Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Former Twitter Executive Turns Whistleblower; Trump Asks for Special Master to Review Seized Documents; What to Watch in Today's Primaries in Florida and New York; Memorial Service Held for Putin Ally's Daughter Killed in Car Bombing; U.S. Embassy Urges Americans to Get Out of Ukraine Immediately. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 23, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Congress and several federal agencies.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In the 200-page disclosure Zatko portrays a chaotic reckless environment at a mismanaged company that allows too many staffers access to central control and sensitive information without adequate oversight. It's not just a story about recklessness, Zatko also alleges that some of the company's senior most executives tried to cover up Twitter's vulnerabilities.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan is here with the exclusive details. And Donie, this is quite explosive.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kaitlan. This whistleblower disclosure is in the hands today of multiple U.S. government, law enforcement agencies and today for the first time, that whistleblower is speaking out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'SULLIVAN (on-camera): Ready?

PEITER "MUDGE" ZATKO, TWITTER WHISTLEBLOWER: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: Why are you coming forward?

ZATKO: All my life, I've been about finding places where I can go and make a difference.

O'SULLIVAN: This is Peiter Zatko. Until January of this year, he was head of security at Twitter, but now he's a whistleblower. And he says Twitter's security problems are so grave they're a risk to national security and democracy.

ZATKO: I think Twitter is a critical resource to the entire world. I think it's an extremely important platform.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): He's handed over information about the company to U.S. law enforcement agencies including the SEC, FTC and the Department of Justice. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May I ask your name?

ZATKO: I'm Mudge.

O'SULLIVAN: Zatko is better known in the hacking world by his nickname Mudge. He's been a renowned cybersecurity expert for decades.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His roots are in hacking, figuring out how computers and software work.

O'SULLIVAN: That expertise might be why Jack Dorsey, then CEO of Twitter, hired Zatko after the company was hit by a massive attack in 2020 when hackers took over the accounts of some of the world's most famous people.

JOHN TYE, FOUNDER, WHISTLEBLOWER AID: Mudge is one of the top five or six executives at the company.

O'SULLIVAN: Zatko is represented by John Tye who founded Whistleblower Aid, the same group that represented Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

TYE: We are in touch with the law enforcement agencies. They're taking it seriously.

O'SULLIVAN: Twitter is pushing back, saying Zatko is peddling a narrative about our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.

When we spoke to Zatko and his lawyer they said that the lawful whistleblower disclosure process only allows them to talk about these issues in general terms. For specific allegations about Twitter, they referred us to Zatko's disclosure.

TYE: I'm not going into details but I will say that Mudge stands by the disclosure and the allegations in there.

O'SULLIVAN: CNN and "The Washington Post" obtained a copy of the disclosure from a senior Democratic official on Capitol Hill. In it, Zatko claims nearly half of Twitter's employees have access to some of the platform's main critical controls.

ZATKO: There's analogy of an airplane. So you get on an airplane and every passenger and the attendant crew all have access to the cockpit, to the controls, you know, that's entirely unnecessary. It might be easy. But there, it's too easy to accidentally or intentionally turn an engine off.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Twitter accounts belonging to a whole lot of famous people.

O'SULLIVAN: That kind of access contributed to the massive attack in the summer 2020, when hackers, two of them teenagers, tricked a couple of Twitter employees into letting them into Twitter's systems. That gave them access to accounts including that of then presidential candidate Joe Biden.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: I don't have to tell you the significance of being able to breach the Twitter accounts with many millions of followers including a leading politician three months from a presidential election.

O'SULLIVAN (on-camera): In the disclosure, you quote from a "Wired" magazine article that says but if a teenage with access to an administration panel can bring the company to its knees just imagine what Vladimir Putin can do.

TYE: Foreign intelligence agencies have the resources to identify vulnerabilities. They could have system effects across entire platform. Across the whole internet.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Twitter told CNN that since the 2020 hack it had improved these access systems and had trained staff to protect themselves against hacking.

(On-camera): If you're running any system, the more people that have access to the main switches, that's a very risky situation.

ZATKO: Yes, absolutely. I'm talking in generalities. Just large tech companies need to know what the risks are and then they also need to have an appetite to go fix it.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Zatko also claims Twitter has been misleading about how many fake accounts and bots are on its platform. That's an issue that Elon Musk has made central to his attempt to get out of a deal to buy the company.

ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA AND SPACEX: I guess right now, I'm sort of debating the number of bots on Twitter.

O'SULLIVAN (on-camera): There will be suspicions of the timing of this. Are you guys carrying water for Elon Musk?

TYE: Absolutely not. We've been following the news just like everyone else but that has nothing to do with his decisions or with the content of what was sent into U.S. law enforcement agencies.

[06:05:05]

O'SULLIVAN: Mudge hasn't been talking to Musk in the background or anything like that?

TYE: Not at all.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Zatko says he was fired by Twitter in January of this year after he tried to raise the alarm internally. He points the finger at the Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, saying he has worked to hide Twitter security vulnerabilities from the board.

(On-camera): It suspects that Twitter might try to paint it like this that Mudge got fired and he's trying to retaliate against the company. TYE: Absolutely not. This is not any kind of personal issue for him.

He was eventually fired in January of this year but he hasn't given up on trying to do that job.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): In response to the allegations, Twitter told CNN security and privacy had long been a priority at Twitter. As for Zatko they said he, quote, "was fired from his senior executive role at Twitter more than six months ago for poor performance and leadership. He now appears to be opportunistically seeking to inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders."

ZATKO: Your whole perception of the world is made from what you are seeing, reading and consuming online, and if you don't have an understanding of what's real, what's not, yes, I think this is pretty scary.

O'SULLIVAN (on-camera): Are you nervous?

ZATKO: Yes, yes. This wasn't my first choice. Yes, I just want to make the world a better place. A safer place. The levers that I have to do it are through security, information and privacy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'SULLIVAN: And just want to underline, of course, that Twitter is really starting to push back. They are saying that, although Zatko was in a very senior position at the company as head of security, that what he is doing is mischaracterizing the access, controls, the security procedures, all of that, that Twitter has in place. But this was a guy who had a bird's-eye view of what was going on at Twitter.

BERMAN: Donie, stand by for a moment, we want to bring in CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Christine, Donie's report which is really well done, I have to say.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Wow.

BERMAN: And I was just sitting there watching every second of it going wow. Twitter is a company in the middle of the news for a ton of reasons right now. How is this going to land?

ROMANS: This is a new development in a pitched battle for this company at the moment. You know, it's trying to force Elon Musk to go through with a buyout, a deal, a $44 billion deal that Elon Musk is trying to get out of, in part, for reason that you mentioned here, Donie, Elon Musk says that there are too many bots, too many automated accounts and that the company doesn't accurately reflect that.

I think that's not the main headline of your reporting here and of this whistleblower's complaint, but that is part of the story, too. So we should look to see what Elon Musk has to say about things. Just yesterday, we learned that he had subpoenaed, Musk had subpoenaed the former CEO Jack Dorsey in this legal battle here overall.

But I think the headline here, major security problems that pose a threat to national security and users' privacy and to democracy. That headline is stunning.

COLLINS: It's jarring. And I know that you report that he actually worked to start to file this disclosure, this whistleblower report before Elon Musk moved to buy Twitter. I think one of the most disturbing parts about this is it says one or more current employees may be working for a foreign intelligence service?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. And that is not unprecedented at Twitter. Only the past few weeks we saw a Saudi man who's convicted of essentially spying at a staff member at Twitter, convicted of spying for the Saudis, working inside the company. So this whistleblower alleges that up until the point at least sure before he left the company in January of this year that they had received information that there were more people. We don't know from what company or what country, I should say, but that seems to still be an issue at the company.

BERMAN: And Donie, if we could just put a point on this, so people understand, Mudge, the whistleblower here, this is someone who was brought in after a whole round of Twitter security problems, who is now saying, holy cow, these problems are really bad?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. Look, we all remember Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, Facebook immediately came out and said she's a low- level employee, she doesn't really know what she's talking about. Mudge was hired personally by Jack Dorsey after that 2020 hack. That by the way, in the summer of 2020 when Joe Biden was presidential candidate saw his account taken over. Elon Musk's account was taken over.

So this guy, he does know what he's talking about. I was speaking to some people yesterday, you know, we spent the weekend speaking to so many cybersecurity experts, people who really know what they're talking about, when we brought up Mudge's name, they said, well, if he's saying there's a there there, there's a there there.

And so look, I will point at one thing and I think one thing that Twitter will fairly take issue with this disclosure is that there are exhibits there -- a lot of information to back up and make these claims.

