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EARLY START

Judge Voids Manafort Plea Agreement After Ruling He Lied; Compromise Border Bill Finalized; Round Three Of U.S.-China Trade Talks; Former U.S. Intel Officer Charged With Spying; Vice President Mike Pence Expected To Call Out Iran. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired February 14, 2019 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:31:20] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A federal judge says Paul Manafort lied and broke his plea deal. He could go to jail for life.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Lawmakers prepare to vote on a border deal today. Will the president sign it before another shutdown?

ROMANS: High-stakes trade talks underway in Beijing. Smiles for the camera. Will the president extend a key tariff truce to help cut a deal?

BRIGGS: Plus, a former Air Force intelligence officer accused of spilling U.S. secrets and spying for Iran.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour. Happy Valentine's Day.

BRIGGS: Nah, to the kids.

ROMANS: I know.

BRIGGS: To your girlfriend if you're young and in love, but not us old married folks, right?

ROMANS: I don't know.

BRIGGS: We're exempt.

ROMANS: I think it's -- roses are so expensive on this day. I don't like to buy them. I don't like to buy them and I don't like --

BRIGGS: Oh, there's romance.

ROMANS: I'm financially responsible.

BRIGGS: Romans romance.

ROMANS: Exactly. Thirty-two minutes past the hour.

Let's being, though, with --

BRIGGS: OK.

ROMANS: -- with Paul Manafort's plea deal now voided. A federal judge ruling the former Trump campaign chairman intentionally lied to the FBI, the special counsel, and the grand jury, making multiple false statements about several material matters, including his interactions with a long-time Russian associate, Konstantin Kilimnik.

We get more now from CNN's Evan Perez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, a judge here in Washington voided Paul Manafort's plea deal with federal prosecutors. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that there's enough evidence to show that Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, intentionally lied in three instances during the time that he was supposed to be cooperating with investigators from special counsel Robert Mueller's office.

Manafort's attorneys have disputed that he intentionally made false statements, saying he simply didn't remember certain details. Prosecutors have accused Manafort of five specific lies.

He pleaded guilty last year to financial crimes and had agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation. The judge issued an order saying that Manafort lied in three of those topics and the lies were quote "material to the investigation".

Now, two of those lies, the judge said, had to do with Manafort's former business associate Konstantin Kilimnik. Prosecutors allege that Kilimnik is an operative with Russian intelligence, and they say that Manafort shared sensitive polling data with Kilimnik during a meeting last year at a cigar bar in New York.

Now, we don't know exactly what else happened at that meeting but prosecutors say that it was important enough that Manafort lied about it and that those who attended even left by separate exits, perhaps to avoid detection.

The judge has yet to decide how long Manafort will spend in prison and whether he gets any time for admitting to his crimes -- Christine and Dave.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: OK, Evan Perez. Thank you.

If all goes according to plan, a bipartisan border security bill could be on the president's desk by tonight, and according to sources he plans to sign it. The 1,159-page spending package has officially been released. The Senate is expected to take it up and pass it today. The legislation then goes back to the House, with final passage expected tonight.

From there, the measure goes straight to the White House where Mr. Trump, talking here with Colombia President Ivan Duque.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we haven't gotten it yet. We'll be getting it. We'll be looking for land mines because you could have that, you know. It's been known to happen before to people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The president continues to claim his wall is being built even though the funding bill headed his way calls for just 55 miles of new steel fencing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're building, as we speak, in the most desperately needed areas. And it's a big wall, it's a strong wall. It's a wall that people aren't going through very easy.

You're going to have to be in extremely good shape to get over this one. They would be able to climb Mount Everest a lot easier, I think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:14] BRIGGS: The conservative House Freedom Caucus is so unhappy with the compromised border bill its members introduced a short-term resolution to keep the government funded for another week. They hoped to buy time to negotiate a better agreement.

ROMANS: All right. Critical trade talks between the U.S. and China underway in Beijing. This is the third round of recent negotiations between the two countries.

If a deal is not reached by March first, U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports skyrocket from 10 percent to 25 percent. If enough progress is made, the president said he may let that deadline slide.

Let's go live to Beijing right now and bring in CNN's Matt Rivers. He's been following all this.

You can see handshakes and smiles -- clearly, a public relations opportunity there. Behind the scenes, do we know if any progress is being made?

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, we don't have a lot of insight into these meetings when they happen here in Beijing. It's very standard protocol that we really don't get any insight into the status of negotiations.

