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Key European Leaders Will Join Zelenskyy at White House; ACLU Sues Trump Administration Over Facility Marketed as Alligator Alcatraz; Former Attorney General Barr Testifies on Epstein Case to House Panel. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Washington, D.C., to meet with President Trump, one of the most critical since the cold war. We have new reporting from inside the White House.

And eye of the storm, Hurricane Erin forcing evacuations this morning. Rip current concerns up and down the East Coast.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, no access to attorneys. The ACLU is claiming immigration detainees in Florida are being denied counsel. The case heading to a Miami court this hour.

And caught on camera, a hiker trapped behind a waterfall for two days, two days, is rescued by a helicopter.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news here in Washington, trying to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Today, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is due to meet with President Trump over at the White House. European leaders have scrambled to Washington and will also attend that meeting. And it comes just a few days after the president's Alaskan summit with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin.

And President Trump appears to echo two of Putin's key demands. On social media last night, President Trump said Ukraine must accept it will not see the return of Crimea, and it will not be allowed to join the NATO military alliance.

The future of Ukraine could hang in the balance of today's talks and Putin's relentless bombardment, which continues and it underscores the stakes right now. This morning, officials in Ukraine say at least ten people have been killed in Russia's latest airstrikes, including a baby and two teenage boys. And those strikes continue.

Let's go live right now to CNN White House Reporter Alayna Treene. Alayna, what are the Trump administration's expectations for today's meeting with President Zelenskyy? ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Well, as the president is calling it, it's a big day at the White House, Wolf. That's what he posted not long ago. And he also flicked at, you know, the seven European leaders that will be coming here joining Zelenskyy for more of these meetings.

And, look, in my conversations with people here at the White House, their goal is to really see what Ukraine is willing to accept. And we did see the president, as you mentioned, kind of lay out his message for Ukraine last night before Zelenskyy arrives, essentially saying that it must give up Crimea, which Russia legally annexed back in 2014 and also agree not to join NATO. Those, Wolf, are the concessions that Putin also said or laid out on Friday in Alaska as well.

Some other things I think really worth noting, a ceasefire. We heard the president this weekend say that a ceasefire is no longer the main goal for them and that he believes that they should move directly to a peace deal. We also know that a key goal today is trying to see whether or not they can get to a trilateral meeting, essentially having Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy and Donald Trump all meeting together as the next step in what could be a very long process to ending this war.

But I do want to go back and remind you to what we have heard from the president previously on this. I remind you that this all started when Trump threatened Putin with an August 8th deadline to either agree to a ceasefire or to face severe economic consequences. Listen to what he said as last week as well on the same topic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Will Russia face any consequences if Vladimir Putin does not agree to stop the war after your meeting on Friday?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes, they will, yes.

REPORTER: What will the consequences be, sanctions, tariffs?

TRUMP: There will be consequences. There will be -- I don't have to say there will be very severe consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, he said there would be very severe consequences.

We heard similar rhetoric from the president while he was flying to Alaska on Friday, saying he would be very unhappy if they did not reach a ceasefire. But now that's not really what their goal is anymore. That is set up some concern, particularly those in Ukraine and Europe who worry that that will give Putin more time to allow the fighting.

But all to say we're waiting to see these leaders arrive and where they will fall and whether they'll get on the same page as President Trump.

BLITZER: All right. Alayna Treene at the White House for us, Alayna, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And, Wolf, the American Civil Liberties Union is holding a news conference just before heading into federal court over that makeshift immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, as the administration calls it Alligator Alcatraz.

So, this could become a black hole where we know that people aren't getting the rights, according to the ACLU.

[10:05:00]

This is where detainees disappear. And it is suing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials.

So, let's go live now to CNN's Rafael Romo. Rafael, what are the two sides arguing here about this controversial facility?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, this particular case is about whether the federal government and the state of Florida are allowing detainees to see their attorneys with both sides giving very different versions of what's truly happening.

And let's remind our viewers, Alligator Alcatraz is currently facing two lawsuits. One was filed by environmental groups who are opposed to such a facility being built in the middle of an ecosystem, like the Florida Everglades. The one being heard right now, it just started a few minutes ago, Pamela, was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Immigrants Rights Advocates. A federal court in Miami is currently holding this hearing about the second case filed by the ACLU, which makes several allegations, including that detainees are denied access to legal counsel at the makeshift Florida detention site, and that they are pressured to self-deport without legal representation.

