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The Situation Room

Tufts Student Detained by Federal Agents; Senate Hearing Underway on Mid-Air Collision in D.C.; Hidden Notes to Luigi Mangione. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 27, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Services Committee and on the Intel Committee. We work together. We recognize the seriousness of this indiscretion and we're going to get the inspector general's report. We've asked for this. Both the chairman of -- the chairman and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee have sent a letter to the inspector general asking for a report, including a classified annex if necessary.

And that means the bottom line we want as much information as we can get, and then we'll do our own assessment. But right now, I think they screwed up. I think they know they screwed up. I think they also learned their lesson and I think the president made it very clear to them that this is a lesson they don't want to forget.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. We're hearing from both Democrats and Republicans that the screw up was big time, major screw up over their arrest.

ROUNDS: Well, once again, Wolf, they -- it took away from the great success of that mission. And I mean, what a terrible thing to have happen in the middle of the program where our young men and women come in, they kick butt, they clean things up, they do it in a joint response after months of not being able to do so because of political pressure not to, the president gives them the green light to go in and do it. They do a great job. And then to have this overshadow that really successful takeout of the command and control in Yemen, that's really the most serious part of this whole thing is this it doesn't give these young men and women in uniform credit for what they did. A really great job.

BLITZER: And we got to learn specifically how a journalist was included in that very sensitive chat on Signal. Senator Mike Rounds, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

ROUNDS: Thank you, sir.

BLITZER: And up next, caught on camera. A university grad student with a valid visa is seized off the streets by mass federal agents. She joins other international students now targeted by the Trump administration. Their reasoning, we'll share that with you. That's next.

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[10:35:00]

BLITZER: This morning, the Turkish government says it's closely watching the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and graduate student at Tufts University who was detained outside her home this week. The Department of Homeland Securities says she, quote, "engaged in activities in support of Hamas." But has yet to specify what those activities were. Her attorney says she has not been charged with a crime.

CNN Senior Legal Analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney Elie Honig is joining us right now. So, Elie, what law is the Department of Homeland Security relying on in this case?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST AND FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Well, Wolf, we don't know the answer to that exactly, and here's why. If this was a criminal case, and as you said, it's not, but if it was, there would be a public indictment and that would tell us exactly what law was at issue, it would tell us exactly what the alleged, who, what, when, where of it was. But instead, we are in the immigration context.

Now, it appears, based on DHS's public statements that they're relying on a 1952 immigration law that gives the secretary of state very broad discretion to designate a non-citizen, including a visa holder like here, as a potential threat to U.S. national security. They've invoked this law in other similar cases. It has rarely been used over the 70 plus years of its existence, but it looks like under the new Trump administration, DHS is relying on this law more and more frequently.

BLITZER: So, Elie, what legal arguments do you expect Ozturk's lawyer to use to challenge all of this?

HONIG: So, I think we should look for two arguments. The first argument is that the law itself cannot give the secretary of state unilateral authority to simply declare someone a security threat and deport them. The argument will be that the individual is entitled to some type of due process, some type of way to contest this. I think that's going to be the core argument that we see here from the lawyer for this student.

BLITZER: In the article that she co-authored at Tufts University student newspaper, she says, among other things, credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide. Is that enough for the U.S. government now to say she should be kicked out?

HONIG: Well, I think that'll raise another legal issue. I think another thing that we'll hear from the student's lawyer is that she's being singled out because of the content of her speech, because of statements like that, that she has made publicly. And I think the argument will be that that's a First Amendment violation.

What I think we'll hear in response from the government, from DHS is Congress drafted this law. They passed this law in 1952, and they meant to give the secretary of state very broad discretion. And so, the secretary of state in the argument of DHS has the ability to determine that somebody's a national security threat, and that's that, and there's no further proceeding.

BLITZER: We've learned that Ozturk has been transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana despite a judge issuing an order for Ozturk not to leave the State of Massachusetts where Tufts University is. Do we do we know, Elie, when this order was given and whether the Department of Homeland Security may have intentionally defied the judge?

HONIG: So, that's the exact issue here, Wolf. And we saw a similar issue still playing out in the other case involving deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. The key question here is going to be timing. At the moment that federal judge gave the order, do not remove this person from Massachusetts, had she already been moved to Louisiana? If she had already been moved, then there's not going to be an issue regarding defiance. But if she was moved after that order was given, then we're going to need some serious answers here from DHS as to why that order was not followed.

BLITZER: Elie Hoig helping us understand what's going on, as usual. Thank you very, very much.

HONIG: Thanks, Wolf.

[10:40:00]

BLITZER: Right now, aviation officials are in the hot seat up on Capitol Hill. They're facing serious questions over that deadly plane crash in the Potomac near Reagan National Airport. A former FAA safety analyst is standing by to join me. We'll discuss when we come back.

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BLITZER: Happening now up on Capitol Hill, the U.S. Senate is holding a hearing with top transportation and aviation officials on that mid- air collision over the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport back in January. It was the deadliest crash in the United States in nearly two decades. Here is what the chair of the NTSB just said moments ago about the crash.

