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First Charges Filed In Mueller Investigation; Trump Campaign Denies Russia Collusion; The JFK Files Revealed; Sailors Rescued After Being Lost At Sea For 5 Months. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired October 28, 2017 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first charges in the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is certainly a major landmark in the course of this investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The intent is to get one or more of these people to cooperate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoever they're indicting, they're afraid he's going to flee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are trying to encourage cooperation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Robert Mueller and his team's M.O. from the very beginning has been to just keep quiet, keep things under wraps, don't talk to the media.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They do have to do something to show what it is they're coming up with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Mueller office will be up and running well into 2018, if not through the whole year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RENE MARSH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rene Marsh in for Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to have you this Saturday. Our top story, this critical development in the Russia investigation. We're learning that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed the first charges in the probe in the possible Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign -- that's from sources telling CNN. And those sources also tell CNN that anyone charged in the investigation could be taken into custody as early as Monday.

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BLACKWELL: It is a landmark moment in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Sources briefed on the matter say, a federal grand jury in Washington approved the first charges in the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment. The indictments are sealed but plans are underway for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday.

PAUL CALLAN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: When you see a sealed indictment like this, it almost always happens for one reason, there's a fear that the defendant is going to flee the jurisdiction.

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Mueller wants to send a signal to other perspective defendants, if this person who has been indicted or persons are facing 20 to 40 to 50 years for whatever these crimes are related to collusion or not, there are others who may be subject to similar charges who have further knowledge about dealings with Russia.

BLACKWELL: The special counsel's investigation focused on potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as obstruction of justice by the president who might have tried to impede the investigation. CNN reported that investigators are scrutinizing the president and his associates' financial ties to Russia.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This is what we've been waiting for, to see if investigators will bring charges in this probe that even impacts the president to a degree because investigators have been looking at his potential involvement in obstruction of justice, you see him tweeting about it, calling it a witch hunt, a hoax, saying that it's a waste of tax dollars.

BLACKWELL: Mueller's team has also examined foreign lobbying conducted by former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and others. The special counsel has issued subpoenas for documents and testimony to a handful of figures, including some people close to Manafort and others involved in the Trump Tower meeting between Russians and campaign officials.

LAURA COATES, FORMER D.C. ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY: And this may be an indication that he's not trying to show his hand because he doesn't want people to be able to either conceal evidence, destroy evidence. It may be the reason that he was able to do a surprise no-knock and announce warrant on Paul Manafort's home. There is an urgency that Robert Mueller is seeing and it may be a slight risk, it may also be because there are some missing pieces.

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MARSH: All right. Well, CNN Washington Correspondent Ryan Nobles joins us now. Ryan, you know, from the very beginning, the tactic from the White House and the president has been deny, deny, deny as it relates to the Russia investigation. But now that we're hearing these first charges are being filed, what is the White House saying now?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rene, at this point, no official response from the White House, but as I'm sure you know, Saturday mornings are typically pretty busy for President Trump on Twitter, so we are monitoring his feed to see if he'll use that venue to give his opinion on this new development. And as you mentioned, Rene, it would not really be a surprise if the president continues his efforts to systematically raise doubt and questions about the value of Mueller and his team's work.

Yesterday, just yesterday, the president tweeted, "It is now commonly agreed after many months of costly looking that there was no collusion between Russia and Trump, was collusion with H.C," he's talking about Hillary Clinton there. That was, of course, before we knew that the special counsel was poised to file charges. And Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also arguing yesterday that the multiple investigations looking into the president's ties to Russia are just not worth the taxpayer expense.

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[07:05:05] SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Congress has spent a great deal of time on this, a better part of a year. All of your news organizations have actually spent probably a lot of money on this as well, which we would consider probably a pretty big waste. I think that our position hasn't changed since day one, and I think we are seeing now that if there was any collusion with Russia, it was between the DNC and the Clintons and certainly not our campaign.

