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Fight to Release CBP Shooting Video; Marimar Martinez to Testify About Encounter with Federal Agents; Iran Nuclear Negotiations; Rafah Border Crossing Reopens After Almost Two Years. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 03, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: -- to testify about the encounter, we're going talk to a lawyer for Marimar Martinez, as they fight to release new video from the incident.

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening today, lawmakers on Capitol Hill will hear testimony from several people about their encounters with federal immigration agents, and they include Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times in Chicago in October, and charged with ramming her car into the vehicle of the border patrol agent who shot her. But prosecutors later asked that those charges be dismissed in a remarkable reversal, and the judge agreed after her lawyer argued, it was the agent who sideswiped Martinez, and that lawyer is now sharing new surveillance video with CNN.

[10:35:00]

He says it shows the agent's car coming to a full stop. You can see it at the left side of your screen, while a few seconds later he says Martinez's car drives past.

Joining us now to discuss is the attorney for Martinez, Christopher Parente. Thank you so much for coming on. So, first of all, I want to just ask, how is Marimar doing? What do you hope to accomplish with this testimony today in front of lawmakers?

CHRISTOPHER PARENTE, PARTNER, CHERONIS AND PARENTE LLC AND LAWYER FOR MARIMAR MARTINEZ: Yes, thanks for having me, first of all. She's doing, you know, as well as you could be doing, right? She's a Montessori school teacher. So, she was shot five times in her body, seven holes. So, she can't, like, squeeze her right hand, right? So, it's very hard for her to teach these little kids motor skills when she herself can't even, like, squeeze a block anymore. And that's just the physical injuries from these shootings.

Now, look, we know that her testimony today is not going to change this administration, but it's important for her to sort of document what actually happened to her. Because I think what we've seen as a country is that ICE is not a reliable narrator of these events, right? So, Marimar is just like Miss Good and Mr. Pretti, but she survived. And so, while ICE tries to tell their stories in their way, which is not true, she was here to be able to tell the actual truth. And we were able to push back on the U.S. attorney's office and get them to dismiss all the charges against her.

BROWN: Yes, and it's coming out, you know, in the court filings, right, where there's penalty of perjury. And so, in this case, I was reading through some of it, the agent involved actually admitted that it wasn't a ramming, right? Which was the initial narrative from DHS. But still, DHS accused Marimar of aggressively and erratically pursuing a Border Patrol agent, hitting his car during those protests back in October.

Now, that the charges against her have been dismissed, I want to take another look at that surveillance video that you gave us. And I would love for you to just kind of walk us through what we're seeing.

PARENTE: Yes, and again, this all goes to ICE's narrative, right? Tricia McLaughlin from DHS is still, to this day, putting out this testimony that these agents -- these statements that these agents were boxed in, that they couldn't move. I mean, you can see on that video, that's the front of their vehicle right there. There's nobody in front of them. If they wanted to, they could have continued to drive forward. Instead, this agent gets out of his vehicle and within two seconds by a stopwatch, unloads five rounds of his weapon into Marimar's car -- into Marimar as she tried to get away from him and drove around him.

BROWN: Is that her?

PARENTE: Yes.

BROWN: Which one's her? OK.

PARENTE: You can see she's going from left to right, which is consistent with her statement that she drove around him and also consistent with the bullets going through the rear passenger window, as well as one bullet, we believe, going from the back to the front, which is in direct contrast to this DHS statement that she drove at the agent.

And, you know, DHS, even though you said the agent testified in court that there was no ramming, Tricia McLaughlin and DHS are still putting out press statements saying that she rammed them. Like, they don't even seem to know what their own agents are saying in court. And that's sort of why she needs to come here and tell her story so that the truth can get out and that at least be documented so that in the future when people look back at this time in history, there's at least some record of actual the truth of what happened here.

BROWN: And she admitted, and I know she did an interview with Omar Jimenez, my colleague, that, look, she wanted to alert the neighborhood, right, about what was going on. And she was, what, honking her horn or trying to alert others. Tell us more about kind of the circumstances surrounding what happened. PARENTE: Yes. I mean, she is a U.S. citizen, no criminal history, born and raised in Chicago. And as I said, a Montessori school teacher. What was going on in Chicago at this time and is still going on around the country are these ICE agents have admitted they're just stopping brown people. Like, they're not going with arrest warrants. They're not going with search warrants. They are literally picking up landscapers, taking them away. And if they can prove that they're U.S. citizens, they'll be released. That deserves a warning.

I'm a former federal prosecutor. I would be outraged if when my FBI agents went out with search warrants and arrest warrants to get human traffickers and child predators, somebody were out there beeping their horn. But the rules have changed. When law enforcement has stopped acting according to the law and they're just picking up people based on skin color, to me, that does deserve a warning. That does deserve a whistleblowing. That does deserve a horn honking. And that's all she did here.

