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The Situation Room

Search for Missing MH370 Plane to Resume Tomorrow; Netanyahu set to meet with Trump; Hurdles to Ukraine Peace Deal Remain; Epstein Survivors Await Release of More Files. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 29, 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]

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: But for this one, the focus was, you know, unfortunately on the pilots and the pilot suicide theory and on the reason why it was technically missing and why they allowed searches in the wrong place for four days. They, meaning Malaysia, when the military radar had this plane on it. They could have seen from those four days where it was going and they would've had a much better chance of actually finding it. And in the end, the Malaysia government did accept some responsibility for that and did make payments to the families for the government's role in the disappearance, not in the crash.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And we spent a lot of time covering the disappearance of that plane.

SCHIAVO: Yes, we did.

BLITZER: Maria Schiavo, thank you very, very much for that update.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

BLITZER: Just ahead, President Trump now set to meet with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. That meeting scheduled for today as he seeks to end the year with a full court press on two of his biggest foreign policy hurdles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BROWN: Happening now, a frenzy of diplomacy right now at President Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago, down in Palm Beach, Florida. Soon, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will meet with President Trump as the White House pushes for phase two of its ceasefire in Gaza. That visit coming in less than a day after President Trump sat down with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to work toward a peace deal with Russia.

Let's discuss this and more with CNN political and national security analyst, the New York Times White House and national security correspondent, David Sanger. David is also the author of the new book entitled "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West." David, thanks so much for joining us. What do you make of all these peace talks that Trump has been holding over the last day or so?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, a few things, Wolf. First of all, it's a remarkable amount of diplomacy and these are two conflicts where I don't think that we would see these negotiations underway had President Trump not directly intervened. He pushed Bibi Netanyahu into accepting the agreement with Hamas that resulted in the release of all of the living hostages and all but one of the bodies of the deceased hostages.

The problem is that Netanyahu has never shown much enthusiasm for the rest of the plan, which calls for setting up a technocratic board of governors, that calls for really an end to all hostilities there. And the fact of the matter is the conflict has not really ended. It's just simmered. And we've seen a lot of people killed since that time. We've seen Israeli action. And President Trump, I think, recognizes he needs to push Netanyahu if he's going to get on to the other 19 points in the plan after the hostage release.

BLITZER: You know, I thought it was interesting that just ahead of Trump's meeting today with Netanyahu, Iran's president gave a new interview where he said his country is in a full-fledged war with the West, including the United States, Israel and Europe. Netanyahu is expected to talk with Trump about Iran rebuilding its missile program. Do you expect Trump could be persuaded to take further action against Iran? We know the U.S. took decisive action just a couple of months ago.

SANGER: It's a really fascinating question. We have not seen any evidence that the Israeli -- I'm sorry, that the Iranians have managed to get at the fuel that's buried deep beneath those three sites that were bombed in June. But we have seen evidence that the Iranians are reconstituting the missile program.

I'm not sure that's going to be enough for President Trump to say the U.S. would get involved. But I do think that it could well be that Netanyahu will present him with some evidence of this and say that Israel will go back in to take out those missile sites. And it's mostly missile production at this point. Big question is, would President Trump warn him against that?

BLITZER: Good question. After meeting with Trump for three hours yesterday, President Zelenskyy said the latest peace plan contains what he called 15 years of U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine. How do you expect Vladimir Putin of Russia will react to that?

SANGER: I think the first question, Wolf, is, will President Trump talk about what these 15 years of security guarantees look like? Because so far, he has said very little about it. If you believe the version that President Zelenskyy has put out, then the U.S. is going to provide NATO-like security guarantees for Ukraine, which would include the use of military force against the Russians if they reinvaded the country. But we haven't heard that from President Trump. And he slipped a few things yesterday that just suggested the security deal was not completely done. The next question after that is, what would Putin say? And my guess is Putin will delay. Putin will do everything he can to keep this negotiation going through the winter while he continues to pound the Ukrainian electricity grid and their heating grid. And you have seen that a lot of Ukrainians are going cold this winter. And I think Putin thinks time is on his side.

BLITZER: Before I let you go, David, a quick question. I want to ask you about China's military announcing what they describe as major military drills around Taiwan. How concerning is that?

SANGER: You know, it's the continuation of what has happened over the past two or three years. It really accelerated after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan.