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NOBLES: Now, there have been some Republicans that have been arguing for a while that the special counsel investigation is costing taxpayers too much. But there really isn't much that White House or the Congress can do to cut off funding to the Mueller investigation without taking some pretty dramatic legislative steps. There just does not appear to be the political will to push that through at this point. So, now that we're on the verge of these first arrests taking place, possibly as soon as Monday, this tactic could be really more about winning the battle over public opinion, something the president clearly believes he can win, and as of right now still hasn't weighed in on Twitter yet, but we'll continue to monitor that feed.

MARSH: Yes, we will keep watching. Ryan Nobles live for us this morning from Washington, thank you.

BLACKWELL: And joining me now to discuss, Eugene Scott and Amber Phillips, Political Reporters for The Washington Post; Page Pate, CNN Legal Analyst and Constitutional Attorney; also, we have with us Marc Lamont Hill, CNN Political Commentator, and Temple University Professor. Good morning to you, all. So, let me start with you, Page. Pamela Brown reported last night that the person or persons who were going to face charges as early as Monday have not been notified or at least their attorneys have not been notified according to CNN's reporting. But considering they get target letters, do you expect that they know this is coming?

PAGE PATE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST AND CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY: Absolutely, Victor. I think we've heard earlier that Paul Manafort's lawyer, specifically, has been told that they should expect an indictment. Now, the Manafort case has been going on for a long time, and that's why I think that this particular indictment, the first indictment is likely to focus on Paul Manafort. That investigation predates the special counsel. Bob Mueller took it over; incorporated it into his investigation, and his lawyers, I know, we've had some discussions with the special counsel's office, either about cooperating, about the substance of the charges, but this should not be a surprise if it's Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn.

BLACKWELL: Eugene, to the point of, potentially, this being Paul Manafort -- and again, there's no confirmation on who is facing charges, if it's one person or more than one. But the president said earlier that if this investigation goes into the financial dealings of himself, his family, his businesses, that that would be crossing a red line for Bob Mueller. We know the focus is Manafort has been on money laundering, other white-collar crimes, what does that mean for the White House?

EUGENE SCOTT, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, I think that is a crossing the red line to Trump. I think people outside of the Trump White House know that if this investigation already has gone into the financial relationships between the Trump campaign and Russia, that that would include the president himself. I think what this does reveal is the ramifications of perhaps not being as transparent with the American people as early as possible about your taxes and other related finances that could have proven that you are -- your hands are clean in a way that he is hoping this investigation doesn't move into in terms of its direction.

BLACKWELL: Yes, the president saying, of course, through the campaign, he said he was under routine audit, and then after getting into the White House his staff saying he was not going to release his taxes. The American people paraphrasing here elected him anyway. Amber, now to you, if this is -- and again, we're going to get this answer as soon as Monday, if this is related to money laundering or some financial crimes, and does not go directly to collusion, will the White House see that at some point of relief after months and months of saying there was no evidence of collusion.

AMBER PHILLIPS, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes. I think absolutely, and I think -- but it's not evident that it will be released to them. The White House as we've seen, the president has taken every opportunity to -- according to his words from James Comey, "get out from under the cloud," so that's the Russia investigation. And he will seize on opportunities to do that even in ways that you could be argued; are jumping to conclusions about things. That being said, yes, if this is -- you know, an ex-Trumper being indicted related to their personal financial crimes, I don't think you can call this case closed at all. And that's because legal experts say it's pretty clear that Mueller's team is following a -- like white-collar investigation 101 tactics, to try to get the smaller fish, pressure them with crimes and criminal charges, and even threats of jail to get them to talk about the bigger fishes.

BLACKWELL: Page, I want to come to you with that in just a moment, but I want to get Marc into the conversation and let's listen to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders more of what she said yesterday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:09:59] SANDERS: The president wants to see this completed. We think that we are continuing to see day in/day out as this investigation moves to completion that as the same as it started, there's still no evidence of collusion between the president and anyone. If any collusion took place it is between the DNC and the Clintons, and I think we're starting to now see that all of the things that the Democrats had accused this president of doing, they were actually guilty of themselves and I think that's a really big problem that should be certainly looked at.

