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Biden Meets with World Leaders; Trump's DOJ Sized Private Records; World Leaders Meet at G7; Amanda Sloat is Interviewed about Biden's Message. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 11, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden on his way to the G7 right now. Will he respond to the stunning revelations about the Trump Justice Department?

CNN's coverage continues right now with --

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto. Poppy Harlow has the day off today.

Happening now, President Biden steps out on the world stage at the G7 summit in England, arriving for his first day of that summit in his first foreign trip as commander in chief. In minutes he will set -- he is set to meet with global leaders of the world's top democracies, including taking that iconic family photo, as it's known, a symbolic moment for the president. We will bring you that moment live.

But back here in the U.S., breaking overnight, alarming news, the Trump administration accused of a gross abuse of power, weaponizing the Justice Department. Sources telling CNN that DOJ prosecutors looked -- looking to track down leaks seized records from more than 100 people, including those of two prominent Democratic lawmakers, along with their staff and their families, even seizing the electronic records of a child. A stunning use of the U.S. Justice Department. We're going to have more on that developing story in just a moment.

Let's begin, though, with Jeff Zeleny, live from Falmouth, England.

Jeff, after four years of President Trump's America first agenda, we saw that repeatedly disrupt, cause some melodrama at events like this, even during the photo. A different tone, a different tack from President Biden. What do we expect to see today?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, good morning.

We all remember that well, President Trump arriving at these world summits and elbowing his way in, quite literally, in some of these photos.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZELENY: So we're going to see President Biden, really in the next several minutes, arriving at the summit site with other leaders of the G7. And, of course, this is -- he's been making the claim that America is back. Now he has to prove it through these conversations, through these one on one meetings and these group meetings. There is much on the agenda here.

But President Biden has cast this as a very serious, momentous time for the world as it recovers or tries to recover economically and otherwise from the global pandemic. He said it's every bit as important and monumental as the post-war period. And he indeed has been trying to draw that contrast, building up the Trans-Atlantic Alliance.

Of course, we saw him yesterday meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. But he will be meeting with other leaders of the G7 here and so much on their plate, including the economy, of course, the pandemic and China, of course, not a member of the G7, not here, but certainly a subtext of all of the conversations going forward here. So we will see these leaders coming together for the first time.

And it's really going to be an opportunity for President Biden in some cases to meet them for the first time. And the White House just announcing earlier this morning that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be making her first visit to the White House next month for a one on one meeting.

So, Jim, all of this is leading into, of course, a crescendo, if you will, that meeting next Wednesday in Geneva with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: That's right. We will be there live as well to cover that.

Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much.

Let's turn back to this breaking news this morning.

Stunning, new reporting shows how President Trump and the Justice Department secretly seized private records belonging to at least two Democratic lawmakers, both of whom were frequent targets of the president, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and Congressman Eric Swalwell, along with their aides and family members, including at least one minor.

In February 2018, the FBI subpoenaed Apple seeking what's known as metadata on more than 100 accounts, the phone numbers dialed, et cetera. It was part of an effort to uncover details on who leaked news stories about contacts between Russia and associates of Trump.

"The New York Times" was the first to report this story.

Let's bring in CNN's senior justice correspondent Evan Perez, as well as CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Evan, let's begin with you, if we can.

Tell us -- well, that's actually, Renato Mariotti, but I believe we will have Evan Perez on this.

Evan, are you there? There's Evan Perez.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I am. Yes. Yes.

SCIUTTO: The real Evan Perez.

Tell us about, one, the scale of this, which is truly remarkable, 100 accounts, but also who specifically we know were the targets.

PEREZ: Yeah, Jim, look, this was what -- what you look -- what you're looking at is essentially Donald Trump's enemies list from that era, 2018, 2017, 2018. He was obsessed with anything having to do with the Russia investigations. And Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell were two of the people that were on television a lot talking about the investigation that was being done by that committee, the Intelligence Committee.

And the scale that you're talking about is extraordinary. We're talking about over a hundred accounts.

