Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin 201905

CNNW CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin May 20, 2019

Cant. Theyve testified for many hours. As far as youre concerned its done . Zblild say its done. Weve been through this. Nobody has ever done what ive done. Ive given total transparency. Its never happened like this before. Lets go to mu knew manu raju on capitol hill. First on our reporting, what do you know about this latest refusal to cooperate . The white house is going to say that mcgahn should not be forced to testify before the House Judiciary Committee even though hes facing a subpoena. Theyre going to make the case they have a couple options theyre considering. One to say hes immune from testifying before Congressional Committee because he was a former senior level adviser at the white house. Also theres talk about invoking executive privilege. Thats something the white house did in the aftermath of the decision by the democrats to hold the attorney general in contempt because of his refusal to turn over the unredacted Mueller Report. They invoked executive privilege and said the democrats could not get that information. Now, here the second time that don mcgahn has not turned over information to the House Judiciary Committee despite facing the subpoena because of instructions from the white house. The first time was when he was required to turn over documents by may 7th for that that mcgahn got part from the white house. The white house told him not to turn over that information. Theyve asked him to appear by tomorrow in a public hearing. Were expecting him not to show up because of the instructions from the white house. Now, the democrats are warning that they plan to hold don mcgahn in contempt and that vote could happen in a matter of days. Then the full house could vote to hold him in contempt along with bill barr and others who have defied congressional subpoenas. Brooke, this is the latest escalation between democrats and the Trump Administration over a range of requests to find congressional subpoenas. Something the courts could ultimately resolve and then tomorrow next hearing expect it to go on, im told, presumably with an empty chair and democrats raising concerns and the republicans siding with the white house and the fireworks arent over yet, even if don mcgahn does not appear tomorrow and were not expecting him to. With an empty chair. Manu, thank you for that. Ellie, reminding people, mcgahn, a private citizen now. Was the white house counsel. Is someone who had a key eye on whether or not this president at least tried to obstruct justice. When you hear manu mention potential immunity, would that apply . Its up to a court. Ultimately i think this is a long shot effort to keep the American People from hearing from don mcgahn who can give us i think based on the Mueller Report the closest firsthand view of obstruction of justice. The person who trump told to have mueller fired and later told mcgahn to lie about it. Ultimately contempt has just become the symbolic thing, maybe congress will hold him in contempt. Maybe not. This needs to end up in the courts and a judge needs to decide on the executive privilege claim. I dont think it will succeed in courts. Again, listening to you, he is a private citizen now. Yes. How would that impact him . What would be at stake for him to defy the president or not . Its an interesting twist. Because the conversations that are arguely privileged happened when he was white house counsel. The president really controls that privilege. The other person doesnt get to say im giving it away. The president has to give it away. Hes not doing that. What if mcgahn said im showing up . There probably would be no specific punishment for him. I think the right thing to do in a legally contested situation like this is wait until a court can resolve it. I dont think this is going to go the president s way. One reason is theyve waived it. Theyve given it away. Mcgahn has already talked to mueller. You can go to barnes noble and buy the report. How can it be privilege . I think theres other infirmities with the argument as well. All right. Thank you so much. Now to michigan congressman justin amash who is going where none of his fellow capitol hill republicans have gone to date. Saying he thinks President Trump has displayed behavior that meets the threshold for impeachment. Again, he is a republican. Amash is known for his more independent streaks said he reached the conclusion after actually reading the Mueller Report which he says showed multiple examples of actions that could be considered obstruction. Amashs bold move sparked a swift backlash from President Trump to his colleagues. Here is Kevin Mccarthy. Those who know justin amash, this is what he wants. He wants to have attention. Youve got to understand justin amash. Hes been in congress some time. I think hes only ever asked one question in all the committees hes been in. He votes more with pelosi than he votes with me. Its a question whether hes even in our republican conference as a whole. What he wants is attention in this process. Hes not a criminal attorney. Hes never met mueller. Hes never met barr. And now hes coming forward with this . Because this is what he wants. President trump blasting amash on twitter saying hes a loser and a lightweight. But amashs troubles are not limited to washington. Listen to this. One Michigan State legislator is so angry about all of this that he plans to challenge him next fall. He was a member of the Trump Transition Team and wrote a piece called the Mueller Report was my Tipping Point ive seen enough its time for impeachment. And ana navarro is with us as well. J. W. , first to you. You can relate to this congressman now. Whats it like to go out on a limb as a former trump person . Its good to have somebody else out on the limb with me. People asked me who was going to be the first to stand up. I predicted amash. Not because hes not a real republican. 