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CNNW CNN July 3, 2024

Seven republicans will take the stage at the president ial primary stage tonight. Will any of them leave a winner . Who will take on the frontrunner most effectively and how do they do that when the frontrunner is skipping the whole thing . Released by north korea. A u. S. Army soldier is back in america after two months in north korean custody. New information about private Travis Harris and why he was expelled and turned over. Happening now, senator bob menendez making his appearance in court on Bribery Charges and the legal reason why he may be reluctant to step down despite growing calls for his resignation. Im john berman with kate bolduan and sara sidner. This is cnn news central. Developing for you this morning, released by north korea, travis king, the u. S. Army private who crossed into north korea two manages ago is now back in american custody. He had been held by north korea since july, but this morning they abruptly announced they were expelling him. Orrin lieberman is at the pentagon for us this morning. Can you give us a sense of how this all happened . Thats still one of the Unanswered Questions at this point because essentially the last update we had in terms of conversations we had with the u. S. And north korea is there wasnt substantive dialogue with the u. S. Acting as an intermediary and there were acknowledgements by north ckore that there were u. S. Interests in releasing travis king and not much more than that. North korean State Media Kcna saying travis king had been expelled after a north korean investigation into him had been concluded, although what the conclusion of that investigation is, that wasnt stated by the north koreans and shortly thereafter, two u. S. Officials confirmed that travis king was in u. S. Custody for the first time in 70 days. It was july 18th and he was supposed to leave the country after facing disciplinary measures and charges in south korea. He was supposed to come to fort bliss so he could be essentially removed and discharged from the military and he left the airport from the flight that he was supposed to get on. Went to the dmz between south korea and north korea and then ran into north korea at this point he was in north korean custody and from that point on there were updates and there are questions that have to be answered by the u. S. First, how did he come out of the country . Were not getting any indication that he crossed the way he came in which is through the dmz back through south korea and did he come through the air, on the ground and was there anything changed or given up to secure his release in thats another key question here because the north korea has used him as a Propaganda Chip and used him and used him in north korea. There are questions of how this process played out and how we got to this point. The priority is making sure king who is now in u. S. Custody returns to the United States. Presumably there will be a level of medical checks to see that hes doing okay after more than two months, i should say, in north korean custody and then putting him in touch with his family. Sara, all of that has to play out here before and we expect answers from the government on how this process worked. We heard from his mother when he first crossed over and there were a lot of tears. She was just hoping to get her son back. Orrin lieberman and that seems to be able to happen quite soon. Thank you very much. We appreciate your reporting. Kate . Democratic senator bob mend endes arriving to court this hour along with his wife nadine who is also facing Bribery Charges. Despite facing a flood of fellow democrats calling him to resign from the senate since the details of his indictment, bob menendez remains defiant declaring that he is innocent. Paula reid is outside the courthouse today. Paula, what is going to happen today . Kate, any moment senator menendez, his wife, nadine and two of their codefendants are expected to appear been a Magistrate Judge in Federal Court in new york. This is the First Court Hearing for them since these charges were filed last week and this hearing comes as more than half of senator menendezs democratic colleagues in the senate for calling on him to resign. Now he remains defiant and points to the fact that he has previously faced federal corruption charges and he was not convicted and he points to the fact that the Justice Department has a pretty weak record of successfully prosecuting Government Officials in Corruption Cases and kate, all of that is accurate, but what makes this case different, different than menendezs previous case and different than those other Corruption Prosecutions is the fact that in this indictment, there is an allegation that he passed Sensitive Information to a foreign government. The allegation is that he passed along information about the u. S. Embassy to the government of egypt against u. S. Interests. That is incredibly serious accusation against a sitting u. S. Senator and likely why you are seeing so many of his colleagues calling on him to resign even though he has not yet gone through the judicial process. He is really putting his party here in a tough spot. They have, of course, criticized former President Trump for facing criminal charges for mishandling the countrys most sensitive secrets and foreign Business Dealings and now to have one of their own facing this legal jeopardy, it is also creating a political problem for his colleagues. We are standing by for