Usually, until after the American delegations leaves, that's when we really get most of the details. China, of course, is famous for not really allowing any sort of leaks when it comes to its government officials. But what we are hearing is positive signs. We saw Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, going towards those talks this morning saying so far, so good. So that's, I guess, a positive sign if you're looking towards a trade deal.

We've got Chinese state media, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, basically signaling pretty positive things throughout the day today.

So, if you're looking for hope towards a trade deal, you have some based on the early stages of these negotiations today. And then, of course, they're going to be continued tomorrow.

And that's what President Trump is looking for when deciding whether he's going to let that deadline of March first slide back a little bit and not raise tariffs from 10 to 25 percent. He's saying there needs to be enough progress made this week in Beijing, which is the last round of negotiations that is scheduled before that March first deadline, in order for him to let them slide.

The other thing that letting that deadline go back a little bit accomplishes is it gives President Trump time to meet in person with President Xi of China. Trump has said that he will not sign a trade deal without meeting with Xi first and there isn't time to do that before March first.

So we're going to have to wait and see whether he lets the deadline slide. But, there have been some signs of progress, Christine.

ROMANS: Yes. It is a heavy lift, though. I mean, you've got basically an existential crisis for the Chinese if -- I mean, their entire system is built on the communist government --

RIVERS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- picking winners and losers and favoring Chinese entities.

RIVERS: Yes. No, you're absolutely right. I mean, that is basically what the United States is asking China to do -- is to say OK, you can't do that anymore.

You have to take the state out of the economy in a very substantive way in addition to doing all that other stuff, like protecting intellectual property theft, stopping forced technology transfers. And, oh, by the way, making that trade deficit that President Trump talks about go down. There's a huge list of asks.

So if you're looking at optimism you're going to say oh, there's progress being made. But if you're more of a pessimist or, some would argue, a realist, then the odds of a really substantive trade deal being worked out this fast -- they're not great.

ROMANS: Yes, all right. Nice to see you, Matt Rivers. Keep us posted.

BRIGGS: All right. A former Air Force intelligence officer has been charged with spying for Iran. An indictment, unsealed yesterday, charges 39-year-old Monica Witt with revealing a highly-classified intelligence collection program and risking the lives of U.S. assets in Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DEMERS, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Monica Witt provided the Iranian government with the identities of employees in the U.S. Intelligence Community who were operating overtly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The Justice Department says Witt also helped Iran use phishing e-mails and fake Facebook accounts trying to penetrate U.S. intelligence computer networks.

In 2013, Witt defected to Iran, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEMERS: We would hope that someday she might travel outside of Iran and we would be able to affect her arrest and render her back to the United States to stand justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The indictment says little about what drove Witt to spy but it claims she considered approaching Russia as well.

ROMANS: Just minutes from now, Mike Pence is expected to call out Iran. The vice president will speak in Warsaw where representatives from over 50 nations are taking part in a conference on the Middle East. Pence is expected to call on European allies to join the U.S. and forge a new nuclear deal with the Iranians.

Atika Shubert live from Poland with the latest developments. I mean, he's trying to shore up alliances with European allies, but those alliances have been on shaky ground the last couple of years.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're very skeptical of this. In fact, the foreign ministers of both Germany and France are not attending. The head of foreign policy for the E.U. also not here. They have sent high-level delegations.

[05:40:00] But it's pretty clear that they're trying to say they disagree with the U.S. policy, specifically on abandoning the JCPOA nuclear deal. As far as the E.U. is concerned, that nuclear deal remains the best way to containing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions.

So, it's quite an uphill task, really, for Vice President Mike Pence, who will be making his centerpiece speech in about 20 minutes from now. He gave us a little preview of that last night during the dinner that opened this conference, saying he wanted to see a new alignment against Iran. And certainly, he has a lot of supporters here, especially Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But as you point out, convincing those E.U. nations will be much more difficult.

ROMANS: All right, Atika Shubert. Thank you so much for that.

BRIGGS: All right. Let's bring in "Washington Post" congressional reporter Karoun Demirjian, a CNN political analyst. Good to see you, Karoun.

ROMANS: Hi.

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Hi.

BRIGGS: Let's pick up there with Atika's reporting about what Mike Pence is expected to say in about 20 minutes, and with the context of John Bolton, national security adviser, on the 40-year anniversary of the Iranian Revolution reacting to some taunts from Iran -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BOLTON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: And for all your boasts, for all your threats to the life of the American president, you are responsible for terrorizing your own people and terrorizing the world as a whole. I don't think you'll have many more anniversaries to enjoy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Wow. Let's expect Mike Pence to be a little more diplomatic in 20 minutes.

