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Trump Faces Political, Legal Challenges to Weaponization Fund; Sources Say, Iran Rebuilding Military Capacity Faster Than Expected; CNN Obtains Long-Private DNC Autopsy of 2024 Election Loss. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired May 21, 2026 - 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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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, billion-dollar fund backlash. The so-called weaponization fund is now facing swift outrage from members of the president's own party, as the acting attorney general says January 6th rioters can apply.

And from The Pitt to Capitol Hill, why actor Noah Wyle is at a healthcare rally in D.C.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And faster than expected, US intelligence now showing that Iran has already restarted some of its drone production. We're going to bring you the new exclusive reporting just ahead.

Plus, bolstering military power, the U.S. aircraft carrier strike group is now in the Caribbean as tensions with Cuba escalate.

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.

Happening now, President Trump is facing new outrage and growing opposition. It's over his controversial fund to compensate those who claim to have been targeted by a weaponized legal system. This morning, critics are blasting the $1.8 billion fund because it's widely expected to benefit President Trump's allies, and that would possibly include the January 6th rioters, even those who attacked police at the U.S. Capitol.

Two police officers who defended the Capitol on that day are suing to block it. We were the first to report this in The Situation Room yesterday. The lawsuit filed by Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges call it, and I'm quoting them now, the most brazen act of presidential corruption this century, end quote.

And even some Republican lawmakers are breaking ranks with the president and vowing to kill it. CNN's Manu Raju chased down some of those comments on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): I will tell you my first reaction was this doesn't pass the smell test.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Well, it sends the signal, hey, go breach the Capitol, destroy the building, assault police officers. You may even get compensated someday. That's absurd.

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): We got to unpack exactly what it is, what the source of the funding is in order to stop it and or reverse it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN Senior Reporter Marshall Cohen is here with us in The Situation Room. Marshall, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, spoke to CNN and is defending the fund. What else can you tell us?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: A full-throated defense from the acting A.G. and the Trump administration for this very controversial fund. Our colleague, Paula Reid, asked him point-blank, "Will any money go to any of the people that violently attacked police, and he wouldn't rule it out. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: One of the factors the commissioners have to consider is what the claimant did, the claimant's conduct, okay? So, in the hypothetical you just described the claimant would have to say, I assaulted a cop, and I want money. So, whether the commissioners will give that person money, that claimant it's up to them, but that's one of the factors they have to consider for the very reason that was raised yesterday, which should be, which should be raised, which is that President Trump, this Department of Justice, does not stand for assaulting law enforcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. COHEN: This is a huge relief for the people in the January 6th community and the election deniers across the country that are hoping to get some payments. We've spoken to January 6th rioters, folks convicted of felonies, including lawyers for Enrique Tarrio, the former head of the Proud Boys that went to prison for seditious conspiracy. He says he will be applying for funds.

2020 fake electors that tried to subvert the Electoral College process, they could be in the mix here, as well as prominent election deniers, like Mike Lindell and Tina Peters, who is serving the last few weeks of her prison sentence right now for an election breach in 2021. Folks, there are also even pro-Trump media outlets, like One America News, the far-right conspiracy channel that said they lost a lot of business after 2020, and they might want to tap these funds as well.

For a lot of the people in this space, this was a day that destroyed their whole lives, in their view.

[10:05:04] They've lost friends. They've been ostracized in their communities. They've been de-banked. Their retirement funds have been emptied while they pay legal bills.

Let me just, before I give it back, read one more quote from one of the fake electors from Michigan who put her explanation forward for why she thinks she deserves some money. Her name is Meshawn Maddock. She was a fake elector from Michigan. Quote, I faced the real possibility of prison time, the trauma to my three kids, and the thought of being separated from my grandchildren. It took a lot out of us. She was charged. The charges were thrown out by a judge, and she says now, look, I was vindicated. Now I deserve some payment.

BLITZER: Marshall Cohen reporting the latest developments, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And as Marshall just laid out, Wolf, many of the January 6th rioters say their journey with the legal system is now coming full circle. First, many were charged and jailed, then they were pardoned by the president, and now they're hoping to collect millions in taxpayer money.

CNN Senior Correspondent Donie O'Sullivan has their story.

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BRANDON FELLOWS, PARDONED JANUARY 6 RIOTER: So, the number I've put in is $30 million. You know, $21.5 million is for the wrongful imprisonment.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice over): People who took part in January 6th are hoping for big payouts.