[06:10:06]

There's about 200 pages of exhibits. But there is still a lot of it in there that is Zatko's assessment that he's not necessarily showing the receipts for but as I say, his name is a legendary status in the cybersecurity community.

COLLINS: And I know that you reached out Twitter with 50 specific questions on this for them to comment on the allegations that he is making here.

Christine, I wonder what could the financial repercussions for something like this look like?

ROMANS: Well, look, I mean, for the company, it's what is the, you know, the faith in management. Is this a management problem? Is this a platform problem? Is this the wild west of information sharing? Is this what we're talking about here? What will be the reaction of federal agencies and Congress? Will they look into this? Will they have hearings? All of those things can be something that can affect the stock price.

The stock is down 32 percent over the past year. It's been up this month, I think, but it's been really hammered as it's in this legal battle with Elon Musk. So, again, it's just another angle here for Twitter that just shows what a difficult situation it is managing in right now.

BERMAN: Too many people says this whistleblower have access to the inside workings of Twitter and that could put the entire country at risk.

Donie O'Sullivan breaking this news this morning. Throughout the morning, we will wait and see, right, what the reaction is to this. We are expecting perhaps to hear from some of the key players over the next several hours.

COLLINS: And lawmakers, there's a huge reaction to this coming.

O'SULLIVAN: Absolutely. And to make clear, Zatko, that whistleblower, he wants to testify. He wants to go to Capitol Hill.

BERMAN: More to come for sure. Donie, great work. Christine Romans, thank you very much.

Attorneys for former President Trump taking their first legal action since the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago two weeks ago. The Trump team has asked a federal judge to appoint a special master, this would be an independent lawyer or judge, to review what the FBI seized at his Florida estate.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz live in Washington with the latest on this -- Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this filing yesterday, the first time one from Donald Trump's team in court after this search at Mar-a-Lago, it's essentially an attempt to delay, to slow down this criminal investigation now that evidence has been taken out of the former president's beach club.

There's a couple of things that Donald Trump is asking for in this filing. He's asking for a special master. So a third party appointee that will be brought in by the court to make sure that the Justice Department doesn't get access to any documents that they shouldn't have that would be in that collection taken out of Mar-a-Lago.

He's also asking for a pause on everything. That's the important thing, a pause here, that he's asking for while the special master comes in and does that work. And he's arguing a couple of different things. He's talking about his constitutional rights. He's talking about privilege that he might have from the presidency that he now still may have executive privilege as the former president. He's also making a lot of political arguments, a lot of gripes in this

filing, things we've heard from Donald Trump before including on social media. He's asking for essentially special treatment in some ways because he is a former president. But really, when you look at this filing overall, there are some caveats here. And we're really going to have to wait and see what a court does here.

This filing comes two weeks after that search was done. There has already been a hearing in this case in which Trump's team didn't say anything. And the Justice Department has already been using a filter team. A team to make sure that investigators as they do their work aren't accessing things that they shouldn't have as evidence.

So there are a lot of people right now who are looking at this filing and saying it has legal shortcomings, but it is in court now. And we are going to have to wait and see what the court does, how the judge responds, as well as the Justice Department.

BERMAN: Yes, I was just going to say, so both, Kaitlan, are part of this reporting, Katelyn Polantz, as you say, the actual legal ask here is somewhat narrow, but as a political document, Kaitlan, and you're one of the first to see it, it's pretty remarkable.

COLLINS: It is, but it's also not remarkable because it's very Trumpesque.

BERMAN: Right.

COLLINS: And it's not really surprising for those of us, Katelyn and I have covered him and essentially his legal arguments over the last several years of where, and part of it he says, you know, they -- his attorneys say the Justice Department has being treating Donald J. Trump very unfairly. That's basically something he's said since day one in office.

Katelyn, there's part of this, though, where -- it's really remarkable where they memorized in this filing a message that Trump tried to get to the now Attorney General Merrick Garland and what was that message?

POLANTZ: Right, well, Kaitlan, that is a really standout part of this. They are reciting exactly what happened in this investigation, at least from their telling and the highlight of it was that in August after that search, just three days after that search, a lawyer for Donald Trump apparently spoke to the top prosecutor on this, Jay Brad, by phone.

[06:15:01]

And in this filing they say that one of the items that was discussed there was a message that Donald Trump had directly for Garland, which was that he was acknowledging that there was heat building, that the country was angry because of this search. And then Trump said whatever I can do to take the heat down, to bring the pressure down, just let us know.

