Transcripts For CNNW Erin Burnett OutFront 20140911 : vimars

CNNW Erin Burnett OutFront September 11, 2014

Good evening, im erin burnett. We begin with breaking news. The nfl in major damage control. The commission and the leagues credibility are on the line. Espn tonight reporting that ray rice told nfl commissioner Roger Goodell in june that he punched his nowwife. But this is what Roger Goodell said this week. When we met with ray rice and his representatives, it was am biguous about what really actually happened. If he had been told by ray rice that he had punched his now wife in the face, that would not be ambiguous. And the nfl said they received the video of the assault months ago and that tape has caused outrage across the nation. And they have seen a longer version, including the audio. My guest tonight, well speak to him in a moment. And fast moving developments that are breaking here in the hour. Two of the respected owners in the league, art mat and art rooney promised a thorough investigation to determine if an nfl official ever received a video of the incident. Cbs making adjustment to tonights game. Rihanna was scheduled for the opening act and that has been called off. Miguel marquez has been following the story. And this espn report is incredibly damaging, if true, because the nfl commissioner Roger Goodell said something that would be the complete opposite of it, just days ago. It is possibly damaging. It is a little unclear from the reporting. If you look through the entire article this relates to a june 16th meeting in which rice, his wife, two reps from the players union, ozzy newsom, the gm and president of the ravens were all in the meeting. There were five different accounts of what rice told mr. Goodell during the meeting. Four of them said that he that rice admitted hitting his wife and the fifth said that rice slapped his wife. And i also say it is unclear because the opener of the ravens, Steve Bisciotti said earlier that he believed that rice had that rice had told him he had hit his wife but it was an openhanded slap and she was aggressive with him and drinking and that all of the damage was caused when she fell in the elevator and hit her head on the railing. It is not clear how much weight we can give to this at the moment because i think what Roger Goodell was responding to in that cbs interview was the fact that it wasnt clear what led up to the point where she fell. If you go through the entire interview, hes very clear that hes concerned seeing her brought out of that elevator. The other thing is you dont even need any of that because as weve pointed out before, the summons that was made publicly available and reported everywhere after the february 15th incident, it says that he hit her, rendering her unconscious in plain english. So the fact that he wouldnt have known that he hit her, either from rices own mouth or from the police who were on the scene, just doesnt seem credible. No, it doesnt. And certainly the word ambigu s ambiguous, whether it was a slap or a hit also seems strange to me. Up front now, abe notti who broke the story of the video sent to the nfl executive. And so we want to know what you know. You released a story that has rocked the nfl because you saya Law Enforcement official sent a video of ray rice punching his then fiancee to the nfl and you say there is a 12 second voice mail confirming the video arrived and you say a female voice says thanks, and your right, it is terrible. And the nfl said they have no knowledge those are their words no knowledge, but are looking into it. And tell me exactly what you make of that and exactly what you know. Well that point, what we know is what im reporting is that the Law Enforcement officials sent that tape to an nfl executive in april. He got confirmation on april 9 in that voice mail from an unidentified female. So we know that an unidentified female opened the package, viewed the tape and confirmed receipt of the tape. However, we do not know if she then passed it on to the intended recipient or if anyone else at the nfl in that League Office saw it. Right. And that obviously is very crucial. And also what more do you know, robb, if anything about the female voice on that voice mail . Was it an executive, an executives assistant . Obviously her role could be very crucial in determining what you said, which is who else might have known about the video . Yeah, erin and i cant speculate as to who it is. My source did not know who it is and i believe that is why the nfl has launched this investigation to get to the bottom of who it was that took possession or control of that video. Now let me be clear here. Your reporting shows that the video was sent to an nfl executive. And this woman then responds to it. You know who the nfl executive is. Youre choosing not to release it for fear that could reveal your source in Law Enforcement and people would be able to figure out your source. But what can you tell us about this executive, how high up, for example, was this individual . I appreciate you asking that question and i cant divulge any further information about the executive. So you cant tell us anything but you are very comfortable with the use of the word executive, someone very senior and in authority. Absolutely. And ive had conversations with the nfl. This is not something we reported overnight and this is something that we worked on for days and hours and this is something very credible and we are confident in. Nfl commissioner Roger Goodell has been on camera and responded to some of this. And there is now a lot of questions about what he metropolitan wh what he meant when he said it. He said the league did not see the tape before monday. So again let me be clear. Your reporting is that on april 9th there was a voice mail from the nfl confirming this