But what's the coming confrontation here and how much support is there among European allies for what might be a new deal or a new alignment against Iran?

DEMIRJIAN: I think there's mostly skepticism from European allies at this point. And given that the United States was the one to effectively rip up the Iran nuclear deal, I think there's a sit back and wait and see what the United States is going to produce other than tough talk about Iran, which is not actually inclined on going anywhere.

The president and his administration have really focused in on Iran as being their major adversary in the Middle East -- focused on Iran, really, to the exclusion of most other powerbrokers in the region. And they've been criticized for that, not just from European nations but also from political opponents and even members of their own party in the United States.

So, this is kind of a classic sort of a Bolton stance. Very, very tough talk -- almost a little bit daring to get into conflicts that could prove to get out of hand --

ROMANS: Yes. DEMIRJIAN: -- if they actually transpire. But again, that's classic Bolton.

The United States is going in with Israel also on its side, saying that tone about talk tough on Iran. But so far, that has not been backed up, though, by -- and this is something that we have to offer that we think will actually be a durable solution. That will actually innervate the threats, nuclear and just regionally, in terms of Iran's influence and money that goes to other countries. We haven't seen that yet and I think that's what the European nations are waiting on.

ROMANS: Right. And our Atika Shubert was reporting that there's skepticism there in Warsaw --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- in the halls of Warsaw and that the foreign ministers of France and Germany are not even going to be there --

DEMIRJIAN: Right.

ROMANS: -- for these discussions. So that really, I think, speaks volumes about where --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- we are with those --

DEMIRJIAN: Yes.

ROMANS: -- really important post-World War II alliances.

Let's switch quickly to the Manafort ruling yesterday. This was such a blockbuster story and still reverberating this morning.

What does this mean for the Russia investigation, I guess, going forward with Mueller? What have we learned from this yesterday?

DEMIRJIAN: Well, we learned that basically, the person who was the first and seemingly potentially biggest cooperator with the Mueller probe was not really cooperating that much. We've also learned that Mueller has the ability to really truth squad (ph) and hold these witnesses that have been working with the probe -- working with the probe in name to actually account for whether they are actually doing that in practice.

And in this case, that was not the case. I mean, calling out Manafort on various lies and basically revoking that plea deal. And it means he's going to be spending a lot of time in prison.

ROMANS: Yes.

DEMIRJIAN: It means his cooperation is also probably over because the incentives for him to cooperate are now gone.

But basically, if we've gotten to this point where this is being named -- either Manafort is being seen as not that -- not a useful witness anymore because of the lies that he's been telling or we're getting to a stage where they feel comfortable -- that the Mueller probe feels comfortable wrapping up some loose ends, which could suggest that we're heading towards a potential conclusion or report or seeing what the findings are going to be.

I think everybody's waiting on that now, anticipating it's going to come at some point soon. And the more we get into court, the more it seems like that may be the case. But also, it seems like Manafort is a special case where he just was not being very useful --

BRIGGS: Yes.

DEMIRJIAN: -- because he wasn't being very truthful.

BRIGGS: And at 69 years old it does appear he will spend the rest of his life in jail --

DEMIRJIAN: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- barring a pardon, which is the question that has been looming out there since the beginning of this investigation.

But when you look at just the big picture here and how many Trump officials lied about specific interactions --

[05:45:00] ROMANS: Yes.

DEMIRJIAN: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- with the same people -- with Russia, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Gates. The list goes on. And the question being why?

DEMIRJIAN: Yes.

BRIGGS: Why would all these people lie about the same thing, Karoun?

DEMIRJIAN: Well, I mean, I don't know that I can fully answer that question yet.

BRIGGS: No.

DEMIRJIAN: But look, either because there's something to hide or because they were all arrogant enough to think that they could just kind of be fast and loose with how they were describing things because the worst case scenario is that there's something to hide -- and I'm talking for the president here.

ROMANS: Right.

DEMIRJIAN: And the best case scenario is they were so offended by even being asked about this that they decided to overly cover up. In that case, they made themselves a much bigger problem than they would have had if there was actually nothing there. So this is one of those things of, you know -- OK, maybe it's all just a series of lies that were mistakes of judgment to actually make in the first place or maybe they all doth protest too much because it goes back to one general set of issues and one group of people who all seem to be pretty close to the president who were getting themselves into very hot water.

ROMANS: It's just remarkable.

Karoun Demirjian, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Have a great day.

DEMIRJIAN: Thank you -- you, too.