Now, we don't know how the Justice Department feels about that. Obviously, obstruction of justice is something that is under investigation here. So every sort of interaction about the investigation is going to be looked at pretty closely here. But that was a highlight. And there also are a lot of other details in this filing about what happened, including Trump himself giving directions in June to make sure that there was participation in this investigation, that they weren't stimming investigators. At least that's the telling on the Trump side of things.

COLLINS: Yes, absolutely fascinating. And we'll wait to see how this is handled in the courts and how the Justice Department responds.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you.

We have a busy month of primaries that is ending today with voters going to the polls in key races in Florida and in New York. In Florida, Democrats will choose who will take on incumbent Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in November. And in New York City, because the court mandated redistricting, two 15-term Democrats are now being pitted against one another in a primary. One of them at the end of this will be out of a job.

CNN's Jason Carroll joins us live at a polling place in Manhattan. Jason, what are you seeing so far?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Kaitlan, as you know, it's the dog days of summer, right, so a lot of people are away, they're away on vacation or just simply not at home. So while there may be a lot of primaries going on, it doesn't necessarily mean that on behalf of voters, there's going to be a lot of interest there but having said that, as you say, here in the 12th District, when all is said and done one prominent Democrat is going to be out of a job.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): Primary day in New York is finally here, after the state's Supreme Court threw out the state's new congressional map back in April, claiming it was heavily gerrymandered. As a result, New York's primary scheduled for June had to be postponed. Now New Yorkers are heading back to the polls and one thing is for certain, one long- standing Democrat in the House will be unseated.

The newly redrawn 12th District in New York pitting Representatives Jerry Nadler against Carol Maloney for the Democratic nomination. Each has been in Congress for nearly 30 years and chair crucial committees in the House, both touting their progressive records during the campaign.

REP. CAROL MALONEY (D-NY): There is one thing that remains that I have not been able to do, and that is to ratify the equal rights amendment and put women in the Constitution. Please send me back to finish the job.

REP. JEROLD NADLER (D-NY): I think it's probably about my voting record, more than anything else. I mean, people understand that I took principled progressive votes. CARROLL: Nadler gaining the key endorsement from Senate majority

leader Chuck Schumer last week. Nadler and Maloney who are both in their 70s are facing off against 38-year-old Suraj Patel, who has called for generational change citing his competitors' combined six decades in Congress.

SURAJ PATEL (D), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: They think that everything is just fine. And they think they're being effective at fighting Republicanism.

CARROLL: And in New York's 10th District a chaotic primary contest centering around the ideological differences of the candidates. It appears the man with momentum is Dan Goldman. A federal prosecutor during the first Trump impeachment. He earned an endorsement from the "New York Times." He's running against progressive Representative Mondaire Jones and Yuh-line Niou. Jones and Niou joining forces criticizing Goldman who was an heir to the Levis Strauss dynasty for sinking millions of his own money into the campaign.

REP. MONDAIRE JONES (D-NY): Conservative Democrat Dan Goldman cannot be allowed to purchase this congressional seat.

YUH-LINE NIOU (D), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We can't let a candidate so out of step with this district's values buy themselves a congressional seat.

CARROLL: Goldman disputes their accusations that he's not progressive enough for the district.

DAN GOLDMAN (D), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: I think what the voters recognize is that my progressive ideals are aligned very much with theirs.

CARROLL: And in a special election in New York's 19th, Democrat Pat Ryan is running against Republican Mark Molinaro. Abortion rights have been a crucial campaign point. Many are looking at this race as a possible barometer of how the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will sway voters in the midterms this November.

Meanwhile, today Floridians are also heading to the polls. Both Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican Senator Marco Rubio are up for re-election this November.

[06:20:02]

In the governor's race, either Charlie Crist or Nikki Fried hope to unseat the Republican favorite in the fall. And four hopefuls including Congresswoman Val Demings are running to take on Rubio this November.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And in Florida, polls open at 7:00 a.m. and closed at 7:00. Here in New York, polls opened at 6:00, they will close at 9:00.

Here in the 12th District, Kaitlan, a lot of folks have been asking who's the frontrunner? Who's in the leader here? Some of the polling in New York seems to be so unreliable. We cannot say with absolute certainty who's ahead by how many points specifically. But at this point it appears as if Nadler may be the man to beat. We'll see -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: We will see. Just got to wait for the numbers to come in. Jason Carroll, thank you.