And what happens is when they shoot to kill these people and then they do, they put out this immediate narrative of these are domestic terrorists. They were trying to run over ICE agents.

BROWN: Because they called her a domestic terrorist. We heard that also after Alex Pretti's death. We heard that also after Renee Good's. And they continue to call her that.

PARENTE: Yesterday. They put out another statement yesterday saying, even though the U.S. attorney's office dismissed the case with prejudice, we still are calling her a domestic terrorist. We still stand by our press releases, which is just -- it's absurd.

BROWN: And I just want to note, DHS for its part denies that it racially profiles, but of course people can make their own judgments based on the videos that are publicly available. A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office says it is constantly evaluating new facts and information relating to cases and investigations arising out of Operation Midway Blitz, the Chicago operation. Tell us more about why you and Marimar is so important for the public to see this video and to get the word out and how much the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti influenced that decision.

[10:40:00]

PARENTE: Yes. And look, Marimar called me up. I mean, she's watching what's going on in Minneapolis as you are and as I am. And it's so painful for her, right? Because she is just like these people. The only difference is these five bullets didn't take her life, like unfortunately it did with Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti.

And so, she feels this responsibility as someone who survived these incidents, these people can't fight back. They can't correct the narrative. They're going to be branded domestic terrorists. Marimar has the luxury of being able to come here and fly to D.C., where she's never been before, and tell the truth about what happened so that people can see their government's lying to them. I mean, again, a former federal prosecutor, I've never seen a case where one branch of the government is putting out press releases that the other, like DOJ knows is false, right? I mean, the U.S. Attorney's Office dismissed the case with prejudice. They did that because they know that this version of events is not accurate.

BROWN: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced yesterday that DHS officers on the ground in Minneapolis and eventually nationwide will be wearing body cameras. Does that give you and your client any reassurance here?

PARENTE: I mean, it's helpful. But, you know, when I read that, it's like the tobacco companies putting the warning on the cigarettes. You know, it's too late, right? I mean, why were they not wearing body cameras months ago, right? All of this could have been cleared up and we wouldn't have to rely on these false statements or by chance someone is there with a cell phone video. So, yes, that's great. But again, body cameras are not something that just were invented. Why were they not wearing those months ago?

BROWN: I asked the DHS spokesperson who actually was the first to announce that they're wearing body cameras a few weeks ago on our show. And she said it was a funding issue. And now, with the, quote/unquote, "big, beautiful bill," they have the funding to issue these body cameras. That was the DHS line.

PARENTE: OK. I'm glad that they have the funding.

BROWN: All right. Christopher Parente, thank you so much.

PARENTE: Thank you.

BROWN: And by the way, I want to note this, programming note, CNN will be airing some of the Martinez testimony along with others. It starts at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. And of course, we hope you tune in for that. Thank you so much again.

BLITZER: We'll be watching for sure. Coming up, the U.S. and Iran are now set to hold nuclear talks this week as President Trump considers new strikes in the country. Will this be enough to avoid a much wider regional war? Stick around.

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[10:45:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, Iran says it has agreed to nuclear talks with the United States. The country's president posting on social media saying he's told his foreign minister to, quote, "pursue fair and equitable negotiations guided by the principles of dignity, prudence, and expediency."

The White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son- in-law Jared Kushner are expected to meet with Iran's foreign minister in Turkey on Friday. President Trump has threatened military strikes on Iran and has called for regime change in the country following weeks of massive protests that spread across the country and killed thousands of Iranians.

With us now is CNN Global Affairs Analyst Barak Ravid. He's also global affairs correspondent for Axios. So, Barak, thanks for joining us. What's the significance, you think, of Iran apparently now agreeing to new nuclear talks?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Well, I think it's very significant because the last time the U.S. and Iran have been engaged in diplomacy was last June. And we all remember how it ended. It ended with the talks collapsing and Israel going on a military operation against Iran that turned into the 12-day war that included an unprecedented U.S. strike against the Iranian nuclear facilities. And the fact that both sides are now going back to the table, I think, is very meaningful, especially that Donald Trump is going into those negotiations that are expected to take place on Friday with unprecedented leverage.

He has a U.S. military buildup in the region, a massive buildup. And on the other hand, he has an Iranian regime that is in its weakest point in years. So, I think it gives Trump a lot of leverage going into those talks.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. So, the U.S., as you know, is now moving what President Trump calls an armada, an armada into position near Iran in the Persian Gulf area. He has also called for regime change in Iran. What exactly will the U.S. be asking for in this meeting set for Friday in Istanbul, Turkey?

RAVID: So, first, the armada is there. It's still there. And it's a credible military threat that is very important when you go into such high-stakes negotiations. I think the main issue or, let's say, the first issue on the table, and I think this will give us a clue on whether this is serious or this is just going through the motions for both sides. This is the issue of the 450 kilograms of highly enriched uranium that is now buried inside the Iranian underground nuclear facilities that were bombed during the 12-day war, bombed by the U.S., bombed by Israel.

