Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom 20130206 : vimarsana.com

CNNW CNN Newsroom February 6, 2013

Hello everyone im Ashleigh Banfield i want to get you started with quick headlines right out of the gate. Home mail delivery on saturday, about to be a thing of the past. The Postal Service Just Announced its going to stop weekend delivery of letters and other first class mail starting august 1st. You will still get your packages, though. But the cash strapped post office says this move is going to save them billions of dollars. Defense secretary leon panetta is dropping a bombshell on active duty troops and their families, we have exclusive information he will ask today for their pay raises to be cut. From 1. 7 to just 1 . Obviously this looks a lot like a shot across the bow over those possible defense cuts in the works. In fact secretary panetta minced no words at speaking at georgetown a short while ago. He says the upcoming automatic defense spending cuts threaten, quote, the most serious readiness crisis faced by the military in more than a decade. For more than a year and a half, the joint chiefs of staff and i have been extremely vocal about our deep concerns about taking another half trillion dollars out of the defense budget, in an across the board fashion. That hits every area, and that guarantees that we hollow out the military. Across the board cuts, that would deeply damage our national security. The secretary urged congress to accept president obamas call yesterday for smaller package of cuts to avoid the across the board reductions known as sequestration, you probably heard a lot about that, that sequestration would reduce defense spending by 45 billion through september. The National Board of the boy scouts of america has decided to put off an important vote to decide on lifting or not lifting a ban on gays until may. The vote was expected to come today, but moments ago the board said it needed more time for a more deliberate review of the membership policy, due to quote, the complexity of the issue. If the national ban is eliminated, it could be left up to the local scout units to decide if they will accept gay leaders and scouts or if they will not. In the South Pacific a powerful magnitude 8. 0 earthquake struck off the Solomon Islands today. And that triggered a tsunami. Five people were killed, when a three foot high wave hit the Santa Cruz Islands part of the solomon chain. The tsunami warning for several countries has now luckily been cancelled. In egypt a rude welcome for president ahmadinejad. It might look good when he was mobbed, but suddenly a man threw a shoe at him. It was captured on a news agency video. The aim was off. The Officials Say the shoe did hit a security guard, and the shoe is a huge sign of disrespect in those parts of the world. There is a price to be paid for coming clean after years of playing dirty. And for Lance Armstrong, that price could just be starting at 12 million. Cnn can now confirm that the sports Insurance Company that paid armstrong an eight figure bonus for winning the Tour De France in 2002 and 2003 and 2004, well, that company has had it. And they are going to file a lawsuit. They made the decision. Its going to be filed as early as today to get the money back from armstrong. Jeffy tillotson joins me from dallas, the attorney who will be headed to the courthouse to file that paperwork. Mr. Tillotson this has been talked about for a long time. There was Something Like an ultimatum, i believe you gave to mr. Armstrong saying, pay up or else. Is this the or else . Thats correct, ashleigh. We made our demand for the return of the money we paid him for winning the Tour De France races where the titles were stripped. Mr. Armstrong and his legal team have not complied with that demand. Have publicly said he will not return prize money. We are left with little choice but to Institute Legal proceedings, which my client plans on doing. Lets be clear, so that the viewers understand whats at stake here. This was Lance Armstrong, who sued you for the money, when you dared to question whether you should be paying these bonuses, given all of the rumors about the drugs. And you guys had to come to a settlement on this. Didnt you . And you paid him in that settlement. Thats correct. I mean, he was the official winner of those races. And our contract required that we pay him, if he was the official winner. But both he and his lawyers almost taunted us and said if we are ever stripped of those titles, we will give you the money back. I think at that time, mr. Armstrong thought he would never be caught. Of course he has been caught, exposed, confessed, admitted essentially to perjury. We will simply ask him to finally live up to his word and give that money back. Not to suggest you can from memory quote everything that is in your paperwork, but have you got the price tag listed in your suit . Yes. We paid him a little more than 12 million in prize money for winning three different Tour De France races, we will seek repayment of the 12 million plus our costs in legal fees. My client spent an inordinate amount of legal fees and investigatory fees to develop the evidence that was later turned over to usada. How much . In excess of seven figures. I mean, the amount what is the total you are looking for . Between 13 and 14 million. And that includes the interest after all of these years of waiting this out . Yes. The total sum from mr. Armstrong will approach, depending when the lawsuit is resolved, close to 15 million. So thats essentially the headline here today, is that you are going after him. You are doing it possibly today at the latest tomorrow. And the price tag for Lance Armstrong could be upwards of 15 million. I think thats right. We made that demand. And lawsuits are about making people do things that they wont otherwise do. Hes got to comply with the law and give that money back. I want to bring in jeff toobin, dont go away, mr. Tillotson. Jeff toobin is our senior legal analyst. This is fascinating. Because