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BLACKWELL: Marc, what do you make of the timing here that as, of course, CNN teams were working on this, and able to report it last night. Just in the last couple of days, we've seen this huge ramp up from the president and the White House talking about Hillary Clinton, talking about Uranium One, talking about her e-mails.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND PROFESSOR AT TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: It's a wild could incidence. No, clearly, they have some indication that something was about to happen and for that reason, they were doing what the Trump team does best, which redirects, which is deflect. And so, what you began to see was an argument, and, hey, if there's any potential collusion here, it's not between us and Russia, it's between the DNC and Russia, between the Clinton campaign and Russia.

Attempting to really develop some sort of support for any potential charges, not necessarily against Trump directly, but against anyone at least one degree of separation away from Trump. This indictment will -- may not be about collusion, it could be about financial crimes, it could be about stuff that precedes the Russia investigation, but that's going to make a tie to the Trump administration, if they immediately or even preemptively want to deflect from. And what you saw over the last few days, this ramp up around uranium, and around Hillary Clinton e-mails and those other things, which should be dead issues at this point.

BLACKWELL: Page, what do you make -- let me get to this another question that Amber brought up here. This delay here, what is happening in this delay, is there some strategy on behalf of prosecutors, why would a federal judge seal this until Monday? Explain what's happening over the next day or so.

PATE: Victor, that is entirely common. It happens in virtually every federal case. Once an indictment is returned, it has to be provided to the federal district court and as a matter, of course, as a matter of habit and routine, policy, procedure, the federal district judge seals the indictment until the defendants have been taken into custody and made their initial appearance before a magistrate judge. So, I don't think it's any indication that the government is necessarily concerned that whoever is charged or however many people are charged, they're going to flee the jurisdiction or cause danger or harm to a witness. It's just procedure. It's common. Even if the defendant and his or her lawyer has been notified that they're going to have to come to court on Monday, it's still going to be under seal until they first appear in front of a judge.

BLACKWELL: All right. Page, Eugene, Amber, and Marc, stay with us. We're going to add to Jack Kingston, former Senior Advisor to the Trump Campaign, to the conversation and we'll continue that in just a moment.

MARSH: And coming up, later this hour, the FBI to -- trying to track down strippers. And Cuban agents, bragging about knowing Lee Harvey Oswald. We'll show you the latest on what we're learning from the thousands of declassified files on the assassination of JFK. That's coming up.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, a failed engine -- a broken mast and drifting aimlessly in the Pacific Ocean, the nightmare of two American women who were rescued at sea after being stranded for five months. Their incredible journey, that's coming up.

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[07:17:40] BLACKWELL: All right. Our panel is back and we've added Jack Kingston, former Georgia Congressman and former Senior Adviser to the Trump Campaign. Congressman, good morning to you, and I want to let you to start this block since you just joined in the conversation. The Trump Campaign, the Trump administration has said that there's no evidence of collusion and have criticized quite openly on Twitter and other places Robert Mueller and his team now that they've reached the point of the first charges filed; going to a grand jury, that federal grand jury think that there is now probable cause that a crime has been committed, what's your reaction? We haven't heard from the president, we haven't heard from the White House.

JACK KINGSTON, FORMER GEORGIA CONGRESSMAN AND SENIOR ADVISER TO THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well, I still don't believe that there is any collusion or that they're going to find any evidence of collusion. We have to the idea on an investigation this wide, where they're going and what they're going to get somebody for. Just for example, if a campaign worker had some shady dealings of any nature, it could be on the table, and it could be the kind of thing that an investigation like this stumbles across. So, we just don't really know. I'm confident that they're not going to find any collusion. I do want to get back to the timing of this.