[09:05:03]

And, again, not 100 people but over 100 accounts. And it's an extraordinary dragnet to bring in family members, to staff members, current and former staff members, according to people we've been talking to. And it appears that just like they approached the media leak investigations, the ones that targeted "The Washington Post" reporters, reporters from "The New York Times" and Barbara Starr from CNN, there was a gag order placed.

So that prevented Apple from being able to notify the customers, in this case members of Congress, that the Justice Department had obtained their data until very recently in May is when they first were notified by Apple after the expiration of that -- of the gag order.

The scale, again, is extraordinary. Adam Schiff, one of the members who was targeted here, talks about that scale.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I can't go into who received these subpoenas or whose records were sought. I can say that it was extraordinarily broad. People having nothing to do with -- with the -- you know, the intelligence matters that are at least being reported on. It just shows what a broad phishing expedition it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And, Jim, just to button this up, it begins in February 2018. The gag order is renewed three times. And, curiously enough, this all comes to an end just days before Joe Biden becomes president. That's when it appears, according to the records and according to our sources, that the Justice Department just loses interest in this.

SCIUTTO: Evan Perez, thanks very much.

Christine, the role of Apple here notable.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I mean Apple has this metadata.

ROMANS: Sure.

SCIUTTO: And they also had to abide by this gag order. I mean does a company like Apple have a choice when subpoenaed like this?

ROMANS: Well, look, I mean it was a grand jury subpoena to Apple in early 2018 and Apple says it abides by the law.

Look, this happens all the time, by the way. I mean when you look at the numbers, in the first half of 2020, every six months Apple reveals these numbers, there were 5,800 requests by the U.S. government for access to accounts. And Apple approved about 87 percent of those.

When you look at their requests, the government requests for access to actual physical devices, your phone, there's even more of those. So Apple has a whole system for navigating this.

And this is what Apple says. Apple carefully reviews all legal requests to ensure there's a valid legal basis for each request and complies with legally valid requests. In certain cases they may object, challenge or reject the request. But as I said, in terms of those accounts, some 87 percent of the time, in the first six months of 2020, they did -- they did grant them.

But they couldn't talk about it, right? There were these three different gag orders. A gag order that was renewed three times, so they couldn't talk about it. So the people who were targets of this are just learning about this now.

And you might recall back in 2015, remember what Apple famously wouldn't hack -- crack open the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter, one of those shooters. They didn't want to devise some sort of, you know, code, some back door to get into phones because that could be a dangerous precedent. That's a little different than abiding by, you know, a judge here essentially and giving this metadata.

Some of this data, by the way, is encrypted anyway. So it's unclear what exactly the government could see.

SCIUTTO: I did think, Christine, before you said it, of that case with the San Bernardino shooter.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: And Apple put up a huge fight.

ROMANS: They did.

SCIUTTO: I think eventually the FBI got in I think using a hacker, so they didn't need Apple's help.

ROMANS: That's right.

SCIUTTO: But remarkable contradiction there.

Evan Perez, Christine Romans, thanks very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: To help break all of this down I'm joined now by former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, as well as CNN "EARLY START" co- anchor Laura Jarrett.

So, Renato, administrations have investigated leaks before. The Obama administration did. And they've sought records of reporters before. The scale of this, however, 100 accounts and two Democratic lawmakers, very much public targets of this president. Tell us what is unique about this case and what's a step beyond, if so, in your view.

RENATO MARIOTTI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, first of all, as Adam Schiff mentioned a moment ago that you played, the sheer scale of this is really something. It shows an extraordinary amount of effort. I mean 100-plus subpoenas sent out. And that's a very, very wide ranging investigation. Over a matter that you have to wonder whether it would ever result in charges.

You know, there was some reporting by "The New York Times" regarding this suggesting that people within the Justice Department at the time, even in the Trump administration, were questioning whether they could ever bring a case related to this. And you could imagine, if any associate of Adam Schiff or Eric Swalwell was put on trial, they would have a very good defense. A jury would have a lot of trouble believing this. So it really does look politically motivated, like they used the Justice Department for political purposes.