RACHEL POWELL, PARDONED JANUARY 6 RIOTER: We endured a lot. Our lives are still not the same. So, I don't know what kind of price you can put on that.

O'SULLIVAN: Even before the DOJ announced its anti-weaponization fund this week -- how long were you in prison for?

FELLOWS: Jail and prison, I combine those numbers, 1,075 days.

O'SULLIVAN: People like Brandon Fellows had already begun making claims for compensation.

What's the reaction within the wider January 6th community to this fund?

FELLOWS: Some people are whining and saying it's not enough, and we're not even hearing numbers yet.

O'SULLIVAN: Fellows was sentenced on felony and misdemeanor charges for entering the Capitol on January 6th.

Seen here in a red beard costume, Fellows' spoke to CNN's Elle Reeve during the riot. FELLOWS: But they were smoking a bunch of weed in there.

O'SULLIVAN: The charges against him were dismissed after a pardon from President Trump.

Now, Fellows expects compensation.

FELLOWS: According to ChatGPT and Grok, and also my knowledge of January 6th cases, I'm in at least the 3 to 5 percent upper tier for how terrible and also how strong of a case I have.

POWELL: It's like surreal to me. I mean, look how angry I look.

O'SULLIVAN: Rachel Powell, a mom of eight and a grandmother to eight, spent three years under house arrest. We interviewed her before she began her prison sentence in 2024.

POWELL: I don't deserve this, and my kids don't deserve it. Like have we not been through enough?

O'SULLIVAN: She was released last year after being pardoned by Trump.

What do you say to people who are outraged and say people like you don't deserve a penny?

POWELL: A lot of people don't agree with what happened on January 6th. But when you step back and you look at somebody like me, for example, my major felony had to be struck down by the Supreme Court, it's my crime that day of breaking a window.

Technically, that's a misdemeanor charge, and yet I had three years of a house arrest. Then having to endure everything I did through prison and getting a five-year sentence on top of that is clearly weaponization.

O'SULLIVAN: Brandon Fellows still believes the lies about the 2020 election and even believes that January 6th was a setup.

FELLOWS: But that's why I rationalize people, even violent people, getting paid for that day, because the government set it up, and also on top of that, they stole the election.

O'SULLIVAN: And both Fellows and Powell remain loyal to President Trump and thankful for the so-called anti-weaponization fund.

FELLOWS: And I feel like he has kept us in his mind despite all the other issues that he's got to deal with as leader of the world, basically.

O'SULLIVAN: Are you thankful to the president?

POWELL: Of course I'm thankful. If it wasn't for the president, I'd still be sitting in that prison.

O'SULLIVAN: Donie O'Sullivan, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Some very telling interviews there. Donie O'Sullivan, thank you very much.

BLITZER: And we're getting some new CNN reporting this morning. We're learning that since the ceasefire with the U.S., Iran has been rebuilding some military capabilities at a much faster pace than initially estimated, that according to two sources familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments.

Much of Iran's missile sites and military production facilities were hit by U.S. and Israeli strikes that started in late February.

Zachary Cohen joins us now live in the situation room. So, Zachary, you broke this reporting. Well, what else did you learn about the U.S. intelligence assessment?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes guys, we're told by multiple sources that Iran is actively rebuilding its production facilities and weapons capabilities that were largely destroyed by U.S. and Israeli strikes. That includes things like missile sites, launchers, and just the defense industrial base writ large, which the U.S. military says it destroyed 90 percent of.

[10:10:04]

But we're told that even just six weeks into this ceasefire, that Iran has already been able to start producing some of these weapons systems that it uses to pose a threat to Israel and other regional allies of the U.S. That includes drones. They're already producing new drones to replace the ones that they've lost, and one source saying that they could fully restore its drone attack capability in a matter of six months.

And so that is really a shorter timeline than what the U.S. intelligence community initially estimated, and the same goes for other weapons components as well. Again, the missile defenses or the missile sites and the inventory of missiles took severe damage in those strikes, so it may take a little bit longer.

But I want to play what Admiral Brad Cooper, who runs U.S. Central Command, what he said about the impact of the destruction of the industrial base has on the timeline for how far Iran was set back in its ability to reconstitute.