[10:45:00]

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JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NTSB: We determined that the separation distances between helicopter traffic operating on Route 4 and aircraft using runways 15 and 33 are insufficient and pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety. As a result, we recommended that the FAA prohibit operations on helicopter Route 4 between Haynes Point and Wilson Bridge when those runways are being used for departures and arrivals.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: All right. Let's bring in CNS safety analyst, the former FAA safety inspector, David Soucie. David, thanks for joining us. This hearing will review the NTSB's preliminary report on January's crash and I'm quoting now, "intolerable risk." That seems like a significant admission from the NTSB. What do you think?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST AND FORMER FAA SAFETY INSPECTOR: Well, I've been in this business a long time, as you know, and I've never once heard an intolerable risk on a scale of this level. It has been bad. It has been scary for a long time. 15,000 incidents, 15,000 close calls with these aircraft over the last three or four years, and it is intolerable. And my question is, why has it been intolerable for this long?

BLITZER: And I -- you know, as someone who has flown in and out of Reagan National Airport here in Washington for many, many years, I used to see helicopters flying all over the place. And I said to myself, I wonder why all these helicopters are flying here in the -- near the Potomac River, near the airport where a lot of planes are coming in and taking off. It was never clear to me. But listen to what the chairman of the Senate subcommittee, Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Virginia said in his opening remarks. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JERRY MORAN (R-KS), CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION, SPACE, AND INNOVATION: 67 lives that were lost on January 29th were taken prematurely in an accident that by all indications should have been avoided. Now, the families of these victims, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. Army and Congress are tasked with how to best honor the memory and make certain accidents like this never happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what kind of safety changes could we be seeing following what happened?

SOUCIE: Well, most definitely, the FAA air traffic controllers are going to have to get some support. They're going to have to change the system, figure out how to make that work. But more importantly, the triage, the first part of it, is making sure that there's rules in place that prevent what's been going on, which Chairman Homendy is already mandated and made sure happen with the FAA, which is that the helicopter operations have been ceased through March 31st. But that's a band aid. That doesn't fix things. And I hope that they extend that and keep that going longer.

But in the meantime, they have to be looking at what's the long-term fix. The long-term fix is staffing properly and perhaps an overhaul of the whole system to figure out the communications between each other. You know, one of the things that's always bothered me so much, Wolf, is when you are flying the airport and I'm in the cockpit listening to what's going on, it's always garbled. It's barely, hardly recognizable, and pilots are faced with that every day with the air traffic controller system, the communication system, it's all just audio. It's like an analog stream of information, that has to change. And that's where I think it needs to focus right now.

BLITZER: Yes, easy solution. A simple solution, not just at Reagan National Airport here in Washington, but at all airports around the country where there are a lot of planes taking off and landing as to completely bar helicopters from flying around in that sensitive airspace. Just forget about that and move on. What do you think?

SOUCIE: Well, I think that's smart. They tried to do that. The FAA has rules and it -- you know, I remember during "Top Gun" you think about that hard ceiling they talk about, or the hard floor they talk about when they're trying to do the dog fights. This is exactly what the FAA, their response to this is, is to say there's a hard ceiling. Helicopters, when there's operations, can't go above 200 feet, but there's humans involved. And the fact that this helicopter was over 200 feet means that it broke that ceiling, it broke those restrictions.

So, I think you're right. I think in many circumstances, barring helicopters in a larger distance around heliports or airports is something that definitely has to be considered by the powers that be.

BLITZER: Yes, very significant. All right. David Soucie, as usual, thank you very, very much. And coming up, we're getting new details right now in the alleged CEO killer, Luigi Mangione. Messages of support found in his socks. That's next right here in the Situation Room.

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[10:50:00]

BLITZER: We have new developments in the case of Luigi Mangione. The 26-year-old accused of murdering United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Mangione has received a rather shocking degree of very public support. Court documents show heart shaped notes were slipped into a pair of socks for his court appearance last month. The notes said in part, and I'm quoting now, "Keep your head held high and know there are thousands of people wishing you luck," close quote.

Let's go live to CNN Correspondent Kara Scannell, who's joining us from New York here. I know you've been doing a lot of new reporting on all of this. Tell us about this part of the prosecutor's concerns and the accusations that are being leveled against Mangione's lawyers.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, prosecutors say that this heart-shaped note and the fact that Mangione wore a green sweater to his court appearance last month when numbers -- dozens of supporters outside the courthouse were also wearing green, prosecutors are saying that this is an effort by his defense team to fan the flames of publicity.

[10:55:00]

And so, they're bringing it to the attention of the court because a concern here is jury nullification given the groundswell of support that Mangione has attracted. I mean, he has raised more than $750,000 through a GoFundMe account for his legal defense fund. So, the prosecutors are bringing this up saying that his legal team is playing into this and that Mangione had gotten special treatment by being allowed to change from prison clothes into the street clothes, and suggesting that that was abused by the transportation of this hidden note, this heart-shaped note in the socks that Mangione then did not wear.

And of course, the prosecution has also raised this because the defense has said that Mangione is being submitted to the prosecution's own use of this perp walk, of them participating in an HBO interview talking about the case. So, there's a lot of back and forth here, both sides complaining that both are laying into the publicity as this case is getting set to get closer to trial, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Kara Scannell reporting. We'll stay in close touch with you. Thank you. Coming up, it's a day. Baseball fans like me have been anticipating for months. Opening day is here at last. Take a look at this, a live look over at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles. We're tracking all the action just ahead.

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