At an earlier hearing, the federal judge hearing the case raised concerns about confusion over who runs the facility. The ACLU's lead counsel in this case says, beyond the harsh conditions detainees face at Alligator Alcatraz, there are fundamental rights that are being violated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EUNICE CHO, SENIOR COUNSEL, ACLU NATIONAL PRISON PROJECT: Held, of course, without, you know, honoring many of the very basic constitutional rights to be able to speak to counsel, to be able to petition for release from custody. And, you know, Alligator Alcatraz cannot end up being a black hole where people disappear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And, Pam, in response to the allegations, a top Department of Homeland Security official said that any allegation that illegal aliens at Alligator Alcatraz do not have access to attorneys as false. The facility maintains a physical space for attorneys to meet with their clients. Additionally, Florida established an email address for attorneys to submit requests to speak to the specific illegal aliens. The ACLU lawsuit names Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her entire department as defendants, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his executive director of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, among other officials, the state of Florida has pushed back same conditions at the tent facility are in good working order, and that claims to the contrary are false. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Rafael Romo, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Interesting. Happening now, the former attorney general of the United States, Bill Barr, is appearing before the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors. He's expected to testify about the Jeffrey Epstein case. Barr led the U.S. Justice Department at the time of Epstein's death. He's the first of ten officials subpoenaed by Congress to testify about Epstein.

I want to bring in scene a Crime and Justice Correspondent Katelyn Polantz. So, Katelyn, why does Barr's account matter for this Congressional investigation?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the members of Congress from the House Oversight Committee that are asking for Bill Barr to testify and have him now up on the Hill right now, they say that they want him to talk for two reasons, because they want to do oversight of the federal sex trafficking laws, so they want to do research into the legal side, but they also want to look at the handling of the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, still behind bars.

So, a lot of questions still around Epstein. And are these the right people to give those answers? That's -- we will have to see exactly what the House Oversight Committee can get here. The first of a whole long list of people that have received subpoenas for depositions is Barr. After him, the others that the House Oversight Committee wants to hear from are five former attorneys general, basically everyone else who had been around when Epstein was being investigated, the whole way back into 2007 up until when he was indicted in 2019, when Barr was the attorney general. And then also there's two former FBI directors and the Clinton's getting indictments.

But, Wolf, the thing I'm really looking to is not just what may come out of Bill Barr's deposition but how willing the Justice Department is to allow him to answer questions, and is the Justice Department going to meet their own subpoena deadline? This Oversight Committee has asked for documents to be produced by tomorrow. What are they going to turn over? That is where the committee has asked for everything related to Jeff Epstein from the Justice Department and FBI and they want the receipts. We'll see if that's turned over.

BLITZER: You say they want to question Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton. He was the president. She was the secretary of state. What's going on there?

POLANTZ: That's right. They are asking. Essentially all of the boldfaced names that have been around the Epstein matter in different ways. But the possibility that these people know much about what happened with Epstein is very -- at least in their official positions, could be very narrow.

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Now, of course, there's a lot of questions about high-profile individuals who may have known Jeffrey Epstein including Bill Clinton. That has been a question the Republicans has asked for a long time, but he has not been accused of any crimes related to this.

BLITZER: All right. Katelyn Polantz, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, Texas Republicans are set to begin another special session to redraw its Congressional map. State Democrats said this morning that they will be there after fleeing the state for the last one, as we have been covering. And there's this new video showing some of those lawmakers leaving Chicago this morning to head back to Texas.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is preparing to retaliate. He wants his state to redistrict so that Democrats can grab more seats of their own in Congress. That move could also happen beginning today.

Let's go live now to CNN Correspondent Arlette Saenz in Austin, Texas. Bring us the latest Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, the redistricting showdown is underway as lawmakers in both Texas and California are racing to pass changes to their Congressional maps. Now, this morning, we learned that the Texas House Democrats who have been out of the state for 15 days are now returning to the state capitol. They could be here in just under three hours when the Texas House is set to reconvene. This ends that long standoff and essentially paves the way for Republicans in Texas to pass those Congressional maps, which could net them up to five GOP seats in the next midterm elections.

Now, this House will reconvene at noon here in Austin, and that will kick off the legislative process for passing this bill. GOP leaders have yet to set a timeline for when they could pass these maps in Texas, but it could come as soon as this week. The Texas House Democrats will now turn their attention to try to make the case against it on the floor of the House as they are preparing to file some lawsuits in the coming weeks to challenge those maps.

And then there's another set of action that is playing out in California as the state legislator is expected to officially introduce their Congressional maps, which could net them five Democratic seats in the midterm elections a bit later today. That could pass as soon as Thursday, but it would still need to be considered by California voters. That's a big difference between what is happening here in Texas and in California.

But both of these states have been racing to pass these maps, an issue that will really have huge consequences and stakes for the next composition of the U.S. House in the second half of President Donald Trump's term.

BROWN: All right. Arlette Saenzs, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Happening now, Hurricane Erin expected to churn up life- threatening surf and rip currents toward the East Coast as well as Bermuda. The hurricane now is sprawling Category 4 hurricane after hitting Category 5 status over the weekend.