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ADM. BRAD COOPER, COMMANDER, CENTCOM: Operation Epic Fury significantly degraded Iran's ballistic missiles and drones while destroying 90 percent of their defense industrial base, ensuring that Iran cannot reconstitute for years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Z. COHEN: So, we're told that the U.S. intelligence community now says it's more of a matter of months before Iran would be able to reconstitute. And we're also told that Iran still maintains significant ballistic missile and drone capability. Those are assets that were not destroyed in U.S.-Israeli strikes. And so all that together is really painting a picture both about the threat that Iran still poses during this moment where Donald Trump is weighing whether to restart combat operations or continue this diplomatic track, but also the long-term view of Iran's threat it poses to U.S. allies in the region.

BROWN: When did this assessment come out in relation to when we heard from Admiral Cooper there?

Z. COHEN: This is something that the U.S. intelligence agencies have been consistently assessing throughout the conflict, and it's something that they were also looking at beforehand.

BROWN: So, when he gave his testimony, this was already an assessment?

Z. COHEN: Absolutely, yes. And it's something that, you know, is being done by various parts of the U.S. I.C., and the Pentagon obviously has its own intelligence apparatus as well. But the consensus, according to our sources, is that Iran is ahead of schedule and is really restoring these assets at a pace that is much more quick than what Admiral Cooper said just yesterday.

BLITZER: It's one of the reasons the U.S. intelligence community has always warned that if there's a ceasefire, that simply gives the Iranians an opportunity to rebuild, reconstruct, and get their act back together.

Z. COHEN: Absolutely, and that's something that we've actually heard Iranian officials say that they've been doing during the ceasefire. They've been using it to rearm. Ironically, we've heard from U.S. military officials that they've been doing the same, but a little bit apples to oranges comparison there as the focus from the U.S. and Israel side is the threat that Iran poses and will continue to pose going forward.

BLITZER: That's one of the major reasons the Israeli military opposes these ceasefires as well, because they fear it'll just give Iran a chance to get that strong again.

BROWN: All right. Zachary Cohen, thank you so much.

Z. COHEN: Welcome.

BLITZER: And there's more news still ahead, DNC autopsy. CNN has obtained the long private document detailing what went wrong for the Democratic Party in 2024. We're going to bring you that exclusive new reporting just ahead.

BROWN: Plus, apocalyptic video. A shocking look at the fast-spreading wildfires in California as firefighters urgently battle the flames. You're in the Situation Room.

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BROWN: Breaking news, new exclusive reporting first into The Situation Room. CNN has obtained the Democrats' long-awaited autopsy of the 2024 election, documenting what went wrong in Kamala Harris' loss to President Trump.

After publicly promising its release, DNC Chair Ken Martin pulled the plug on the elusive report last year, sparking fierce criticism within the party.

BLITZER: CNN Senior Reporter Isaac Dovere got his hands, exclusive hands, on all of this. He's joining us now in The Situation Room. Isaac, this report, you were a big part in why it came out in the first place, excellent reporting on your part, after back and forth from the DNC chair Ken Martin on whether or not he'd release it in full. So, what's inside it?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, so first of all, that is an important part of this. The plan was not to release this report. The report was released to me after I'd obtained a lot of the detail and contents of what was in there, and the report that has been that we have published on our website is with annotations from the DNC lawyers undercutting a lot of what is in the report.

That said, it gets into things about spending decisions and organizing that was done by the DNC, ways to possibly improve it. But there are a lot of things in that version that are incomplete. And also it does not touch a couple of topics that a lot of people were very interested in and thought were the reasons for this report not being out.

There's nothing about Joe Biden and what happened in the debate. There's nothing about Kamala Harris getting the nomination without any kind of primary process. And also there is nothing about the way that voters were responding to Gaza and how the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris policies and comments about it were hitting their minds.

BLITZER: So, a lot was missing in that report. I know you reached out to the current DNC chair, Ken Martin, who we noted earlier has come under some fire for initially not releasing this report to the public. What's he now saying?

DOVERE: Well, he apologized in a statement to me for how he handled it, and he said that he was releasing it to me because he feels like this is about getting back to some level of transparency. But he says in the statement that the report was not ready for prime time, that's how he put it, and that's why he chose not to do it, that it's full of a lot of problems. And, again, we are publishing the full report so that people can see it and read for themselves and make their decisions about what's in there.