I think it is part of a chess game because there's a lot of talk in Washington right now about James Comey and his memo that pretty clear that exonerated Hillary Clinton before the investigation was even complete. There's discussion about Uranium One and the $2.3 million that the president of the company gave to the Clinton Foundation. There is a discussion about Debbie Wasserman Schultz and John Podesta, all denying any knowledge of who paid for the dossier, and all of that's coming out and Congress is looking into it, and then suddenly Mueller makes this move. Could be part of a chess game; could just be the coincidence of timing in Washington, D.C.

BLACKWELL: Now, Marc, let me come back to you. Because we heard the list there where it seems like there are two realities while this is happening, there is another network that doesn't talk at any length about the major developments coming out over the last few hours. There are many people who, as we heard from Jack there, are going on that line. What do you make of the split reality, for a lack of a better term?

HILL: It's fascinating. It's like a political war chess. You know, people kind of see what they want to see based on their political orientation, but there are some concrete facts here. And one fact is that is -- there's going to be an indictment. There have been target letters issued prior to the indictment. So, I disagree with your friend Jack. This isn't just a random -- potentially random campaign worker who may have had some shady dealing, who he stumbled across. This is an investigation that has produced some serious information that's far more likely that this is the first domino in many, and this is some odd outlier.

[07:20:28] And with regard to the Clinton, and with regards the DNC, I don't want to sidestep that. I think that is an important conversation that we need to have, but, somehow, right-wing media and the Trump administration -- which in many ways are the same thing -- have somehow spun this into a moment where the Democrats and Clintons are under investigation, and not the president. And they framed the argument in that way so that when Trump is ultimately linked to a controversy, whether he is guilty or not, I'm not suggesting, but just right now linked to whatever happens on Monday when someone is charged and taken into custody, when that happens, they could say, hey wait, we're in the middle of a Democratic investigation.

And suddenly they try to distract us with something that is only marginally linked to President Trump. This is a chess game and it's the chess game that's being masterfully manipulated by the right, but it's important that we keep our eye on what's important here, which is this investigation and these indictments.

BLACKWELL: Page, let me come to you because I want you to pick up on something that the congressman said there, that he still doesn't believe there's any evidence of collusion and that no one's going to be charged with collusion. On Monday, that's when this is unsealed, there will be no charge of "collusion."

PATE: That's exactly correct. There will be no collusion in this indictment because collusion itself is not a federal crime. So, what will have to be in the indictment is some allegations that the defendant broke the federal law; made some sort of commission of an offense under federal law, and collusion itself is not defined under there. So, once this indictment is unsealed, the White House looks at it, they may say, hey, look, there's collusion in this indictment, but there never could be. But other charges related to Russian interference in the election, hacking charges, obstruction charges, perhaps false statement charges that occurred during the course of the investigation, all of that is possible but you're not going to see a collusion charge because it doesn't exist.

BLACKWELL: Eugene, one other element that I don't think is getting enough attention is that Dana Benty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, he resigned surprisingly yesterday. People may remember that name, but he was briefly the acting attorney general, also the acting deputy attorney general for a period. Again, that Eastern District of Virginia is important to this case. Many of the subpoenas came through that district. Any correlation, any connection here that you are learning about?

SCOTT: I think that's very possible. In terms of details regarding the reason why he stepped away from his position. Those haven't been clear as of yet, but that could be forthcoming just like so much information related to this investigation could be forthcoming. I think what we will see from the Trump campaign, a response though because there can be no charge of collusion. They will continue to say that there is no collusion. But as has been mentioned before, this investigation is wide sweeping. And just because there perhaps will not be a charge of collusion, that doesn't mean that there won't be other revelations that were problems involving multiple people as we see all the way down to the state attorney general's level.

BLACKWELL: Amber, Marc touched on this in the last segment about the president or the White House potentially getting a heads up on this. The president tweeted, "It is now commonly agreed after many months of costly looking, and there was no collusion between Russia and Trump, was collusion with H.C." That tweet coming out yesterday. What is the likelihood that the White House got some heads up here?