i mean you have been in probably a lot of settlement rooms, you have to sign off, this thing is closed for good. I am never going back. I cant go back. Heres your money, i never want to see you again. That was sort of the essence of this settlement, too. How can you now revisit it . Well, if it was procured by fraud, if the argument is here that armstrong procured this settlement by engaging in fraud, fraudulent conduct, specifically lying about whether he used these drugs, a court could reopen the settlement. But its by no means certain that mr. Tillotson will win the lawsuit even though Lance Armstrong is a very unsympathetic defendant. Jeff toobin Lance Armstrongs lawyer said this, i have to quote it, because he doesnt give a lot of interviews, and there arent a lot of quotes we can actually read from. No athlete has ever gone back and paid back his compensation. Some were suspended, but nobody said youve got to give your paycheck back. Is that correct . And who cares, if no one ever has before doesnt mean it cant be done. It doesnt mean it cant be done. The argument is the settlement was made with the understanding armstrongs argument will be the settlement was made with the understanding that circumstances may change in the future. The world is going to keep spinning, there will be more news, but you are signing away your right to file this case. And this settlement is the end of the case. Mr. Tillotson, just quickly, the amounts that you have quoted me look like you are just trying to get what is yours after what jeff toobin described as a fraudulent payout. The winnings werent clean. Is there not an aspect of punishment you want to inflict on mr. Armstrong after dragging your group through the mud and accusing you of not doing the right thing by paying him and daring to question his cleanliness, is there not Something Else you want, some punitive damage there . Its tempting. But it was mr. Armstrong and his lawyers that had the vendetta, that went out and tried to punish people. My client isnt interested in punishing anyone. Its interested in getting back money it improperly paid mr. Armstrong. That said, one difference between what mr. Toobin says and what happened with us is mr. Armstrong committed what i would call relentless perjury in our legal proceeding. He didnt just lie about performance enhancing drugs. He lied about virtually everything. And we are going to ask the Arbitration Panel that heard that testimony to punish him and hold him accountable for it. Its pretty a stonnishing what he said and did. Theres no doubt he lied in the depositions, he acknowledged that. But you settled the case. And didnt you then just give up the right to reopen it. You could have gone forward, you could have kept this going, you could have proved he lied. But you didnt. You settled. Dont you have to live with that now . Well, no, the legal posture of the parties was, as long as he was the official winner of the Tour De France race, we had to pay him. His lawyers and mr. Armstrong himself testified that if he was ever stripped of those titles, we could come back and get the money back from him, because we no longer had that legal obligation. Thats in the settlement papers, that you have the right to go back . That was part of the proceedings we had. That will be detailed, as we go forward in our legal proceedings. This is sort of a do over. I was going to say, im flat out of time, i have so many other legal cases that involve Lance Armstrong i need to talk about. But Jeff Tillotson, if this ends up in front of a jury, i want to be there for jury selection, because i dont know anybody who aint seen that oprah interview, and its like a jury pool all over the country, doesnt matter where you change the venue to. Thank you for sharing the information with us. We will be staying on the story with you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Jeffrey toobin, you are not going anywhere. Because as i said, armstrong faces that potential as mr. Tillotson said, 15 million lawsuit. That might look like a parking ticket for Lance Armstrong, when jeff toobin comes back. We will talk about all of the others things that this guy is going to face, and whether what happened today makes a difference. We are back in a moment. [ male announcer ] Research Suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. One a day mens 50 is a complete multivitamin designed for mens Health Concerns as we age. It has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. One a day mens 50 . [ male announcer ] engine light on . Come to meineke now for a free code scan read and youll say. My money. My choice. My meineke. A brutal attack on six spanish women vacationing in acapulco, mexico. Masked gunmen broke into a bungalow, tied up the men, who were staying there. And raped the women. Police say they have strong leads and that arrests could be coming any time. Skiing champion lindsey vonn is thanking doctors and fans after a terrible accident at the alpine ski World Championships in austria on tuesday. Von seriously hurt her knee, and she issued this statement today. And here it is. I quote, i can assure you that i will work as hard as humanly possible to be ready to represent my country next year in soshi. Thats the russian city where the Winter Olympics are set to be held next february. Do you remember chris brown and his plea deal after he assaulted his famous girlfriend rihanna four years ago . That deal included 180 hours excuse me, days, of community service. But the los angeles District Attorney is not so sure it was done right. And he wants chris brown to redo it. He calls browns records quote, at best sloppy documentation, and at worst, fraudulent reporting. Out with the iron and in with the cat. This is all going to make sense here. Monopoly has switched things up. Hasbro announcing a brand new playing token just this morning. They let the fans weigh in and replace one of the tokens, so the iron is out, the cat is in, and thank god the thimble was saved for another decade. phone