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BROWN: Because in the full report, there's spelling issues, there's errors, and just basic facts. Why didn't they have a more polished, put-together report at this point in the game?

DOVERE: Well, look, and this was after a year of work on it, and the story that I have up that goes along with the publishing of the report goes through the whole process of how this went down. Martin hired a friend of his as a part-time volunteer to be the person in charge of this report, and that person I get into a lot of the conversations that person was having, his name is Paul Rivera, that he was having with people and how those conversations went, but also a lot of conversations that he wasn't having.

For example, he did not speak to almost anybody who was in the leadership position on the Biden campaign or the Harris campaign. He didn't speak to Joe Biden, he didn't speak to Kamala Harris, he didn't speak to Tim Walz, he did not speak to and when it comes to the Gaza issue, any of the leaders of the uncommitted movement, which was that protest movement, the pro-Palestinian protest movement. He didn't speak to Jewish groups or pro-Israel groups. So, it wasn't just leaving out one part of that conversation, he left out all parts of that conversation.

And that has led to a lot of conspiracy theories about what was going on here. But I think when you see the full story of what's there and what this process was and read the document, you will have a lot of, if not all of, hopefully your questions answered.

BLITZER: And you've released the full document?

DOVERE: Yes, it's up on our website right now.

BROWN: All right, excellent reporting.

BLITZER: CNN.com.

DOVERE: CNN.com.

BLITZER: All right. Isaac Dovere, thank you very, very much, good reporting.

BROWN: Absolutely.

BLITZER: And coming up we have breaking news out of a Virginia courtroom where an ex-assistant principal is on trial after a six- year-old shot and severely injured his teacher. We're going to bring you the latest details. That's next.

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BROWN: We have breaking news in the criminal case against a former school official facing criminal charges relating to a school shooting. Prosecutors have argued Ebony Parker, the former assistant principal, ignored warnings from teachers that a six-year-old student may have had a firearm before that shooting took place.

BLITZER: CNN's Jean Casarez has been following this case for us. Jean, so what's happening right now? I take it some dramatic developments.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has just happened minutes ago. The judge in this case has dismissed the case outright. She believes that it is not a crime what Ebony Parker, the assistant principal, did or her omission to do anything on the day in 2023 when a first grade teacher realized that her student had a gun, the teachers knew, they kept going to Ebony Parker because one student saw the handgun in his jacket pocket with the bullets.

That inaction, that omission created this situation where prosecutors filed eight counts of child neglect, child abuse, endangerment, as the judge called it, because she had a duty to the elementary school students as the vice principal, and she didn't do anything even though people said the students are seeing a gun. But the judge has spoken.

Now, we're at the point of trial where the prosecution rested yesterday. The defense was supposed to begin their case this morning, but they always, as procedural matter, argue a motion for a directed verdict. In Virginia, it's called a motion to strike. And what it essentially is saying is that the evidence does not warrant itself that this should even go to a jury. They are not showing that they have probable cause that any crime was committed.

The judge agreed. She said, I do not believe that this was a crime. She dismissed it outright, and she dismissed it with prejudice, which means it can never be brought again.

Now, here's the significance here. This was a case of first impression in Virginia. This was not a vice principal that was being charged with the shooting, as we have seen in some other jurisdictions, but she was charged with gross neglect of the elementary students, her omission to do anything. And there was procedure in the school that in -- if there is a crisis, it is the vice principal, it is the assistant principal that is in charge of that crisis. She makes the decision. She's the only one that can make the decision to pat down a child to see if they have a gun. The counselor, 18 minutes before the shooting, went to her and said, can't I pat him down? Can I do a body check? They're saying he's got it in his pocket. She said, no, his parent is coming very shortly. Don't do anything.

And after that, Abby Zwerner was shot straight in the chest. The bullet is still there. There was a second bullet, but the gun jammed, but eight bullets all together in that handgun that he had brought to school as a six-year-old first grader. And now the vice principal, Ebony Parker, and that, you're looking, that's the gunshot victim right there, the first grade teacher, but she will never be tried again criminally. And it sets a precedent for Virginia and potentially the rest of the country.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: All right. Jean Casarez, it's a dramatic development indeed, hard to believe. All right, thanks very, very much.

BROWN: Well, just ahead here in The Situation Room, exploding wildfires. Firefighters are battling multiple blazes in California. Look at this video. As you see, the fires are fueled by strong winds. So, is relief coming any time soon?

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