PHILLIPS: From my understanding of the way the special counsel works, that would not be -- the way -- it would not happen where the White House got a heads up if someone in their circle were being charged with a crime, especially if it were related to a broader investigation of the White House and President Trump's campaign. I mean, from my understanding from legal experts is you do not launch a special investigation that's gone on for months and expanded to a dozen attorneys with a wide-ranging array of prosecutorial skills and not try to focus very much on the top. So, this notion in that the White House got a heads up doesn't underscore with what I understand the facts to be, which is that this investigation is trying to get to the bottom of a very serious issue related to the president of the United States. It would be extraordinary if they did get a head's up about this.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The person and those charges will glean a lot of light on potentially the strategy moving forward as we know this investigation likely is not over. Amber Phillips, Eugene Scott, Page Pate, Marc Lamont Hill, Jack Kingston, thank you all.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

[07:24:56] MARSH: All right. And just ahead, what we're learning from the thousands of pages of the JFK assassination files. Two Cuban intelligence officers are heard talking about Lee Harvey Oswald, does it reveal anything about the assassination of JFK?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARSH: Welcome back. I'm Rene Marsh in for Christi Paul this morning. BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you this Saturday.

MARSH: Well, our top story this morning, a major development in the Russia investigation: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has filed the first charges in the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Mueller and investigators on Capitol Hill are scrutinizing Trump and his associates' financial ties to Russia. Our Justice Correspondent Pamela Brown helped break the story, she has more on the new revelations.

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[07:30:00] PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It takes a couple of days before the attorney of the client even notified, and then what would happen at that point is the attorney would be told that their client needs to -- his or her client needs to turn him or herself, you know, within a certain time frame.

And so, that is typically how this plays out which is why we're being told that we could see a law enforcement activity related to these sealed indictments as early as perhaps Monday or Tuesday.

Robert Mueller and his team's M.O., from the very beginning, has been to just keep quiet, keep things under wraps, don't talk to the media --

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, President Trump as you know has repeatedly called the investigation a hoax and just hours before these charges were announced, according to CNN's reporting that he posted this, the President had tweeted this. "It is commonly agreed after many months of costly looking that there was no collusion between Russia and Trump was collusion with H.C."

RENE MARSH, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, we're going to get to our panel now. Here to discuss, CNN Correspondent Kara Scannell; CNN Political Commentator and Former Senior Advisor for the Trump Campaign, Jack Kingston; and GOP Strategist and Author of GOP GPS, Evan Siegfried.

Thank you all for joining us this morning, you know, I want to get to you first, Kara. How significant is this latest development about Mueller filing these first charges?

KARA SCANNELL CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a major development. The special counsel's investigation began in May. So, in just a short time period of five months, the team assembled by Mueller has presented enough evidence to a grand jury that they've decided that there is enough to warrant criminal charges. What we don't know is the nature of the charges and we know the special counsel's office has been looking into many different elements of these, from collusion, which the Trump administration as you just said has denied. And also, potential lobbying violations by former aides to the Trump campaign, and other components.

So, we're seeing in a very short period of time initial charges in this case. And that's very significant at this point.

MARSH: Jack, I want to go to you, I mean, first charges being filed in this investigation, Mueller's investigation, the President has continuously called this a witch hunt. Is it still witch hunt in light of these new developments?

JACK KINGSTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that it is just a free reign, come look at everybody's books, audit anything you want, spend millions and millions of dollars on taxpayer's money on this phony allegation of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. I think if there's any evidence that we've seen lately, it's with the Clinton Campaign.

The Uranium One deal really smells. That's why the House is looking into it. The executive -- the President of the company given the Clinton Foundation $2.3 million right at a time when they were getting their sale to Russia approved. Very, very fishy. 72,000 e-mails of Hillary Clinton that are just now being released, only -- actually 30,000. 40,000 are still going to be trickled out. On the dossier where the President -- or the Director of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and then John Podesta who ran the Clinton campaign say they know nothing about it, yet $9 million was spent.

You have all of this on the table and then you have James Comey who was in the thick of it when an FBI informant was saying, hey, this company Ten-X has a bribery stuff going on, some shenanigans with Russia. So, to me, there's a lot that could be investigated by this special prosecutor's office and I hope they're looking at some of this stuff.