that Court Appearance to begin and paula reid is outside the courthouse for us. Joimore than half of the Democratic Senators have called on menendez now to resign. He has not done so, refuses to do so. One can understand why he wants to hang on to his job for political and personal reasons, but there might be a legal reason here, too. He might want to at least wait, harry. What is that . Yeah, well, look, i think the normal playbook here. He is in the tightest of tight spots and vice grows tighter every day. We should note, presumed innocent until proven guilty, but gold bars with serial numbers on them, its really kind of mindboggling evidence, but i think people know from experience in these cases that if you can just survive and let the initial pressure kind of abate and his job is something of a tip here, john, if he gives it up right away he has much less leverage, negotiation both on the political side and the legal side. So for now, at least, i think he wants to retain it and that involves continuing to protest his innocence not withstanding really a daunting set of allegations in the United States charges against him. Resignation could eventually be part of a plea deal potentially which is why one may want to wait there. Harry, Stand By For A Moment if you will, because, of course, there is other news this morning. This on donald trump in a civil ruling against him. Lets bring in cnns Brynn Gingras for that. Brynn . A huge ruling that happened, john. Basically, trumps empire is shrinking just a little bit because of this rule. Let me get into it, yesterday a new york judge saying trump and his two sons overinflated their assets in order to get loans. Some of those assets, we know about the golf courses and his hotels, we know about his homes. Let me give you a tangible example of what was in this court ruling. If you think about his triplex in trump tower in new york city, trump said its three times bigger in Square Footage than it actually is overvaluating the estimation of it by 114 to 207 million according to this judge who didnt mince words and said to that a discrepancy of magnified to the extent it is overvaluating 207 million according to this judge who didnt mince words and said to that a discrepancy of this order of magnified by a Real Estate Developer sizing up his own living space can only be considered fraud. Now what happens next . Part of this ruling the judge basically canceled the business certificates of part of Trump Organization in that the defendants in this case and theres commercial real estate here on wall street, also a Family Compound in Western New York which will be dissolved according to this judge, there will be a receiver put in place who will work out the dissolving of those properties. Including commercial properties. When that holds up if its affirmed, Trump Organization no longer exists, it may not do business in new york. There may be some kind of, you know, complicated to dissolve a company, maybe theres different kinds of corporate little twists and turns and basically for him and his two sons, they are as out of business and the thing that matters most to them. Its a Death Penalty for the brand which, you know, next only to his liberty is about the worst thing that can happen. So Arc Peeppeals will run, but e finding it very strong 2. 2 billion of inflation over this period. The Attorney General wants 250 million, but many other people to the point could wind up getting it. The money is just gone and distributed to others with no oversight by trump as to where it goes. They have to appoint an independent person you say if it holds up. Upon youve read through this. How much of a chance is there that he could wiggle out of this . I dont see a lot. Hes doing two things. Hes personally sued the judge. I see that going nowhere, and then theres the actual fraud, but it will be based on the facts and the facts by the justice laid out time after time who says he lives in a fantasy world. This is not a subjective feet as brynn said, 30,000 square meters versus 10,000, thats just a lie. Same thing with the valuations by factors of 200, i think this case is very strong and the only issue might be should the penalty be different, but thats standard new york law as i understand it. He is in a world of hurt on the business side, stronger so far than anything thats happened on the criminal side. Its so interesting. This was a bit of a sleeper case. Not a lot of people watching it quite as closely. Yes. In the end, it could hit him harder almost more than anything. Harry littman, thank you very much for your analysis. Thank you, john. We did just learn that Bob M Menendez has entered the court for kate . Also coming up for us, it is debate day. Right now there is still no deal on capitol hill and there is also now just three days left until the government shuts down leaving millions of federal workers and so many members of the military in the lurch, and so much more. The new approach from House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy today not to work with democrats saying that he will need to pass through anything in the end. Rather, Point Fingers at democrats and the white house. Cnns manu raju is on the hill. Manu, what are you hearing now . Yeah. There is just a lot of tension in the Republican Party about how to move forward here, an expectation that has shut down will happen by this weekend because of those divisions within the gop, not just senate gop, but within the House Republican conference themselves. There