toss the head set fell. >> zimmerman says he was acting in self-defense and has never been arrested or charged, but martin's family and their many supporters claim that racial bias in the shooting and the investigation. so now the fbi has stepped in and the justice department has opened a civil rights investigation. cnn legal analyst sunny hostin joining me now with more on all of this. why don't we go ahead and start with trayvon's cell phone friend. i understand you actually have a copy of her sworn affidavit. give us the details, sunny. we'll kind of unfold the conversation from there. >> good morning, kyra. i do not have a copy though of the sworn affidavit but i did speak to one of the martin family attorneys this morning for at least half an hour, and she and i discussed this phone call. apparently trayvon martin on that night had been trading phone calls with a 16-year-old friend, a girl, and as they traded phone calls, one of the last phone calls, w was at abou 7:04. trayvon martin told his friend that someone was following him. he was nervous, he was concerned. she explained to him that he should run. he told her he was not going to run, but he was going to walk quickly in an effort to get away from the person that he thought was pursuing him. well, kyra, she then heard trayvon martin say to someone, "why are you following me?" that person then said to trayvon martin, "who are you? why are you here? what is your name?" at that point at about 7:16 p.m., she says that the phone call dropped, that she felt that someone had pushed or tackled trayvon, and at that point the phone call dropped. she tried to call him several times after that, no response, an according to the time line that the police are giving us, someone from the police department did arrive at about 7:17, just a minute later. >> okay. so sunny, from what you just told us and what we're learning about this phone call with this lady friend and what she is saying happened and how this all unfolded that night, still how does this play a part in the number of investigations that are going on now? because george zimmerman has not been charged. he says he was acting in self-defense. so how does this play into the many ongoing investigations? >> well, certainly this is very frustrating for the family, that is what the family attorney told me. they are pleased that so many people have stepped forward and are investigating this case, but she just told me, the family attorney, that the state attorney's office in florida has sent this to the grand jury. that will happen on april 10th, so that is breaking news, kyra. our understanding is that the grand jury will be looking at this case on april 10th, and so the case certainly is moving forward in that regard. >> okay. how about the fact that now the justice department is involved, which, of course, we're talking about a civil rights investigation now. how will this play into that because of the civil rights investigation, the allegations taking place that he was targeted, that this was not self-defense, that this neighborhood watch captain was going after him because he was black. to him he looked suspicious. those are the allegations out there, which is why now the justice department is looking into this. how will this cell phone call now play into that? >> well, i will tell you that will be certainly a significant piece of evidence that's going to be looked at because, as we understand it now, that was the last conversation that trayvon martin had with anyone, and it also in my view dispels the notion of self-defense, because an exception to the self-defense claim, the stand your ground law in florida, is someone is the first aggressor, that someone is the pursuer. if you have a witness, arguably not an eyewitness but an ear witness and those witnesses are taken into account in our court systems, if you have someone that's saying that they heard a push, that they heard a tackle, then that certainly dispels this self-defense claim, and it would go to intent. also, kyra, usually when you have a federal investigation, the federal government allows the state typically to go forward with its investigation. wile they run in tandem, the federal government typically is loath to take over a state investigation. so i suspect they will allow the state to proceed in front of the grand jury, watch it very, very closely, and run their investigation in tandem rather than taking over the investigation. but all the evidence as it's being discovered in the state, i believe, will be used by the federal government as well. >> okay. and we'll be talking about it this afternoon. sunny, thanks so much. i know you will be with us as well. we ask all of you to stay with cnn. we are going to bring you the live coverage of the news conference which trayvon smith's father, tracy. also their family attorney will be joining him. that's coming up any minute now. we will take that live as soon as it happens. other news we're talking about this morning. the lawyer for the gi accused of gunning down afghan civilians is reportedly planning to argue diminished capacity. u.s. army staff sergeant robert bales has now spent hours face-to-face with his legal team at the military brig where he's being held in kansas. his lead attorney is john henry brown, and john henry brown told reporters that bales doesn't remember the rampage and was not drunk at the time as a senior military official has suggested. brown says bales is, quote, in shock. he's yet to be formally charged. we're following that story for you as well. and just minutes ago in washington, republicans who run the house budget committee unveiled their tax and spending plan for fiscal 2013. on the tax side they want to cut the number of income tax brackets from six to two. that top bracket would be 25%. the bottom 10%, and the dreaded alternative minimum tax would just go away altogether. now, as for the spending, the house gop wants cuts that go deeper than the debt reduction plan both parties agreed to last summer. unless the polls are really wrong, and that's not impossible, mitt romney should pad his delegate lead today in the illinois primaries. the polls aren't the only numbers tilting against rick santorum. romney and the pro-romney super pac have outspend him in illinois 7 to 1. the l land of lincoln has 54 delegates to offer. we will talk more about this contest later this in hour. some good news on the campaign front for president obama. a new poll shows he's got a pretty comfortable