ringing good afternoon. Chase sapphire. push button tone this is stacy from springfield. Oh whoa. Hello . Yes. I didnt realize id be talking to an actual person. You dont need to press 0, im here. Reach a person, not a prompt whenever you call chase sapphire. Why should saturday night have all the fun . Get two times the points on dining in restaurants, with chase sapphire preferred. A second day of riveting and lets just say very graphic testimony in phoenix, arizona. From a woman who is on trial for the savage killing of her former lover. Her nade is jody arias, there she is on the stand. And here is what the jury heard yesterday, when ms. Arias decided to talk in her own defense. Reporter a bombshell case, a bombshell defendant. Jody arias, a woman on trial for her life in arizona walking silently up to the witness stand to tell the world why she did what she did. The night her exboyfriend was stabbed, slashed and shot to death, she says in self defense. The simple answer is that he attacked me. And i defended myself. Reporter the questions from the get go are friendly. After all, this is direct exam, her lawyer asking the questions. A chance to explain everything, right from the moment she met Travis Alexander in september 06. The man she is now accused of murdering. A man she met at a Company Party in vegas. There was a crowd of people everywhere. Out of the corner of my eye i saw somebody walking toward me. He stopped right in front of me and stuck his hand out and introduced himself. Reporter she said it didnt take long before travis became friendlier and friendlier. So much so she tried to cool things off by telling him she was living with someone else. But later in an elevator it didnt seem to matter. He leaned in very close as if he wanted to kiss me and he was licking his lips and staring at my lips, like he wanted to kiss me, but he didnt. Reporter they stayed in touch after vegas. Jody testifying that travis convinced her to break up with her boyfriend. And within days at a party, jody says the heat between them turned way up. Was he touching you . Yes. I dont really recall the specifics. But we were getting intimate. We were making out. I didnt want to do anything that would maybe displease him, not because i feared like he would get angry or anything. But i didnt want him to feel rejected. Reporter after lying through her teeth for years about this murder to police, to friends, and anyone else who would listen, shes now trying to convince a jury that she had no choice but to kill her overbearing exboyfriend. Just two days on the stand, and they barely scratched the surface in a story of love, lies and a grisly murder that has jody arias face to face with a death qualified jury. Lets bring in beth karas. Every day there are more jarring details that come out on the stand no matter who takes it, whether its jody or all of the former lovers and friends, who weighed in on this relationship, its all about the relationship and whether she needed to defend herself. First, she looks so quiet and mousey on the stand. And now theres this report she has to wear a stun belt in court. Whats the story . Reporter well, actually its a leg iron, she cant be stunned with it. Its a leg iron that would prevent her from running. She limps a little bit. Its on her right leg and affects her knee joint. So she cant run. So she goes up to the stand. And she leaves the stand, when the jury is out of the courtroom, just so they dont see that. I am sure the jury they are not stupid. They probably know she is incarcerated. This is a blut al slaying, the jury knows the state is seeking death. This is not a woman walking the streets. Nonetheless there is a prejudicial factor to the jury seeing her with this iron that clanks while she is walking. What happens in a courtroom, it has been said its like a theatrical performance in so many respects. And jody arias does not look a thing like she looks in her photographs, when the crime happened, and when this relationship was in full steam. Is it accidental . Or is there something more mechanical to spending four or five years in a cell awaiting trial . Reporter its probably a combination of things, ashleigh. Theres no way her attorneys would allow her to dress the way she did in some of those photos. They bring her her clothes. So shes dressed conservatively, shes wearing the glasses, her hair is a natural color now. Shes sitting up there so demurely, so politely, its hard to contrast that the jody arias we have heard about from Travis Alexanders friends and seen in the photos. But this wont be lost on the jury. And im sure the prosecutor is going to point this out. I mean, shes up there saving her life. Shes the one who has all of the motive to tailor her testimony to make her look the best, the sweetest and most innocent and Travis Alexander to look like the villain. Just quickly, you and i have covered a number of trials, where female defendants have come out with this is going to sound crazy. But dark roots having gone in as blond bombshells. And its not every jurisdiction that will allow you to continue looking the way you look when you go in. You dont get hair dye or highlights in the clink. Reporter oh, no. Absolutely not. She was a brunette by the time of the slaying, and for all we know, i think she continued to be a brunette, i think she was a brunette when she was arrested, in her booking photo. By the way she wanted to put on makeup before her booking photo. She was allowed. And she had a nice little smile in the booking photo. But you are not allowed to have makeup, or its a controlled setting. I have had inmates tell me the tricks they use, women incarcerated to put makeup on. Even dye from magazines they will put on their cheeks. All sorts of tricks of the trade. Thats for sure. Makeup for the booking photo. Thats a new one. Beth karas, thank you. We will watch today as ms. Arias takes the stand again day three, and next hour on cnn. Com, hln and true tv there will be full co

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