Take a look. You're looking directly into the eye of Hurricane Erin. This amazing footage captured by the 93rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as hurricane hunters.

For more, we're joined now by CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. He's joining us from the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta. Derek, can we expect even greater strength in size for Hurricane Erin in the coming days?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, those same hurricane hunters have been sampling inside the eye of Hurricane Erin. By the way, you were looking at that stadium effect, that incredible look where the skies go clear above you. You see the sun and creating that stadium look to the clouds. Well, that is the pinhole eye that this rapidly intensifying hurricane showed us this weekend.

And guess what, what they've sampled lately is the storm is getting stronger once again, but it's also expanding in size. And this is so important because that is going to impact the waves that will be generated by this large storm system as it nearly doubles in size through the next couple of days.

So,what it will do is it will propagate a series of very large waves in all directions. The eastern seaboard starting today has a higher risk of rip currents. But look at tomorrow, the placement of Hurricane Erin, there it is, and then the high risk of rip currents and a large dangerous wave, especially on those east and southeast shorelines with some of our computer models actually modeling out over a hundred-foot waves in the open ocean. That doesn't mean necessarily that's what will happen along the coastline.

More realistic numbers here, these are still very large, very dangerous, and could cause some damage right along the coastal areas here in the outer banks. For instance, 15 to 20-foot breaking waves on the shoreline. Then the storm kind of kicks between the field goals right Bermuda on the East Coast, exits out to sea by Friday afternoon, but not before creating the large waves and potentially tropical storm force winds as far west as Cape Hatteras and into the outer banks.

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So, this is an area we're going to keep a close eye on, Wolf, for the potential of tropical storm conditions by Thursday.

BLITZER: Derek Van Dam, thanks very, very much. And that amazing footage of the eye of this Hurricane Erin, that was captured by the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. I just want to be precise on that. And there it is right there. You can see it right there. The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the hurricane hunters. Pamela? BROWN: That's incredible video right there. Wow.

All right, Happening now on Wall Street, investors are awaiting key indications from the Fed. central bank leaders will be in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this week for their annual symposium, and this comes ahead of September's rate decision.

With that, the Dow is relatively flat after trading at record levels on Friday. The S&P also flat to begin the week.

Let's go live now to CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. Vanessa, markets are coming off back-to-back winning weeks. What catalysts are investors watching for this week?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Investors also watching today for 2:00 P.M., the Fed minutes are going to be released. This will be insight into those Federal Reserve board members and why they decided to hold rates steady in July and some of the inner workings and the inner thoughts into how they are feeling about the economy right now.

But as you mentioned, markets really flat this morning after the Dow almost hitting a record on Friday. We've been tracking the Dow really closely because this is the last U.S. index to hit a record this year. The Dow has really had a remarkable recovery since April, recovering 20 percent since President Trump initially announced those historically high tariffs, many of which have been set at lower rates.

But, really, investors have been watching the last week, which showed consumer inflation was really tepid, but then we had producer inflation, which heated up. You then had strong retail sales, but then, ultimately, on Friday ending with consumer sentiment falling for the first time in four months.

And then, really, over the last couple months, investors have been putting the trade war largely in the rear view mirror and focusing on earnings. We've had a strong earnings season and we now have investors looking to this week looking to see what major retailers are going to put out in their earnings, especially big bellwether companies like Walmart.

And then the prospect of a Fed rate still very much on a -- excuse me, a Fed cut, still very much on the table. Investors still pricing in a Fed rate cut, 85 percent of them believing that that will come in September. But a lot of things to look for this week, especially, as you mentioned, hearing from Jerome Powell in Jackson Hole, what he says about the economy certainly matters and investors definitely listen. Pamela?

BROWN: Yes, we'll be listening. We'll all be listening closely to that.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And, Pamela, still ahead, putting pressure on Zelenskyy. President Trump siding with Russia's demands just ahead of today's critical White House meeting, the message it's sending to European allies.

BROWN: And then later, more troops to the nation's capital, the state sending additional National Guardsmen.

You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Washington this morning ready to meet with President Trump at the White House. European leaders have also rushed to Washington to attend the meeting and discuss ending Russia's war in Ukraine. This afternoon's meeting comes just a few days after President Trump met with Russian Leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and as the president appears to be pressuring Ukraine to strike a peace deal with Russia, which illegally invaded the country some three and a half years ago.

Joining us now to discuss what's going on is Susan Glasser, staff writer for The New Yorker, along with CNN Russian Affairs Contributor Jill Dougherty. She's the author of the important, new book entitled, My Russia, What I Saw Inside the Kremlin. To both of you, thanks so much for joining us.