lead in a key battleground state. the quinnipiac poll shows the president with an eight-point lead over republican contenders in virginia. he's up eight over mitt romney and nine over rick santorum. the president won virginia by six points in 2008 becoming the first democrat, by the way, to carry that state since lyndon johnson did in 1964. and on the ninth anniversary of the start of the war in iraq, the war is technically over but peace seems a long, long way away. that point was made across the country today with a series of car bombings that killed more than 40 people. no one has claimed responsibility but targets including police, the military, government buildings, even a school. and the government blames al qaeda. iraq is due to host the next arab league summit just nine days from now. and there's a major hearing going on right now on capitol hill on the war in afghanistan. marine general john allen is testifying. he's in charge of international ground forces in afghanistan. and allen tells the house armed services committee that the mission is making progress despite recent events like the koran burning and the shooting of afghan civilians. he also says no decision has been made on how many troops will need to stay in afghanistan through 2013. and for the first time ever france is at its highest threat level and it's because of that deadly attack yesterday at a jewish school in southern france. authorities now say that attack may have been carried out by neo-nazis. the gun used in yesterday's shooting has been traced to two other attacks against minorities in the same region of france. the three children and one teacher killed in yesterday's attack will be flown to israel for burial. there was a moment of silence today to remember all the victims. well, he says he doesn't remember the murders. at least that's what the attorney for the u.s. soldier accused of a killing rampage says. so what does staff sergeant robert bales remember about that night? we're learning new information today. and a reminder, we're standing by for that news conference with trayvon smith's father, tracy, and their family attorney. that's coming up any minute now. we'll bring it to you live when it happens. -one. -two. -three. -one. two. three. one. -two. -three. -one. -two. -three. 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[ male announcer ] brake problems? stop in to meineke today for a free brake inspection and you'll say... my money. my choice. my meineke. he says he doesn't remember anything about the murders. the american soldier accuseed of killing 16 afghan civilians talks to his lawyer giving his side of the story now. john henry brown met with staff sergeant robert bales for more than seven hours at the u.s. military prison at ft. leavenworth, kansas. brown says bales remembers very little about the rampage. >> he has an early memory of that evening, and he has a later memory of that evening, but he doesn't have memory of in between. >> bales told you he was not drinking that night. >> he said he had a couple sips of something, but he didn't even have a full drink. >> but he was not drunk. >> no. >> bales' wife calls the shootings a heartbreaking tragedy. she says, quote, the victims and their families are all in my prayers, as is my husband who i love very much. she goes on to say, what has been reported is completely out of character of the man i know and admire. ted rowlands is at f leavenworth with more on the case for us. anything new from attorney bron today? >> reporter: well, we do know talking to the public affairs office here at ft. leavenworth that the plan was for the defense team to meet with bales during the day today. we also do know that attorney brown will be heading back to seattle later this afternoon, presumably that meeting is still going on at this hour. >> all right. and, ted, talk to me more about -- we're learning new information about bales. as you know, within the past week we learned about the fact that he's a father, has had financial issues. you know, had a brain injury in the past. now we're learning that he was involved or fined for more than $1 million in a fraud case more than a decade ago when he worked as some type of financial planner. what are you learning about this? >> reporter: there wasn't a conviction in this case, but it's very interesting, this is before he joined the military. he was in ohio, and he along with his financial group was accused of basically bilking an elderly couple out of more than $1 million. there was a judgment against this group, including bales, for $1.5 million. that money, according to the couple, was never paid back. there was an arbitration done, and in that arbitration the summary came out that said that bales specifically did engage in fraudulent behavior. another side of bales. we've also heard he was not only a war hero but a great person. so we're getting two different sides of this individual. trying to piece together how on earth something like what happened in afghanistan could happen. >> any idea on when bales might be charged, ted? >> reporter: we don't know. the military, of course, if you think about, it it's an exhaustive investigation taking place in afghanistan. you have 16 separate murders. you really have to analyze and get the information and they're interviewing witnesses there. there have been conflicting stories from witnesses on the ground that have talked to cnn in afghanistan. that's the stage here in right now, that investigation. presumably we're expecting charges to come out within days or within the week when you consider it was eight days ago plus now that this rampage took place. >> ted rowlands, thanks so much. well, the outrage over the killing of a florida teen has turned to action. federal prosecutors and the fbi both investigating the shooting death of 17-year-old trayvon martin. as protesters and trayvon's family say he was targeted because of his race. plus, we're learning new information about a phone conversation trayvon had the moment he was shot. we're waiting on a news conference by the attorney for trayvon's family. we'll bring that to you as soon as it happens. od strategy. the same goes for my retirement. with the plan my financial advisor and i put together, a quick check and i know my retirement is on course. [ male announcer ] with wells fargo advisor's envision plan, you always know where you stand. in fact, 93 percent of envision plan holders say they will retire on their own terms. get started