are a number of members who align themselves with Speaker Mccarthy who want to pass a republicanonly bill to keep the government open for a short period of time including some Border Security measures in particular, and there are other hard liners who say that they will not move forward on any shortterm Spending Plan at all, and wanting to deal with spending in a more traditional way, passing yearlong spending bills and not deal with this on a shortterm basis and that means Kevin Mccarthy doesnt have the votes and moving on a bipartisan track to keep the government open which includes aid to ukraine and aid for disaster relief, it does not support the Security Measures and a number of House Republicans are spouting off and critical of the republican leader for cutting the deal with chuck schumer. Its a very dangerous tactic to take, to say, hey, i want to shut the damn thing down because it literally ben it especially doesnt benefit the conservative platform. This is not paralleling or supporting a conservative platform by any stretch. Do you have confidence in senator mcconnell . No. Not at this moment. Theres zero confidence in his ability in the deal hes cut with senator shumeaum Senator S Representative of the house of representatives. Behind closed doors he told him he would not get behind the senate plan and told reporters there is no support for moving forward from the sen at that time bipartisan support, and the republicanonly plan and that is expected to fail. The senate will approve its plan and it will drag out into the weekend because of opposition in the Senate Republicans right flank for the ukraine aid in protest. They plan to take out those proceedings and it is expected to pass the [ no audio ] raising the expectations that have shut down and it seems imminent here as divisions within the gop persist. He seems to be left with no good options. Good to see you, manu, thank you. Sara . Laura baron lopez and thank you both for being here. I want to talk to you about what were seeing play out here. The speaker of the house just this past hour or so is literally blaming everyone but himself and House Republicans for the looming shutdown. He was blaming the senate and blaming the president , and it is republicans who cannot agree on a bill. The white house says look, they had the meeting back in may and they agreed to spending levels which is what the Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats are working with, and the white house, Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats are all in a line right now and in an agreement with what they think should be passed and in a divided government, the two parties have to come together, but it appears that Speaker Mccarthy is trying to simply appease to his right flank to those hard line members and is more concerned about his speakership than potentially avoiding a government shutdown. Its a really good point that there was that meeting back in may. The senate, as you just heard, theyve agreed on a bipartisan bill. Is there time for the house to vote on this bill before a shutdown . We only have three days left. And its unclear whether or not the speaker even has the votes. It actually seems like he doesnt. What the senate deal did do is it ratcheted up pressure on Speaker Mccarthy who really is in one of the tougher spots in washington right now. You have farright members of House Republicans that have said openly that the strategy is to shutdown the government which would undermine any strategy to reach a deal here. Now, he seems to be saying that he wants to move forward with his own deal that would focus on the border, but again, it is inclear whether or not he has the votes yet. We know that in the senate deal that had to do with ukraine funding and the takeaway for House Republicans that remains an issue that at this point is still polarizing, but hes hoping that for Something Like the border that they have really seized on to criticize biden that he can get the support to pass that bill, but again, you have members of his own party that have said that the strategy at this point is to shut down the government. It just doesnt seem feasible that you can reach a deal when you have that dynamic. Laura, im curious. This really does cause real hardship for member of the military and nearly 4 million americans who are federal employees. Some of them have to work because their jobs are mandatory. Others of them will be furloughed, but who will pay the price for this . Who does the public punish for this true failure of government and specifically congress . It is their job. In the past, sara, look, shutdowns are not good for the party that appears to drive congress into a shutdown. Voters dont reward lawmakers for it and right now, you know, based on voters that ive talked to, they are pointing a finger at House Republicans. I mean, right now House Republicans cant even agree to pass basic Appropriations Bills and thats a sign that they dont have an agreement in terms of their ability to fund the government for a short amount of time, but the impact is important, sara. Active Service Members will not get paychecks and food and Housing Assistance wont go out the longer a shutdown last. So theres real world impacts for everyday americans. It is, and people often see long lines, for example, at the airports. They cant go into public parks, for example, that are national parks. There is pain to be had. Lara barronlopez and young, thank

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