MARSH: All right. Well, Jack, you just cued me up for where we want to go with this conversation because what you're saying is very much in line and echoes with what we've been here from the White House and the President all this week. They've been actually saying, don't look over here at Russia, I want to you look at Hillary Clinton. Take a listen to Sara Sanders in the Press briefing room this week.

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SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The President wants to see this completed. We think that we are continuing to see day in, day out as this investigation moves to completion though as the same as it started, there's still no evidence of collusion between the President and anyone. If any collusion took place, it would be between the DNC and the Clintons, and I think we're starting to now see that all of the things that the Democrats had accused this President of doing, they were actually guilty of themselves. And I think that's a really big problem that should be certainly looked at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: Evan, I want to bring you in on the conversation. I mean, what do you take? It is clearly looks like a strategy here, in which, you know, in this week alone we've heard about Clinton e-mails, we've heard about this dossier and the Clinton campaign funding it. We've also heard about this Russia Uranium deal. Is it an effective strategy?

[07:39:52] EVAN SIEGFRIED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, it's a strategy of basically like, the O.J. Simpson defense team saying, but there was another guy murdered across the street from Nicole Brown Simpson. It doesn't matter, they are still investigating what actually happened and the Special Counsel's purview is to deal with the Trump campaign and Russia.

Thank goodness, there's a DOJ which is capable of investigating all of these things the White House has raised, which certainly should be looked at, definitely by Congress. And if they find reason for a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice, then it should be investigated. But the shiny object of saying, "Well, what about them?" That is a nonsense strategy because we have to see where things go.

I think from what we've seen, we've certainly seen news reports that there's been a lot of money laundering activity by Paul Manafort. We saw that last week, we had Paul Manafort's realtor actually testify to the grand jury. So, the talking point that, well, this is a Mueller with the indictment just trying to save his job. And that he's -- because he's costing us millions.

We don't even have a cost of how much the investigation has cost. So, I don't think that that talking point is based in reality at this point. The White House would love to see Special Counsel Mueller dismissed. But it's up to Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, whether or not these charges can go through, and he clearly has said yes.

MARSH: Jack, really quickly, because want to move on to another topic. But let's stay on that O.J. example there. It's like saying, look, there was another murder across the street. I mean, what do you say to that? Why is -- why are they talking about Hillary Clinton now? This would -- it sounds like the campaign being re-litigated once again.

KINGSTON: Well, I think it's legitimate. Number one, there's no statute on the charges that may be coming against Hillary Clinton's campaign workers. And, by the way, Evan, I have to say, I don't know then of any evidence that you've seen about Paul Manafort in money laundering. That's a real interesting accusation, which I would challenge you on that. We have not seen any evidence. Now, the special prosecutor might deliver something but we have not seen anything like that. And that's the kind of talk in Washington, D.C. that people accept as truth when there's not truth to it. So, --

SIEGFRIED: Thankfully, I don't live in Washington, D.C. I spent six years in the Federal Court System seeing (INAUDIBLE).

KINGSTON: Well, you might -- you might fit, Evan. You might fit in with talk like that. But, you know, I think that this Special Prosecutor is going to go a lot of different places. As you know, he's got four Clinton donors on his team. They are highly motivated to get -- to get Donald Trump, they're not as motivated to go back and look at this bribery accusation which one of their own FBI informants had reported when James Comey and Robert Mueller when the thick of it, in 2010. But frankly, I think it would be good for the country if they looked at that.

SIEGFRIED: I have to disagree with Jack here. Because I see the strategy coming out and he's saying, "Well, they're Clinton donors who want to go after Donald Trump more than Hillary Clinton.

KINGSTON: They are, there's four of them.

SIEGFRIED: That's impugning the -- they are career law enforcement officials and you're impugning the integrity of the investigation.

KINGSTON: -- 35 grand. One of them gave $35,000. That's not a cash like -- I mean, I'll ask the panel.