SCIUTTO: Laura Jarrett, to Renato's point, it's "The Times" reporting that this started under Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

[09:10:06]

It didn't really go anywhere. But it was resurrected under Bill Barr, a special prosecutor, brought from somewhere else, assigned to this case. And Barr would have had to approve, according to our colleague Elie Honig, the gag order as well.

Tell us about his personal involvement here. Why? What do we know?

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Well, remember the context here, Jim. I was covering the Justice Department at the time. You were breaking stories left and right on the Russia investigation. Remember how tense it was for Sessions in particular because he recuses himself from the Russia investigation.

Trump is furious because now his hand-picked attorney general can't protect him anymore. He's furious about the stories that are coming out on a daily basis. He's calling out on Twitter for, really, the DOJ and the FBI to investigate what he called the leakers on a daily basis. So we wonder how much the Justice Department had to get instruction from the White House while he was calling for it on Twitter for the public to see at the time.

But then the case goes cold. And at least from "The Times" reporting it appears that they really didn't find anything.

Now, of course, they're not getting the actual communications. Remember, they're getting what's known as the metadata. So they're getting just the underlying information on dates and email addresses. They're not getting the actual emails between two people, but it was enough that they kept going for at least a certain amount of time.

And then when Attorney General Bill Barr comes in after Sessions gets fired, then somehow the case is revived. But it's not revived in the normal way. Usually career prosecutors handle this thing. But under Barr, he has a hand-picked man from the -- rather, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, a person who, by all accounts, has no experience in national security.

He's the one he picks to charge to actually investigate this further. And so I think that's part of why people are pausing on this to say this really -- this doesn't look good. It looks like the Justice Department wielding its power against a co-equal branch of government.

SCIUTTO: OK. So, Renato, beyond not looking good, what are the legal implications here? Eric Swalwell, one of the Democratic lawmakers targeted, he says, in his view, that he believes they were targeted punitively. We know that staff members were targeted as well, including staff members who were not involved in the Russia probe. And we know that at least one of those accounts accessed was that of a minor.

Are there legal implications here, legal recourse for those involved?

MARIOTTI: You know, it's difficult for me to see. I mean they -- they -- it's unclear, you know, what, as Laura just mentioned a moment ago, it's not like their communications were obtained.

I will say that this is a very dangerous area long term for the Justice Department because committees like Swalwell and Schiff's are the ones that approved their authority to, you know, engage in wide- ranging types of surveillance.

Now this, to be clear, this was something that a judge didn't review. These are subpoenas that are just sent out by prosecutors. Prosecutors can obtain your metadata, your records regarding, let's say, who you made a phone call to, for example, just by shooting a subpoena out. And it's something that requires no approval.

SCIUTTO: Wow. MARIOTTI: When I was a prosecutor, I used to just ask my secretary to draft it up. So, you know, there -- there could be -- Congress could place limits on their authority if they wanted to.

SCIUTTO: That's notable, right? It's not like a warrant where you would need a judge to approve it. You're saying they could -- the prosecutors, to be clear, could send out the subpoena themselves?

MARIOTTI: Exactly right.

JARRETT: (INAUDIBLE) was involved, right? We know -- we -- but we know a grand jury -- I think "The Times" is reporting a grand jury was involved. So there has to be -- Renato knows this better than I do, but there has to be some predication. They must have had some reason to believe that there would be probable cause that they would have evidence of a crime, right?

MARIOTTI: It's actually below -- well, it's below probable cause for issuing the subpoena. So they -- if it's a charge, they would need probable cause, but they need even a lower standard than that. As a practical matter, as long as the prosecutor thinks it's going to lead to evidence, they can issue the subpoena. That's why these subpoenas are pretty wide ranging and they were able to get away with it.

SCIUTTO: Understood.

OK, important clarification there. We should note, metadata means, as you said, Renato, numbers called, who called whom, that kind of thing, not the content of those conversations.

Renato Mariotti, Laura Jarrett, thanks so much.

JARRETT: Sure.

SCIUTTO: Still to come this hour, much more on this story. We're going to speak with Congressman Eric Swalwell, one of those two Democratic lawmakers targeted by Trump's Justice Department with these subpoenas.

And does President Biden's infrastructure bill still have a chance? There is a new bipartisan framework agreement. That's a step forward because it's actually some details, some meat on the bone. How much hope?