Coming up, Russia is now blaming Ukraine for the car bombing that has killed the daughter of an influential Russian writer. As Ukraine's leaders are denying it and warning of increased attacks.

And it's been a devastating 24 hours in Texas where once in a century flooding has been ongoing. This morning the threat is now shifting to the east.

BERMAN: A federal civil rights investigation now underway after the police beating of a suspect in Arkansas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Look, there are lots of questions. Again, we have heard very clearly from our Ukrainian partners, they have nothing to do with this. I think it also bears repeating something we all know that we have to take with a grain of salt absolutely everything we hear from the Kremlin. The Kremlin has never given us a reason to look at its statements with any degree of credibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: That's State Department spokesman Ned Price saying that he doesn't have anything to share after Ukraine denied involvement in the car bombing that killed the daughter of an influential Russian writer and an ally of Putin. U.S. officials also declined to offer an assessment on who exactly was behind the attack. This morning, a memorial service is being held for Darya Dugina in Moscow.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen was there this morning, and live with more.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kaitlan. Yes, and one of the things that you can see at that memorial service from which we literally just returned, is that there was a lot of anger, there was obviously a lot of grief, a lot of anger and a lot of people also calling for escalation in what's going on between Russia and Ukraine. Openly calling for a wider war against Ukraine to end and then victory in the end as the Russians put it.

One of those speaking was, of course, the father of Darya Dugina, as you mentioned a very prominent ideologue who's very much in line with Vladimir Putin as far as the thinking about Ukraine is concerned and what he calls the Russian world, the Russian empire. He was obviously severely grieving, broke into tears on several occasions, but also essentially calling for an escalation towards Ukraine. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDER DUGIN, PUTIN ALLY WHOSE DAUGHTER WAS KILLED IN CAR BOMBING (through translator): The price that we have to pay can be justified by only one thing. The highest achievement, victory. She lived in the name of victory. And she died in the name of victory. Our Russian victory, our truth, our orthodoxy, our country, and our empire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: Yes, as you see it there, Kaitlan, speaking of a Russian empire. Speaking of a victory that Russia wants to achieve there. So certainly some pretty tough words. There were other speakers who were exactly mirroring pretty much the exact same thing. And you hear that throughout the top echelons right now of Russian state media. Of course the Russians came out yesterday and said that they solved all of this, that Ukraine was behind it.

They put out some videos claiming to show a Ukrainian woman allegedly moving into a place next to where Darya Dugina lived to try and shadow her, carrying all of this out, and then fleeing to Estonia.

The Ukrainians continue to vehemently deny all of this. In fact late last night, the head of Ukraine's National Security Council, he came out and he said that that's not the way Ukraine operates. That they have nothing to do with this. But we certainly can see at least an escalation of words in Russia which of course could be followed by escalation on the battlefield as well -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Absolutely. Fred Pleitgen, thank you.

BERMAN: So the State Department, the U.S. State Department this morning has issued a new warning that all Americans should leave Ukraine immediately, saying they have information that Russia will step up strikes in the next few days.

We want to bring in CNN's David McKenzie who is live in Kyiv this morning.

This is the type of warning, David, it feels like we haven't seen for a long time. It feels as if the concern has really heightened.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it certainly has heightened. There's a heightened sense of alert here in the capital and in cities across the nation here in Ukraine where they are banning large events and stopping people from commemorating in a big way this anniversary, the 31st anniversary from independence from the Soviet Union.

And you're right, the State Department has made this unusual announcement saying that Americans should leave immediately. Warning of specific knowledge of potential strikes on both civilian and military infrastructure here in the capital. Possibly elsewhere in the nation. In one city in the northeast, they've even gone so far as calling a curfew for 36 hours at least to keep citizens safe.

Here in the capital, they're telling officials to stay away, in large part, from the offices because of the direct threat there. They're feeling that could come. It's National Flag Day here in Ukraine today. A very symbolic moment, the president, President Zelenskyy, speaking in front of troops telling them that it's important, that that flag, the Ukrainian flag, is going to be in areas now occupied by Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): Today, I'd like to talk not only about the past of our flag but also about its future. The blue and yellow flag will flutter again at his home where it's supposed to be by right in all temporarily occupied cities and villages of Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:30:00]