SIEGFRIED: But --

KINGSTON: And say, I'm a political activist, I've never given $35,000 to anybody.

MARSH: So, Jack, are you -- are you questioning whether Mueller can do this -- and do this objectively?

KINGSTON: I really am. I think that that's one reason why he's putting this card on the table. Because Congressman Trent Franks who's not a hardcore partisan. He asked for his -- he said it's time for him to resign based on his tie in with this bribery scandal that he ignored along with James Comey several years ago. So, I -- you know, to me, it's very questionable if he can do this. Now, let me say this --

MARSH: But he's gotten support from both sides, Democrats --

KINGSTON: Yes, he has and --

MARSH: -- Democrats and Republicans when the name was floated for the position in the first place.

KINGSTON: And Trey Gowdy, who, you know, is a key player here. He has said I have confidence in Robert Mueller. And so, I think that's significant and I do have a lot of faith on Trey. So, I going to say that but I also believe Trent Franks has something to say about it.

MARSH: All right. Well, we're going to leave it there. Jack Kingston, Evan Siegfried, and Kara Scannell, thank you all for joining us.

KINGSTON: Thank you.

SEIGFRIED: Thank you

BLACKWELL: All right. Thousands of pages of the JFK assassination investigation has been released now. Some still classified for a few months more. Will they ever be released?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:37] MARSH: Well, just in to CNN, one American service member has been killed and six others hurt after a helicopter crashed in Logar Province in Afghanistan last night.

BLACKWELL: And the cause of the crash is under investigation but military officials say it was not due to enemy actions. Of course, when we get more on that, we will, of course, bring it to you.

MARSH: All right, and in the months after JFK, John F. Kennedy was assassinated, according to newly released files, the FBI tried to track down a stripper named Kitty. Another named Candy Cane, yes, Kitty and Candy Cane, was corrected to nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. He's the man who shot Kennedy's at assassin Lee Harvey Oswald just days after he shot the President.

BLACKWELL: According to files, Kitty was never found because she reportedly committed suicide in the months before the assassination. That's just one of the stories coming from the nearly 3,000 declassified JFK files. But there are also document that have not been released. Here's Brian Todd on whether or not more documents could be revealed.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tantalizing new details in the newly released Kennedy Assassination files. A CIA document reveals Lee Harvey Oswald spoke in broken Russian to a KGB agent in Mexico City, less than two months before the assassination. But it may have been only to get help with a passport or visa.

Another JFK file on Oswald's proficiency with a rifle. It details a conversation between two Cuban intelligence officers in 1967. One says, "Oswald must have been a good shot." The other agent named, Abreu, replied, "Oh, he was quite good." Asked how he knew this, Abreu replied, "I knew him."

[07:45:19] ERIC O'NEILL, NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST, CARBON BLACK: The conspiratorial angle would be, hey, the Cubans were behind Oswald, you know, assassinating a President. But it's much more likely that it's something more simple, is someone boasting to another person. Oh, I knew him four years ago, this is four years after the assassination.

TODD: It leaves us wanting more and fuels criticism of intelligence agencies. Analysts say some agencies are notorious for overclassifying.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Often, you will find in a research file, newspaper clippings that have already been published marked secret. Now, how could newspaper clippings that have been published be a state secret? But it's just easier for government agencies to do that. Then they don't have to respond under the law to a lot of requests that they get.

TODD: But veteran intelligence operatives say there are good reasons why some of the JFK files should never be released.

O'NEILL: And some of the things in there might be assets or sources overseas that are feeding our intelligence engine. TODD: Eric O'Neill is a former FBI counterintelligence officer who

helped capture Russian mole, Robert Hansen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was he the one who hacked into another agent's hard drive?

TODD: O'Neill was played by Ryan Philippe in the spy thriller, "Breach". He says, even with a case as old as the Kennedy assassination, valuable informants could be compromised.

O'NEILL: There can be assets who are still alive. There are sources that were put in place back then that are still being used. There could be sources that began recruiting back then that are finally materialized. There can also be the families of assets who are no longer useful but could be put in danger if this information came out.