[10:40:00]

You have seen the Chinese do operations that show that they could not only invade the country, but that they could, more importantly, choke it off. You've seen those drills, and you see it on your map there, go all the way around the far side of the island, or the eastern side of the island.

And I think as the Chinese look at the U.S. reluctance to get directly involved, even in the Ukraine war, their conclusion is probably that President Trump is not going to get involved in a conflict over Taiwan. And it plays to Xi Jinping's political base, but also to his future legacy, to make it clear that he could take the island whenever he wants to. I don't think he's made that decision yet, but I do think he wants to step up the pressure.

BLITZER: All right. David Sanger, helping us appreciate what's going on, as always. Thank you very, very much.

Coming up, despite a very long past deadline, the U.S. Justice Department's release of files on Jeffrey Epstein's files spill into the new year. Up next, we're going to get reaction from a lawyer representing several Epstein survivors who've been very critical of this slow rollout.

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[10:45:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, there's frustration from the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse and their advocates as the U.S. Justice Department releases materials related to the late convicted sex offender on a rolling basis. This, despite a law passed nearly unanimously by Congress, signed into law by the president, requiring the agency to release all files by December 19th. The saga is now expected to spill into 2026.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES MARSH, ATTORNEY FOR VICTIMS OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN: You know, from the very beginning, as we've said, this has been a disaster. They've had at least a year to start working on this, and it's somewhat no surprise that it's come down to the last minute and beyond that we begin to see actual compliance.

HALEY ROBSON, JEFFREY EPSTEIN VICTIM: As a community of survivors, we all talk to each other. You know, we share our experiences with each other. We lean on each other. We support each other. And we've all heard things. And at the end of the day, there are a lot of missing documents thus far and a lot of redacted, unnecessarily redacted documents that have been coming out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Joining us now to discuss what's going on, Jennifer Freeman. She's an attorney for the Epstein survivors and a partner at the James Marsh Law firm. Jennifer, thanks so much for joining us. What's going through the minds of the women you represent since the Justice Department began releasing these materials on December 19th?

JENNIFER FREEMAN, ATTORNEY FOR VICTIMS OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN AND PARTNER, JAMES MARSH LAW: Well, it's good to be with you, Wolf. What's going through many of the survivors' minds and my mind is kind of looking at what the government is doing and giving them a grade. And I have to say that the grade has to be an F for what they're doing. They get maybe a D for the actual production of documents. It's been dribbling. It's been slow. They say there may be 11,000 documents they've produced so far. But then they just found another million documents. So, does that mean they've produced about 1 percent of the documents that they have? That's really unacceptable.

And then they get an F on compliance. They're late. They were supposed to produce all the documents on December 19th. And then they get another F, if not worse, on their handling of the survivors, which has really just been so frustrating and disappointing and really unacceptable also, because they didn't meet with the survivors. They rarely talked to the survivor representatives. And they basically compare that, if you will, to how they handled communications with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex offender. This has just been one grade of an F.

BLITZER: What specifically are the survivors and yourself, for that matter, waiting to see at this point?

FREEMAN: What we're waiting to see is more documents. We are certainly very glad that finally, after so many years, Maria Farmer's 1996 report to the FBI has been produced. We're glad to see that there's some reference to 10 co-conspirators. But what we really need to see are for things like the witness interviews, the FD 302s, which are very important.

We really want to see the scope of the entire documents. And what are these new 1 million documents that the government didn't even know about? Is that from the 1990s? Is that the Towers financial prosecution? We need to know what they have.

BLITZER: Do you believe the Justice Department is complying with the law passed nearly unanimously by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Trump last month? Is the Justice Department complying with the law of the land?

FREEMAN: They are not complying. They are not complying. They didn't meet the December 19th deadline. And they've been dribbling out, what, approximately 1 percent of the documents. This is, what, 10 days later. It's not -- this is not complying with the law.

BLITZER: And to be clear, Jennifer, I just want to follow up. Is it your view that the Justice Department is doing the best it can to grapple with these extensive materials, or do you feel it's actually trying to hide something?

FREEMAN: I have to wonder about what they're really doing, because they've known that these documents would need to be provided to others. They've known for many months, if not a year or more, they've known that there are -- so much interest in this. And I have to believe that there is something going on there. Is it incredible sloppiness, or is it something more? I don't know.