on the plan you need today -- wells fargo advisors. together we'll go far. we've got more developments now in that shooting death of a florida teen at the hands of a neighborhood block watch captain. the seminole county grand jury will get the case april 10th we've now learned, which will be about a month and a half after trayvon martin was gunned down while walking to his father's fiancee's townhouse just north of orlando. george zimmerman thought trayvon looked suspicious. he called police, and then he followed the teen in his suv. trayvon was carrying skittles and a can of tea. zimmerman had a semiautomatic handgun. soon there was a confrontation, and zimmerman says he feared for his life. police say right now there's no proof to the contrary, so zimmerman was never arrested or charged. but now we know that a 16-year-old girl was actually on a cell phone with trayvon right at that moment. take a listen to this sound from abc news. >> trayvon said what are you following me for? then the man said, what you doing around here? then somebody pushed trayvon because the headset just fell. >> well, that girl has given trayvon's family's lawyers a sworn affidavit, and they're briefing reporters right now. in the meantime, the feds are getting involved also. the fbi is investigating, and the justice department has opened up a civil rights case. let's bring in civil rights attorney judith brown dianis and cnn contributor sunny hostin. judith, let's go ahead and start with you. what does it mean when the feds step into a case like this? immediately we're talking civil rights, right? >> right. that's right. this is an important move because now the department of justice can investigate what many of us believe to have happened, which is if you looked at this case and if the shooter were an african-american man in his neighborhood who shot a young white boy the age of 17, we think that the outcome would be different, and so the civil rights division will go in and look at whether or not race played a part in this, and then also they will be adding more resources to it, and there are concerns about how the police have handled this case. so having a neutral party come in will be important. >> okay. while i have you, and, sunny, i'm going to get to you in just a moment, but we've got this letter, this two-page letter, that came from the father of george zimmerman, and i just want to read a part of this and get, first of all, judith, you to respond to this. in part his dad writes, the portrayal of george zimmerman in the media, as well as the series of events that led to this tragic shooting, are false and extremely misleading. george is a spanish-speaking minority with many black family members and friends. he would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever. our entire family is deeply sorry for the loss of trayvon. we pray for the martin family daily. we also pray that the community will grieve together and not be divided by more unwarranted hate. what do you think, judith, about this letter that robert zimmerman wrote? >> well, i mean, there are serious concerns about this particular case on the basis of race because actually it was reported that george zimmerman had made several calls to the police on other occasions, and on all occasions in which he said there was someone who was suspicious, that person was an african-american male. and so there's real concern -- >> do we know that for sure? >> yes, actually -- >> every single 911 call. >> it was reported the ones where he called the persons suspicious it was reported in "the orlando sentinel" that, in fact, that's people were african-american. so there are real concerns about the fact that just because you are a young black male and suspicious and walking down a street, does not mean that you should be gunned down, and it's really of concern because the state and the local prosecutor should have stepped in very early on because this is not a case of self-defense. self-defense ended when that man got out of the car and followed this young man down the street and then struggled with him and killed him. >> all right. sunny, you're an attorney, so i'm going to have you weigh in here. i want to point out, too, that cnn has not confirmed the fact that there were -- there's been a lot of numbers thrown out there about how many times zimmerman has called 911. we have not confirmed those numbers nor have we confirmed if all those 911 calls were about african-american females, males. just want to make that clear. so, sunny, you just heard judith, what she had to say. speak to me here as an attorney and the fact that we now have this cell phone call between this lady friend and trayvon saying that she was on the phone with trayvon at the moment that this happened, and from what she heard, from what she described, there was not a confrontation on trayvon's behalf. >> yeah. i mean, i think the call is extremely important evidence because the police have come forward and have indicated they had no evidence to dispute this self-defense claim, and we have to make it clear, kyra, that the law in florida -- this stand your ground law is really what is at work here. this law -- i believe there are about 17 states that have this law, but but for that law there probably would have been an arrest here. so the defense, the self-defense claim, is extremely important. so now you have a phone call, you have a girl that is saying that zimmerman was, in fact, a pursuer, a first aggressor, and that's an exception to the stand your ground law. you can't claim self-defense if you are the first aggressor. if you start a fight and then lose a fight, you can't pull out a gun and shoot someone. so i think the call in and of itself is extremely important to dispel that self-defense claim. i just spoke once again to one of the martin family attorneys, and she feels that the push to now send this in front of the grand jury is a direct result of the release of that affidavit, that affidavit from the girl. so that phone call, that evidence, is that important, that the state's attorneys office may feel that is why they can get an indictment now. >> judith, i think you wanted to weigh in on the stand your ground issue. issue or nonissue for you? >> it should not have been an issue here because, in fact, the 911 call that zimmerman made early should have shown this was not a stand your ground kind of case because, in fact, he actually was told to stay in the car, and he did not. and he said that the young