ROMANS: Happy Valentine's Day.

DEMIRJIAN: To you, as well.

ROMANS: Thank you. Dave, see, people care Valentine's Day.

BRIGGS: I know. I'm such a crusty old man.

All right. Ahead, it's end of an era. Airbus giving up on its super jumbo jet. "CNN Business" is next.

ROMANS: I'm going to send your wife --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:50:33] BRIGGS: Ford recalling more than one million of its F-150 pickup trucks due to a transmission issue. Ford warned some models from 2001 to 2013 could downshift to first gear without warning. That can cause drivers to suddenly lose control of their vehicles. At least five accidents stemming from the issue have been reported.

ROMANS: Let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning -- this Valentine's Day morning.

Global markets are mixed as investors are looking for developments on talks between the U.S. and China. You can see Asian stocks lower. Europe opened higher.

Investors on Wall Street pretty encouraged, really, by hopes of a U.S.-China trade deal. U.S. futures pointing higher before the opening bell.

The Dow climbed 118 points to a 2-month high yesterday. The S&P and the Nasdaq also slightly higher.

All right, it's the end of the superjumbo jet. Airbus announced today it is going to stop delivery A380s in the year 2021 after its key customer Emirates slashed its orders for the jetliner.

Airbus is ending the A380 program after it failed to deliver on pretty outsized expectations. Airbus has delivered 234 of these superjumbos to date. That's less and a quarter of the 1,200 it predicted it would sell when it first introduced the double-decker aircraft.

Emirates is redirecting its money into buying 70 smaller passenger jets from Airbus.

Google is investing big money outside of Silicon Valley. It plans to invest $13 billion in data centers and offices in more than a dozen states this year.

In a blog post, the Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the investment is going to add more jobs across the country, saying this. "Our expansion across the U.S. has been critical (sic) -- crucial to finding great new talent, improving the services that people use every day, and investing in our business."

He said Google will open new data centers in Ohio, Nebraska, and Nevada, it will expand its data center in Oklahoma, and open a new office in Georgia.

BRIGGS: Fantastic.

One year since Parkland. What has changed? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:56:52] BRIGGS: It was one year ago today that a former student unleashed a hail of gunfire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. This, the front page of the "Sun-Sentinel" today -- "We Remember".

Fourteen students and three adults died in the massacre. A year later, survivors vow to keep pushing for gun safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID HOGG, PARKLAND SHOOTING SURVIVOR, CO-FOUNDER, MARCH FOR OUR LIVES: I plan to make sure that our generation is the last generation to have to -- that has to live with the constant scourge of gun violence, no matter whether it's 17 people that are killed at our high school or one person that's shot on their -- shot and killed on their way to school because we have to end gun violence in every zip code in every single part of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: President Trump, speaking at a law enforcement conference in Washington, listed his administration's efforts after Parkland and advocated for stronger school security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We cannot imagine the sorrow and suffering the Parkland families have endured. Our entire nation mourns for the victims and their loved ones. And we pledge our unwavering resolve to work with the leaders in this room to secure our nation's schools and everywhere else.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: At Stoneman Douglas High today, a day of service and love. Students will participate in community service projects in the morning. The school will let out at noon.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced he wants a grand jury investigation of the Broward County School District's response to the attack and its handling of school safety issues.

ROMANS: Back in Washington, a moment of silence on the House floor, led by Congressman Ted Deutch who represents the Parkland area. He also co-sponsored a Democratic gun regulation that would ban high- capacity magazines.

The activism and legislative efforts seem to have had an effect, at least on the state and local levels. A year-end report from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence shows 67 new gun laws enacted in 26 states and the District of Columbia.

But for grieving families and friends change cannot come fast enough. This is a shocking statistic. According to the non-profit gun violence news site, The Trace, nearly 1,200 American children have been killed by firearms in the year since Parkland. It's unacceptable.

BRIGGS: Thank you for joining us, everyone. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be devastating to Manafort. He's likely to have the judge throw the book at him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of this seems to involve Konstantin Kilimnik, who is incredibly important to this investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My sense is it has little to do with politics and a lot to do with him saving his own skin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that he will take executive action to make sure he gets the dollars that he needs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's possible that the president will, in all likelihood, take this deal.

TRUMP: It's a big wall. It's a strong wall. They would be able to climb Mount Everest a lot easier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Thursday, February 14th, 6:00 here in New York.

Alisyn is off. Erica Hill joins me. Happy Valentine's Day.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Valentine's Day.

END