tape did indeed arrive at the nfl. You dont know who might have seen it at that time but you have Roger Goodell telling cbs news that the league did not get the tape until this monday in september . Did you know that a second tape existed . Well we had not seen any video tape of what occurred in the elevator. We assumed that there was a video. We asked for video. But we were never granted that opportunity. When he takes it further and says we assumed there was video, we asked for the video, but we werent granted to the opportunity and you report it was in his offices, what do you make of his answer . Lets remember this video was sent unauthorized and unsolicited, so my source, my lawmaker official sent it unsolicited to the executive and it was an unauthorized copy. He could not do this. And that is why this is a sticky situation. And lets be clear, we never said that Roger Goodell viewed it and he may never have viewed any video. All my source says is this unidentified woman who saw it ant has the voice on the voice mail that i heard. And you have seen video, not just that the video we have been showing here on cnn but video from the incident that is longer, includes more time and also includes audio. What can you tell us . What did you hear . That is the crucial thing, what did you hear . The video that i saw was slightly longer. I believe it was audio enhanced. It was very muffled so i can hear a voice. Not ray rices voice. Another voice in the background saying, shes drunk, right . Ray rice does not respond whatsoever. And the voice also said no cops. Obviously cops came and obviously ray rice did not claim she was intoxicated. So he did not respond at all. I did not hear him and i cannot identify the voice. And you couldnt identify the voice. And speaking of identifying the voice, with yu reporting and the significant report that the video arrived at nfl offices and this woman called to confirm receipt on april 9th, do you know anything about her . Can you be sure that she worked for the nfl . If this video, even if the executive didnt see it, that it reached that office . Is that something you are sure of it . The phone call that the woman made came from the nfl building and nfl office numbers. That is the only thing that i can be certain about. And you have confirmed that so you know it came from inside of that building . Correct. I saw the number. And rob, when you just heard the report now that were also reporting here from espn saying that there were sources in the room, four of whom said ray rice told Roger Goodell that he hit his wife, one of whom said he slapped his wife. And that that happened months ago. Obviously this week he said his understanding of what happened at that time was ambiguous, does that surprise you . You know, erin, again, i cant speculate. I can only tell you what i saw and i know and i heard and report on the facts i have in this case. I believe there will be Different Things coming out every single day that so many people are trying to report and dig things up and find things out. So we live in a world where any kind of news will not surprise anybody. And when we talk about this video, the video that youre talking about, you know the call originated inside of the building, you know it was a female voice and you are not exactly sure who she was. When she comments that it was, youre right, its terrible, is there an assumption being made, just to be clear here, the assumption is that shes referring to this exact video that was sent, right . That is an assumption . That is in reference to the note that was attached to the video with the note saying that this is terrible, you have to see it. But you are sure that it is related to this video. There is no chance it could have been related to anything else . My Law Enforcement official sent only that video. Only that video. All right. Well, rob notty, thank you very much. We appreciate you taking the time. A significant report there from rob in terms of that video which he said arrived at nfl offices and there was a female who confirmed receipt of the specific video on april 9th. Of course the nfl said it did not see that video until monday of this week. Up front now, done mcphearson, and rachal nichols and mel robinson. Rachel, let me start with you. As you heard robbi going throug the video and is clear and know what he had, when you listen to that, how damning is that to the nfl for you. It is very damning. Under the standard that Roger Goodell has set, it doesnt matter if he saw the video or not when we are talking about this specific instance. Sure, if he bald faced lieond cbs and is he he didnt see it and it turns out in the course of the investigation we find out there emails or investigation that he did watch it, i think he will probably lose his job. But even if that didnt happen, it shouldnt really matter under these standards he has set. Roger goodell has said over and over and over again to players and to ignorance is not a defense. When there was that scandal year ago, they were organizing bounty pools and the head coach said he did not know anything about it and Roger Goodell suspended that head coach for a year. For a year he took him away from his team and said ignorance is not a defense. Players drink a milk shake and it has a banned substance in it, this is something over the counter but it has an ingredient that is a banned substance and the players money gets taken away and suspended for six games because ignorance is not a defense. I want to know if he saw the tape. But now that ive heard the report you just did, i just dont know if it matters so much under Roger Goodells rules. And don what, do you think about that . Not only is rob notty reporting, espn is reporting that ray rice had a meeting with Roger Goodell back in june and he said he hit his thenfiance. Four