Next, I'm going to speak with the special assistant to the president, senior director on the National Security Council, about President Biden's critical test at his first G7 summit coming up with his meeting with Putin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:23]

SCIUTTO: These are live pictures from Carbis Bay, England, where shortly we're going to see the leaders of the G7 take their famous, as it's known, family photo. A sign of unity that is traditional at G7 summits, but one that, in the Trump administration, often were uncomfortable, one might say. There was the scene of Trump elbowing his way to the front. Biden striking a different tone as president here. Biden expected in that photograph shortly as the rest of the leaders get together.

We have our Jeff Zeleny following this and our Nic Robertson, international editor.

[09:20:05]

Just some significance here, Nic, of this photo. I mean it's a photo, but we remember these photos. We remember these moments. And it's meant to be a very public sign of unity among U.S. allies and European allies to the world.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It is. And I think it's going to be the symbol that shows that world leaders are getting together again for business. A sign perhaps that the pandemic is being wrestled with effectively. That these sorts of meetings can now take place. And, of course, their objective when they get in the room is to find a way to wrestle the pandemic essentially into submission around the globe and not just in these leading democratic nations.

But, you know, I was thinking back to just a month ago when we had a similar family photograph for the G7 finance ministers and how carefully spaced they were for that family photograph. And we know that that was the dry run for the leader's summit, for special COVID protocols and practices back then.

I don't see the picture that you're seeing, Jim, but I am wondering just how close everyone is standing because that was one difference with that family photograph a month ago compared to what we would have remembered a few years ago. How close are these leaders standing? It's not a silly question anymore because this is going to set the trend for, hopefully, for the rest of us. How relax (ph) were these careful controls given can leaders be when they get together like this now they're around the table. Hugely important and symbolic.

SCIUTTO: Understood.

Notably to your point, Nic, we've noticed elbow bumps as opposed to handshakes. This is a G7 still held in the midst of a pandemic.

And, notably, here comes the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

I wonder, Jeff, is this deliberate that this is not, as of yet, a group photo? It is a series of one on one photos or one leader at a time with the British prime minister?

ZELENY: Well, we do believe there will be a group photo.

And, interesting there, as we're watching this in real time, the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, put his mask on moments before he met and did the elbow bump with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his new wife, Carrie Johnson. Now he's taking it off, of course, for the photo there.

We do believe they will come together for a photo, but we'll just have to see this play out.

As Nic was just saying, this is a scripted moment but very unscripted in the age of COVID.

We're seeing right now German Chancellor Angela Merkel walking there with her husband without a mask. They're walking -- just to set the scene for you. They are on the Atlantic coast of England, on Carbis Bay. And this is a -- you know, really, an important site that Boris Johnson selected himself. And they're walking -- really it's quite a nice day here. A bit overcast but about 60 degrees or so Fahrenheit. So a very temperate day. And this is a big moment for Boris Johnson on the world stage trying to present himself as a global leader in the wake of Brexit.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZELENY: Of course, this is something that he supported but now this is central to this.

And those elbow bumps right there, this could be iconic of our time. And they are standing a little bit of space between them there, as you can see.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZELENY: But closer than they certainly have been for any other point of this pandemic. So the Bidens and other leaders of the G7 will be arriving just one by one sequentially here.

SCIUTTO: Right.

ZELENY: And we'll see if there is that group iconic photo. We do believe there will be one.

SCIUTTO: That -- here comes President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden for their moment with the British prime minister. They, of course, met yesterday as well together, one on one, to discuss the Atlantic partnership and they have rebooted the Atlantic partnership, sort of a 2.0 version of it for the 21st century. We'll be speaking to Biden's adviser for Europe right after this and discuss that, among other things, what that change actually represents.

President Biden not wearing a mask here.

ZELENY: And, Jim, we should note that First Lady Jill Biden has just come from meeting with Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. She just arrived here just a couple moments ago. She had a morning event with the Duchess of Cambridge, which, of course, is a big moment for them as well.

But they are greeting each other here without masks. And this is the very beginning of a dynamic partnership that at least Boris Johnson and President Biden hopes develops between these two.