[10:50:00]

But I do -- I will say that we are very glad to see that Representative Garcia has called for an investigation of what the FBI did and didn't do in 1996 in response to Maria Farmer's complaint. I called for the very same investigation in 2023, and I'm really delighted that Representative Garcia is now calling for it now. Let's find out what they knew and when they knew it, when they had a very clear and early opportunity to stop Epstein, Maxwell, and all these other co-conspirators.

BLITZER: President Trump, who the authorities have not directly accused of any wrongdoing or elected to Epstein, recently called to, quote, in his word, "embarrass Democrats" named in the files, while bemoaning the time the Justice Department has spent on this entire issue. What are the survivors you work with make of the president politicizing this issue now?

FREEMAN: This has been an issue that has spanned five presidential administrations Republicans and Democrats. This is not an issue of politics. This is an issue of crimes being committed. It's crimes, not politics.

BLITZER: As you noted, you've sought answers from the government about Maria Farmer's 1996 complaint about Epstein, and you've sought those answers for years now. Do Maria and other survivors feel they will ever get the closure that they clearly deserve?

FREEMAN: Well, we are not going to stop until they do get that closure. So, there's been a lot of frustration, disappointment, roller coaster up and down, but we will not stop until we do get answers, and until we do find out what did the government know and when did they know it, and why was Maria Farmer's 1996 complaint to the FBI? She complained about Epstein. She complained about Maxwell. She complained about others. She complained about child pornography and also child sex abuse. What did the government know? When did they know it? We will get answers.

BLITZER: Jennifer Freeman, thanks so much for joining us.

FREEMAN: Thank you. Good to be with you.

BLITZER: All right. thank you. And coming up here in the Situation Room, the government issues thousands of recalls every year on everything from food to toys, but that doesn't mean the products get pulled every time. We have new CNN reporting just ahead.

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[10:55:00]

BLITZER: A Sunday night thriller in the NFL as a pair Super Bowl contenders duke it out until the last play. And a low-scoring affair in Buffalo, where my big beautiful Bills lost after a crucial late- game decision fell flat. CNN's Coy Wire is joining us right now. Coy, you got more on what ended up being a very exciting Sunday of NFL football.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Incredible, Wolf. And we will get to our Bills. Let's start though with that Sunday night game. The Bears and 49ers with the chance for the NFC's top overall seed still on the line. Here's the video. Bears lead the league in takeaways. And, Wolf, they intercepts Brock Purdy's first pass of the game and they take it for a touchdown. But Purdy got his groove back. The teams trading scores. And in the 30 mix (INAUDIBLE), tosses one of his three touchdowns, three-yard on a day and one heck of dougy, I believe.

The final seconds though, Bears' Caleb Williams with a league high six, fourth quarter comebacks coming in, cannot make magic happen this time. The 49ers win 42 to 38 and face Seattle next week. The winner will get the number one seed in the NFC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROCK PURDY, SAN FRANCISCO QUARTERBACK: I mean, we needed to stop. They got it. The boys just played their butts off, man. So, for us to be able to just have each other's back offense, defense, special teams go down the wire like that at the end of the year, man, there's nothing better.

CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY, SAN FRANCISCO RUNNING BACK: We got such a resilient team. I love the character in this locker room, man. Guys go down, guys step up. You know, we really are one family and I love those guys in the locker room and these guys right here. I'm just super proud of our team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. The Bills looking to tie the game with just seconds to go against the Eagles. A dose of Philly's own medicine. Josh Allen tush push touchdown makes it 13 to 12. But here's the crucial decision. Wolf mentioned deciding to go for two in the wind, but Allen just missed Khalil Shakir. Philly wins 13 to 12. Both teams playoff bout. But Buffalo's loss means they will not win the division for a six-straight season. It is the Patriots who will win the AFC East for the first time since 2019. Back when they had Tom Brady.

Their new signal caller, Drake may turn it in to be a force to be reckoned with. In his second season, he has the highest passer rating in the NFL and against the Jets. He became the first player ever to complete 90 percent of his passes while throwing for 250 yards and five touchdowns in a single game. Receiver Stefon Diggs right here needed four catches to hit a half a million-dollar escalator, Wolf. He caught six of them for 101 yards and a score as the Pats throttled the Jets 42 to 10. They were four and 13 last season, Wolf. Here they are now 13 and three. Incredible turnaround by first year head coach for them. Mike Rabel there in New England.

BROWN: Yes, congratulations, the Patriots for that. Coy Wire, thank you very, very much. The next hour of the Situation Room starts right now.

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