100 rating with the nra and came in on the tea party revolution. He read the report and spoke up about how he told the truth when nobody else would. You called it it would be him. You guys are hanging out on this one branch as republicans speaking out. What can you tell me, j. W. , what are people in trump world telling you behind closed doors . The friends ive made working in various cabinet offices, and even in the white house have told me look, i cant comment, but good for you, i appreciate that. That takes a lot of guts. No kidding. Anna, whats your reaction to amash . The entire thing i think is a display of that right now for so Many Republican hood, republican purity, republican qualification is measured not by principles or convictions or beliefs but by absolute loyalty to donald trump. Today we have less republicans in congress. But they are far more loyal to donald trump. Donald trump made sure that was the case. He targeted and attacked republicans who dared descend against him in 2018. Anybody who spoke up against him and criticized him and found fought with him and spoke truth about him, and they lost primaries. People like mark sanford in South Carolina or they decided not to run again, people like jeff flake in arizona or bob corker or they lost general elections or they died. So today the Republican Party is blindly loyal to donald trump. Its incredible to hear an rnc chair attacking another republican. And the speaker of the house attacking a republican in his caucus. Saying that all he wants is attention. Man, i had to tell Kevin Mccarthy the minority leader if congressman get disqualified for seeking attention, there aint going to be nobody left in congress. Okay . Including him. Hed be the first one that would be shown the exit door. Its its all about trump. Its all about trump. Its loyalty. It was john boehner who said it. Its like no longer the Republican Party. Its the party of trump. You mention the rnc chair. We know that mitt romney wasnt as harsh as his niece was when it came to what amash said, but heres mitt romney. My own view is justin amash has reached a different conclusion than i have. I respect him. I think its a courageous statement. As i read the report, i was troubled by it. It was very disappointing for a number of reasons, but it did not suggest to me that this was time to call for impeachment. So j. W. , you have senator romney calling the statement courageous. But yet he disagrees on obstruction . I think it is courageous. And i would shift the focus back. Notice justin amash is willing to go on a limb. Pelosi is not willing to go out there with him. I think thats an incredible contrast that needs more attention. Romney has done with he can. The democrats will have to lead on this push for impeachment proceedings. It doesnt surprise me there are members of congress who want to ride trumps coat tails. They look more like the junior officer behind the scenes at a kim jongun party. But i think the leadership has to come from the democrats at this point. How do you think, ann, how do you think this puts the pelosis and nadlers who have been more on the slow train . Not jumping on lets impeach but lets do this and do this in a bipartisan way . How do you think amashs comments from a republican saying lets go, lets impeach force their hands . I think it continues the momentum. Anna, to an that. Sorry. I dont think it forces their hand. Pelosi has made et clear where she stands. For her, i dont believe its about whether offenses were oh committed or there are merits to the case. I think for her its a political and pragmatic calculation. They simply do not have the votes in the senate and so it would be an exercise that would divide the country. And look, i think mitt romney was speaking his truth. I think different people can read this report and find Different Levels of disturbing information or none at all if you are a trump cult member once you read it. And mitt romney like justin amash, im sure read the entire report because thats the type of thing mitt romney does. And i believe amash is correct when he says a most of these Congress People who are just spouting and parroting talking points from the Trump Campaign and the Trump White House have not red the report. I mean, i know its probably shocking to most americans to hear that most members of congress did not take the time to read 400 pages. Is it part of their constitutional duty . Of course it is, but it should also be to put country over party and to put constitution over a president of