three. All three have made clear they will not be complying with that.

So big question here for the committee. Legally, they absolutely can subpoena their fellow colleagues. But there's a big political question here. That's never been done before. If they do, they may fear that it will look political. They may fear reprisal if the House flips over to Republicans. So they have to decide if they're going to play hardball with their own colleagues.

BERMAN: Elie Honig, thank you very much. We're going to let you hit the law books to do some research on Toilet-gate. You're coming back next hour.

HONIG: I have some experience in this. We'll talk about it in the 7 a.m. hour. I want to tease that.

BERMAN: Some interesting perspective on that.

All right. Super Bowl security preparations under way as the Department of Homeland Security now warns of potential trucker protests like the ones happening in Canada.

KEILAR: Plus, the NFL won't tolerate racism. That is from the commissioner, Roger Goodell, who admits the league has fallen short when giving black coaches opportunities. So what does he plan to do about it?

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