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TODD: Eric O'Neill acknowledges that not releasing some intelligence documents on the Kennedy assassination, even if it's for good reason to protect valuable sources might provide fodder or conspiracy theorists. In fact, some of the documents that were released might already be doing that like this one. A deposition of former CIA Director Richard Helms. He's asked if he's got any information which might indicate that Oswald might have been a CIA agent. The document cuts off before Helms answers. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

MARSH: All right. Well, still to come, an incredible rescue at sea after two women were stranded in the Pacific Ocean for five months. How they survived so long and how they stayed in good spirits. That story is next.

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[07:51:51] BLACKWELL: So listen to this, two American women and their dogs, finally rescued after being stranded at sea for five months. American Navy sailors found them thousands of miles of the Coast of Tahiti at the Pacific Ocean.

MARSH: They were headed for Tahiti from Hawaii, but then their engine failed along the way. CNN Correspondent Dan Simon has more of this truly amazing rescue.

BLACKWELL: Dan, good morning.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rene and Victor, it was supposed to be an amazing adventure between friends and their dogs, but about a month into it, they hit some turbulence and when their boat was badly mangled, they thought they would never be found.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you doing?

SIMON: Two friends and their dogs rescued at sea. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, along with their dogs, Zeus and Valentine, had been stranded for nearly five months.

JENNIFER APPEL, RESCUED AT SEA: When I saw the gray boat on the edge of the horizon, my heart leaped. Because I knew that we were about to be saved. Because I honestly believed we were going to die within the next 24 hours.

SIMON: It all began on May 3rd, a planned voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti. But a few weeks in, they would run into bad weather, crippling the boat. The mast and the engine, broken. Veering badly off course, daily distress calls were useless. They were too far away for anyone to hear. But at one point, they did have some company, sharks.

APPEL: I went downstairs with the boys and we basically laid huddled on the floor and I told them not to bark. Because the sharks could hear us breathing, they could smell us.

SIMON: But even in despair, at a hopeless feeling of never being found, there were some bright spots.

TASHA FUIAVA, RESCUED AT SEA: There's different sunrises and sunsets every day. You're alive, you're fed, you have water, the boys are happy and there's love.

SIMON: And then a miraculous sudden break. A Taiwanese fishing vessel spotted their boat and contacted the U.S. Coast Guard. The pair discovered 900 miles Southeast of Japan, thousands of miles away from Tahiti. The USS Ashland reaching them on Wednesday morning. They'll stay on board until the vessel's next port of call.

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SIMON: Thanks to a year's worth of dry goods, including oatmeal and pasta, they were able to survive. Thankfully, they had a water purifier. But the bottom line is the forethought to bring more supplies than what they thought they needed is ultimately how they survive, an important lesson for everybody. Victor and Rene?

MARSH: An amazing story of survival. And coming up, at the top of the hour, a major development in the Russia investigation. Special Counsel Robert Mueller asked a grand jury to file the first charges in the case. What will the President say this morning?

BLACKWELL: All right, "TECH-ING CARE OF YOUR HEALTH" this week, let's do it. We're looking at diagnosing illnesses using an electronic nose. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen has the story.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: With a single breath, Hosam Hieyk says he can diagnose 17 different illnesses.

HOSSAM HAICK, ISRAELI CHEMICAL ENGINEER: When we are sick, we emit chemical compounds. We have found that every disease has its own signature from the exhaled breath.

[07:55:06] COHEN: Researchers say, this electronic nose can sniff out disease biomarkers. The electronic nose works much like a dog's nose. HAICK: But instead of the biological receptors, we put our chemical receptors. And instead of the brain of the dog, we put our computer with the algorithms. We have shown that we can diagnose Parkinson disease, Alzheimer, Multiple Sclerosis, IBD, IBS, tuberculosis, and many other disease.

COHEN: Haick says the device is about 86 percent accurate. There's more research to be done, but one day, this smell test could become a less expensive and faster way to diagnose diseases.

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