And let me read what President Trump posted on social media just last night, and here's the direct quote. He said, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. That's a direct quote. President Trump also said that Ukraine must accept it will not see the return of Crimea and will not be allowed to join NATO.

Jill, it sounds like Trump is placing all the responsibility for this war on Zelenskyy. How is that likely to be received by Ukraine and its European allies?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think already we're seeing that they're not happy with this. This is really, you could almost say, you know, Vladimir Putin is not going to be here in Washington, but in a sense, the American president is negotiating for him because both of those demands are things that Putin has been talking about for years. And so there are other questions that aren't even answered that the president has indicated he stands pretty much on Putin's side.

So, I think it's a difficult situation for Zelenskyy but he does have the Europeans there and they do have some type of cohesive idea, but, of course, when they sit down separately first, which I think is interesting, Zelenskyy, Trump and then the group. We'll see what happens.

BLITZER: Susan, Putin clearly wants Ukraine to surrender very large portions of land and agree to never join NATO, never join NATO.

[10:25:03]

What do you make of President Trump pressuring Zelenskyy to agree to these terms when Ukraine is the victim of Russian aggression in this war?

SUSAN GLASSER, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Yes. I mean, what's happening here, Wolf, is that President Putin is seeking to win with Donald Trump what he failed to win on the battlefield. And, you know, in many ways that was the strategic bet that Putin made, that as long as he could keep fighting this war long enough that, you know, resolution in the west would fade, or the United States would turn against its ally, and that appears to be what exactly has happened in this remarkable summit the other day in Alaska.

You know, Donald Trump not only symbolically and literally applauded for Vladimir Putin, but has essentially switched America's side in this conflict. And I just -- I think it's so important to underscore, Putin failed to achieve victory on the ground in Ukraine and he now is standing on the threshold of a major victory courtesy of Donald Trump.

So, it's very interesting to see how much Europeans will bolster President Zelenskyy in pushing back on these demands. These demands are not viable of Zelenskyy wishes to remain the leader of Ukraine. These are not demands that any elected leader of Ukraine could accept and probably remain in charge of the country. It goes against what Ukrainians want and what they've been fighting for.

BLITZER: Good point. Jill, Russia is demanding that Ukraine cede the Donbas region in the eastern part of the country. That's where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens live right now. Ukrainian authorities estimate that more than 200,000 civilians still live in parts of that Donbas region they still control, and more than 3 million Ukrainians in the Donbas area are estimated to be living under Russian occupation. So, how does that figure into all of this?

DOUGHERTY: Oh, it's really important, especially for President Zelenskyy, because, you know, it's not only land. You have to look at what is happening to the people in those areas that are Ukrainian land, and they are Ukrainians who are under occupation by Russia. It is very, very brutal.

And I think Susan's making a really important point. You know, part of what Putin is trying to do is make things politically as difficult for Zelenskyy as possible. And he is really in a very difficult situation if he exceeds to this, if he agrees to give up these lands in some fashion. It is politically very bad for him at home.

If he does not do that, then he risks alienating and antagonizing President Trump. So, this is really going to be difficult for Zelenskyy to diplomatically be very tough, but at the same time try to figure out how they can get to some type of deal that keeps the Americans on board, especially on those security guarantees.

BLITZER: You know, Susan, it's interesting, if Zelenskyy were to surrender land to Russia, could that make Ukraine even more vulnerable to future Russian aggression, especially if it's denied NATO membership? And can Putin be trusted to honor any peace deal he makes with Ukraine?

GLASSER: Well, these are important questions Wolf, and that's why I think it's right to remain quite skeptical that any kind of final resolution of this conflict is at hand. Putin has a record of giving his word to the west, to Ukraine and breaking it. Let's remember that this conflict that Russia started comes after Russia guaranteed Ukraine sovereignty and its existing borders in a 1994 agreement brokered by the United States, the so-called Budapest Memorandum, and, again, in 2003, a treaty the Putin himself signed.

So, he is a proven liar when it comes to Ukraine and his willingness to make an agreement and stand by it, number one. Number two, Donald Trump, and I think this is really important to underscore, it's not just that he's amplifying Russian talking points at this point. He's actually abandoned America's own policy and the policy of his own administration, both in his second term and his first term.

United States in Trump's first term issued a declaration saying that it would never recognize Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea. Trump now appears willing to do that, first of all. Second of all, it was Trump himself who proposed for six months an immediate ceasefire and then peace negotiations to follow. He seems to have abandoned his own position in those conversations with Putin in Alaska and received nothing in exchange for that as far as a concession from Putin.

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So, again, this conversation is all taking place today on what very much appeared to be Vladimir Putin's terms.

BLITZER: Good point.