that party. What i do hope happens with democrats is that they continue asking and demanding that bob mueller come and testify. Precisely because there can be different conclusions reached because its why we need to hear from bob mueller. Its now been almost two months. Its been 59 days since this report came out. What the trump folks are counting on is the drum beat dying down and us getting distracted with the other 100 things that have happened since then. We need to hear from bob mueller. I say that as a floridian after hearing two counties in florida were hacked and the Voter Registration base was compromised. I want to know more. And so do many others. Really appreciate the conversation. Thank you both so much for speaking up on this. New reports the specialists flagged transactions involving companies controlled by trump and kushner, and boeing admitting for the first time that the software it used to train the pilots on the 737 max jets had flaws in it . Details on how that may have contributed to those two deadly plane crashes. And my favorite story of the weekend. 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S and for the past 15 years ive been a navy federal member. Thanks to their fast approval process, when it came time to buy a new car, we got everything we needed to transport my wifes little bundle of joy. Who i just adore. Navy federal credit union, our members are the mission. We are back. Youre watching cnn. Were learning the investigation into Donald Trumps inauguration is going ahead. It appears to be heading to the next stage. Federal prosecutors in new york poreing through documents theyve received from the inaugural committee. Theyre looking into any of the donations in the inauguration was misspent, or came from foreign donors. And they have talked to at least one of the planners for the inauguration whose firm was paid more than 20 25 million. We have new details about potential rez flags raised about President Trump and Deutsche Bank. The New York Times reporting the employees of the german bank flagged multiple suspicious transactions by trump entities including the defunct trump foundation. Activity by companies controlled by the president s soninlaw were also flagged but according to the times, Money Laundering experts at Deutsche Bank who raised their concerns were ignored. At least one even fired after recommending the transactions be reported to the government. The president slamming this report in angry tweets this morning and deutsche disputing that anyone was fired for questioning these transactions. Martin shield worked for more than 30 years as an investigator at the irs. Martin, thank you for joining me. Thank you for having me. Why do you think these employees, former employees from Deutsche Bank are speaking out about this in. Well, theyre doing what their theyre trained. Apparently theyre antiMoney Laundering specialists. Their job is to defect suspicious Financial Transactions and to put together whats known as a sar, suspicious activity report, which they hope ultimately will be provided to the u. S. Department of treasury subsection called the financial crimes Enforcement Center of the treasury. So as the report goes, these aml specialists wrote up their sars, provided them to upper management and upper managemented for whatever reason not to file it. The whole point of having an antiMoney Laundering program is really to protect the bank. The bank most banks dont want to be investigated or charged as conspireing with their clients to use the bank to launder proceeds from some specified unlawful activity. So the whole point here of having an antiMoney Laundering program is to detect suspicious transactions on the part of the banks clients. Forward them to upper management that should bless it, approve it and forward it to u. S. Treasury. Which is not what happened in this case. Let me jump in and read. This is Deutsche Bank. This is a statement. They have been under investigation for Money Laundering activities involving treasure. This is Deutsche Bank. Weve increased our staff and enhanced our controls and take compliance very seriously. But that said, can you speak to that . Whats the banks. O. When it comes to activities like Money Laundering . Right. In january of 2017 Deutsche Bank got hit with huge fines with regard to the russian mira trading Money Laundering activities they engaged in. New York State Department of Financial Services hit Deutsche Bank with about a 425 million fine, and the uks department of financial conduct also hit Deutsche Bank with about a 207 million fine. But that was focussed on the Money Laundering activities occurring in the Moscow Branch of Deutsche Bank where they traded stocks with over in london, and then the money would go out worldwide, offshore. What i like to draw viewers attention is a 41 million fine asserted by the Federal Reserve against Deutsche Bank in 2017 wherein they this was domestically oriented. They charged that Deutsche Bank basically had no antiMoney Laundering program, and they didnt follow any protocols, and they hadnt been doing it for some time. And this is domestically. So when the New York Times reports over the weekend that their Money Laund

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