SCIUTTO: And I think we can all identify with these slow changes in the age of the pandemic. You shed some of the restrictions you've been living under one by one. So no masks, but still elbow bumps and still some distance between the world leaders there, but not six feet.

Dr. Jill Biden up there of course next to President Biden and Boris Johnson's wife, his new wife, Carrie, to his right there as well.

[09:25:03]

Again, we've been seeing these photos as pairs as opposed to a group photo. We'll wait for that.

This, of course, the French president, Emanuel Macron, and his wife.

Nic Robertson, each of these relationships important. Each of these relationships, though, not perfect. Macron and Johnson, for instance, differenced on -- differed on Brexit, as did President Biden with Johnson on Brexit. Johnson a big supporter. Biden not. Macron not. I mean these are issues, Nic Robertson, are they not, that still cause some distance in these relationships?

ROBERTSON: And they do. We've talked a lot about Boris Johnson's relationship, the warm relationship he tried to kindle with President Trump and actually President Biden's view on that relationship. But let's not forget either, and I'm saying this not just as an Englishman, of course, here. I'm saying this as an observant reporter.

Let's not forget, Emanuel Macron really tried to hustle up to President Trump and invite him over to Paris and try to sort of win his ear, if you will, and influence him on issues that were important to him. He'll have to try a whole new -- whole new tack, if you will, with President Biden. He has differences with President Biden over his view of what NATO should be and Europe's role in it and Europe's own individual defense role. So there will be differences there.

There will be differences over agreements about how to roll out the vaccine across the globe and what should pharmaceutical companies expect in terms of renumeration. He's appealing to the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, to make sure that there's -- that those fees are kept as low as possible. President Biden is talking about waiving the patents of pharmaceutical companies on some of these vaccines that are available.

So, you know, there are -- there are general agreements on the sort of end points of some of these goals, whether it's NATO, whether it's vaccine rollout, but there are differences in between. But, again, I come back to that point, the relationship that President Macron tried to have and tried to establish with President Trump, how is he going to manage this relationship with President Biden? No doubt through the same effort, charm and warmth and trying to persuade him of his view.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes. La bromance, as it was known, was not meant to be between Macron and Trump. We'll see how the relationship is between Macron and Biden.

We will bring you that family photo, as it's known, when it comes. We're told that after these individual photos we've just seen, the group will get together for that sign of unity. But until that moment, joining me now is Amanda Sloat, she's special

assistant to the president, senior director for Europe on the National Security Council.

Amanda, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

AMANDA SLOAT, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: I want to begin with what Biden's overall message is here in his first overseas trip. We've heard the phrase repeated many times, America is back. The U.S. is back. That is a new message meant to be a direct contrast between America in the world under Trump.

But I wonder, beyond the message, what is the new policy or strategy? Because there are real threats to the U.S. and it's European allies, Russia among them, and there are real divisions. So what's the substance behind that message?

SLOAT: Absolutely. I think not only is America back, but back to rally the world's democracies and back from a position of strength given all of the investments that the president has already made in the domestic economy and the pandemic recovery at home over the last number of months.

You're absolutely right, that there's a number of shared global challenges, but President Biden believes firmly that the United States is much stronger and more effective when it is dealing with our closest allies and partners. And so it's really no surprise that his first overseas trip is here to Europe where he'll be meeting with the G7, the world's largest industries and democracies to really rally them on vaccines, on climate change, on all of the pressing problems that we're facing before heading to NATO, the world's strongest military alliance, and then to the EU, who is also our partner on all of these issues.

SCIUTTO: Yes. OK. So that message is important. We know that U.S. allies -- America's closest allies were made very nervous by Trump's public pronouncements, his moves often targeting allies, for instance, with national security directives on trade, et cetera. But the fact is that even under Biden, granted it is early, Russian, for instance, aggression has not stopped. You know, they're still attacking dissidents. They are still carrying out numerous cyberattacks against the U.S. So I'm curious, beyond the message, how will the Biden approach change, for instance, Russian behavior aggression?

[09:30:03]

What's going to be different?