The U.S. wants these 450 kilograms out of Iran. If Iran agrees, this means this is different, this is serious than everything we had until today. If Iran says no, I think we will see that very quickly we'll go back to the military option. But one thing I have to say, all the U.S. officials I spoke to over the last 48 hours tell me that the talks on Friday are -- that the U.S. is coming to the talks on Friday very sincere, very serious. It wants to try and get a deal with Iran. This is not a -- according to U.S. officials, this is not a ploy, this is not a ruse, it's not some kind of manipulation, not a head fake to throw off the Iranians and go on some surprise U.S. attack. We will see if this is indeed the case on Friday.

[10:50:00]

BLITZER: President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are in Israel today. They're meeting with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the chief of the Israeli military and the head of the Mossad intelligence agency. What will they be talking about when they discuss Iran?

RAVID: So, I think Netanyahu is the one that asked Witkoff to come. I don't think Kushner is already there. I think he will join later. I think Netanyahu wants to try and influence as much as possible on the U.S. position going into those negotiations. This is why he asked the IDF chief of staff to join the talks with Witkoff. This is why the head of Mossad is joining the talks with Witkoff. I think that's the goal.

And from Israel, Witkoff will continue to Abu Dhabi for Russia-Ukraine talks, and from there to Qatar to prepare for the Iran talks, and from there to Turkey or maybe to other countries because it's still not 100 percent clear that it will be in Turkey. Maybe it will move. So, we'll see. There are still a lot of moving parts here.

BLITZER: Yes, Witkoff's a busy guy indeed. Let me talk while I have you, Barak, about what's going on in Gaza right now. The Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza partially reopened this week after Israel closed it almost two years ago. What's the significance of this development?

RAVID: So, Wolf, for now, I have to say this is mostly symbolic. The number of people that pass through the Rafah crossing, either from Gaza, out of Gaza to Egypt or from Egypt back to Gaza, are very, very low. So, we're talking about altogether less than 50 people, which is not even the very low bar that the U.S. and Israel managed to agree on. So, I think this is really, at the beginning, it's really symbolic.

And if this is going to continue like that, I think it will be a very negative sign when it comes to how much the Israelis are willing to really cooperate with the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal. There are a lot of politics involved here on the Israeli side. Israel is going to go for election in the next few months. So, every small thing in Gaza is highly politicized.

I'll just give you one example. The Palestinian technocratic government that, as it is called, is Palestinian, issued a statement yesterday with its new emblem. And the emblem resembles the emblem of the State of Palestine, of the Palestinian Authority. And this caused an uproar in Israel and caused Netanyahu to issue a statement against it and caused the Palestinian technocratic government to walk it back. So, it just shows you how much everything is politicized.

BLITZER: Certainly is. All right. Barak Ravid, thank you very, very much.

RAVID: Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: Coming up, Wolf, my Situation Room special report targeting children online and in real life. The warning for parents about how predators are exploiting kids using the internet and A.I. We'll be back.

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[10:55:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, the media blitz that leads Americans into the biggest sporting event of the year. We're talking about Super Bowl LX.

BROWN: That's right. The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots spent the first night of Super Bowl week getting swarmed by media. Hoping to get their takes on what will be the biggest game of their lives. CNN's Andy Scholes is in San Francisco right now. Tell us more, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, Wolf and Pam. So, Super Bowl week now off and running as the Patriots and Seahawks met with the media. An opening night over in San Jose. You know, hundreds of media members from all over the world were here in the Bay Area to talk to the teams ahead of Super Bowl LX. And by far, the biggest crowds were around the two quarterbacks, Drake Maye and Sam Darnold.

Now, these two guys, they took much different paths to get to this point. You know, May, he's in just his second season at 23 years old. I asked him, what would it mean to become the youngest starting quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl?

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DRAKE MAYE, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS QB: I mean, I think it'd mean the most just for this team. I think, you know, the stat of the youngest or if I was the oldest, just being a chance to win the Super Bowl in general is what I'm most worried about and knowing that this team, how far we've come and just not to come this far, just to come this far and make it worthwhile.

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SCHOLES: So, Darnold, meanwhile, he was considered a bust with the New York Jets, but he rejuvenated his career with the Vikings. Now, he has the Seahawks in the Super Bowl. He could be the first quarterback ever to go from bust to winning it all. And I asked Darnold, how was he able to turn his career around?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM DARNOLD, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS QB: For me personally, like, I really -- I don't think it's anything more than just doing my job every single day. I don't think about anything else. I just, you know, think I have a job to do and I have a job to do every single day. And if I can lock in on that, you know, I won't have time to think about any other, you know, BS, I guess that I might be able to think about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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