people say hit and one say slap. The commissioner said it was ambiguous at the time. Maybe there was ambiguity, but it doesnt appear from the report from espn that there was any ambiguity on the fact that he struck his wife . The problem that goes back to the meeting where Roger Goodell said there is ambiguity, is that that meeting was not about figuring out how about to bring justice to this situation. This is to figure out how do we help to resolve the situation . When you have a member of the the Ravens Organization, ozzy newsom in the room, you are not there to adjudicate the issue, you are trying to smooth this over. So it comes out ambiguous. And what we got out of it, is shes saying we got into an altercation. And there is a point there where she did accept responsibility. Which, by the way that is Domestic Violence investigation 101. Maybe that is why Roger Goodell is saying what he said. So you set it up for it to be ambiguous. And erin, the idea that they interviewed janay rice and in a meeting with ray rice and with several officials with the Ravens Organization sitting there as well, i dont understand how anyone thought that what she was then going to tell them wouldnt be under some sort of in fluns or duress. It is crazy they could be deciding, we listened to her. Rachel just put it so beautifully. That is absurd. You think she is going to sit there with all of those people and say and say anything other than what she said, which is, im sorry for anything i did. Please fix it. Erin, you just nailed it. Of course, again, anybody that has seen the video, put yourself in janays shoes. You are going into a meeting with the commissioner of the nfl, your husband and everybody else there and say, yeah, 100 responsible, he cold cocked me across the face and pushed me around like a piece of luggage on the floor. No way. She doesnt want to be responsible for him losing his career. So that was a horrible situation. But i can explain the ambiguity and i believe and don just put it out there and the owner of the ravens came out and was very forth right and said we made a mistake here and my bad, i actually had a vision of what happened as being more mutual. And so i think they probably all left that meeting because of the way it was conducted thinking and having that fiction in their mind. And i want to address one more thing that rachel said about the fact the players are starting to become outraged and that Roger Goodell has a certain type of rule, which is ignorance isnt a defense. Well in this case, the players dont fire him. It has got to be the owners and the executive committee has the authority under the bilaws and the the bylaws and the constitution if they can get 3 4 of the owners to approve it. Thanks to all of you. Ray rices close friend joins me. He said he is very much in love with his wife and trying to repair his situation. And what happens to ray rice. 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And let in the dog that woke the man who drove to the control room [ woman ] driverless mode engaged. Find parking space. [ woman ] parking space found. [ male announcer ]. That secured the data that directed the turbines that powered the farm that made the milk that went to the store that reminded the man to buy the milk that was poured by the girl who loved the cat. [ meows ] the internet of everything is changing everything. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. Breaking news. The nfl commissioner is not telling the whole truth when he learned that ray rice knocked out his wife in an Atlantic City elevator. He told Roger Goodell that he hit his thenfiancee. That contradicted what the conversation was with Roger Goodell this week. When we met with ray rice and his representatives, it was ambiguous of what had happened. This is the inconsistencies to enlis the help of a former fbi chief to investigate the handle of the ray rice case. And questions are growing about who is leading the investigation. Miguel marquez is out front. Reporter even before it gets underway, the investigation into the investigators of the ray rice scandal already raising eyebrows. Overseen by two nfl team owners, john mara of the new york giants and art rooney of the pittsburgh steelers, can Robert Mueller lead a thorough and independent investigation. His law firm said he has experience handling sensitive investigations, including his service for over a dozen year of the fbi. He is a partner at washingtons wilmer hill and has deep connections to the National Football league. And the current president of the ravens, cass, was a partner for 31 years. Hill lawyers help negotiate deals with the nfl and several employees have taken jobs with nfl teams. The investigation is expected to focus on several questions, including did nfl staff try to obtain the elevator video . Was the video ever delivered to anyone at the nfl, and, if so, what happened once it was inside nfl offices. Questions about what happened in that elevator and how the nfl got it so wrong. Steve busch otty spoke about the mistakes he made when the investigation unfolded. We love ray rice and so we have a tendency to hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see. And so the misdemeanor, the explanation that she hit him he hit her with an open hand, the facts that she had was aggressive, i was picturing a i was picturing her wailing on him and him smacking her and maybe her head was this far from the wall and with herrin even ration dropped. The stakes for the ravens and the nfl enorm out. Tonights ravenssteelers game is the first of a series of nfl contests on network tv. Cbs paid 275 million to same kate eight thursday night games. In a nearly awkward coincidence, cbs was set to open the show with a video by rihan

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