Trump Orders Navy to “Shoot & Kill” Mine-Laying Boats in Strait

23:43But this in itself is a big deal. Another three weeks of the ceasefire as the two sides are trying to have negotiations on perhaps a long-term peace deal. All right, Kristen Holmes at the White House, thanks so much.

24:06Now to the latest installment in our series, AI, friend or foe. Now, we've done a lot of stories on the potential dangers of AI on the lead, but today we're going to take a look at the potential positive. Chat, GPT, Grok, Gemini, other AI applications have exploded in popularity recently. They're used by tens of millions of Americans, businesses, the military. Here's a question, though. How are physicians using AI programs like these? And what could that mean for your health care? Well, I spoke with the founder of a leading medical AI app to find out. There's two new medical studies published every minute, 24 hours a day.

24:47That's 20 ,000 new medical studies published every week. It's obviously impossible, inconceivable even, to think that physicians could possibly read all of those and keep up. That's Daniel Nadler, founder of a fast-growing artificial intelligence platform called Open Evidence, built specifically for doctors. Nadler says it's designed to help physicians keep up with an overwhelming and constantly expanding body of medical research. Nadler notes that if you narrowed down the material to just one doctor's one specialty, it would still take each doctor nine hours a day to keep up. Open Evidence is an AI that is essentially a brain extender for these physicians that machine reads on behalf of these physicians a lot of these papers in near real time and helps them look up and ultimately answer very complex medical questions.

25:39Nadler says that a majority of doctors in the U.S. are already using open evidence. But in a field where the consequences can be life or death, relying on AI also raises serious questions. So, Daniel, how do you prevent open evidence from the hallucinations we see of open AI? How do you prevent that in this world, which is the stakes are so much higher? We struck official AI partnerships with the New England Journal of Medicine, with the American Medical Association, with NCCN and ACC, which are the leading medical societies in cancer and heart disease. Instead of generating answers from the open Internet, Nadler says open evidence is designed to pull only from trusted human-written research.

26:24It's actually much closer to search engines like Google, which have a much longer history than AI does of being able to rapidly find the right reference or rapidly find the right snippet of information in human-written text. Daniel Nadler says one of the key benefits of open evidence is helping doctors think beyond the standard diagnosis, especially in complex or unclear cases. It's a scenario my own family knows all too well. I showed unusual symptoms, so I had pain all over my abdomen instead of just my right quadrant, which is normally the standard appendicitis pain. In 2021, my then 14-year-old daughter, Alice, nearly died after doctors misdiagnosed her perforated appendix.

27:14The way that they ruled out appendicitis was by jump test. I was asked to jump, and I was able to maybe get one inch off the ground, and just that ruled out appendicitis for all the doctors. And that's when they just declared it was a viral infection. Theoretically, how would this have helped my daughter back when this happened to her in 2021? If you type some of the factors that she experienced into an AI like open evidence, it's not that it's going to identify the non-standard case as the most likely case, but what it's going to do is it's going to very quickly in the answer list the other things to look for, the other things to test for, the other things to consider.

27:57To show how that works, Nadler ran Alice's case through open evidence himself. And in the case of your daughter's experience, it listed as one of the things to test for and consider, in your daughter's case, appendicitis, something that the physicians, in primarily considering the standard presentation of symptoms, would have not necessarily immediately thought of. Here's what the AI returned when asked about Alice's case. For a teenage female with generalized abdominal pain and a negative jump test, the differential diagnosis should include viral gastroenteritis, but also appendicitis. It's never going to take a non-standard presentation of symptoms like your daughter has and say to the physician, you know what, with certainty, it's definitely appendicitis.

28:43It's definitely this non-standard thing to look for. But what it will do is rapidly fill in, in maybe the second sentence or the third sentence or the fourth sentence, that you should consider this. So, not a diagnosis, but a nudge, a second set of eyes in a system where doctors are already overburdened. If you have a very smart colleague, you make sure to sort of bounce things off of them, to sanity check things with them. And I think that's the best use of these technologies, the best use of open evidence, as essentially a digital colleague. For Daniel Nadler, that's the role of AI in medicine, not replacing doctors, but backing them up.

29:23And in cases such as Alice's, where a misdiagnosis can turn critical, that could make all the difference. Tomorrow we continue our series, AI, friend or foe. The Florida attorney general this week said the chat GPT maker OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for a deadly mass shooting at Florida State University a year ago. We're going to dig into some of the very disturbing messages to see just what this chat bot told the gunman. A new report claims that a Republican member of Congress is simply missing in action. He's missed dozens of votes. He hasn't been seen by his colleagues in weeks. What is going on with New Jersey Republican Congressman Tom Kaine Jr.?

30:13Politics now. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is facing pressure from Republicans in D.C. to push back on Virginia's Democratic gerrymander, which voters approved on Tuesday, giving Democrats a 10-to-1 advantage in the Commonwealth. Republicans view Florida as their last best chance to forge an advantage in the redistricting wars. the gerrymandering wars to be precise, set in motion by President Trump's pressure on Texas last summer. Here in studio is our panel. We should say redistricting, gerrymandering. This is a not proud American tradition that dates back to the founding fathers. Jerry is named after a founding father.

30:48It's the mid-decade redistricting push for the clear advantage of a party that's new here. So, apparently President Trump and Governor De DeSantis have made up after their bitter 2024 primary fight. One Florida Republican operative familiar with Governor DeSantis' thinking tells Politico, quote, DeSantis would still like to get something done in redistricting, but he realizes it will be tough for Republicans to retain the House regardless of what happens in Florida. And there's also questions about whether you water down some of these districts in Florida, whether you're actually creating more competitive seats.

31:21What do you think's going on here? Well, I also thought it was interesting that we've seen these stories about how much Ron DeSantis would like to be Secretary of War or maybe on the Supreme Court. At the same time that this is happening. At the same time this is happening, which is also a grand old tradition in American politics of trading favors of these sorts of things. I think, like, so far this has really blown up in Republicans' faces. And I don't think that the Virginia gerrymander, and it is a gerrymander, right? Of course. Is actually going to withstand legal scrutiny. You think the Virginia Supreme Court's going to overturn it?

31:57Apparently, this 90-day thing is like hardcore black-letter law. But I'm not a lawyer. I can still see my reflection in mirrors. But I think this needs to stop. And I think DeSantis, if he's actually thinking about running for president again in the future, he's in this terrible bind. Because on the one hand, the base of the party really wants him to come to the rescue in the redistricting wars. On the other hand, it puts him back in sort of MAGA lackey mode, which I don't think he likes to be in. Yeah, although it's not to say that will hurt him in the primary. Listen to the Democratic House leader, Hakeem Jeffries, for whom this would actually mean, theoretically, a promotion to speaker.

32:38Take a listen. And we're going to keep the pressure on them in Florida. the Trump Republican gerrymandering scheme has failed. Why? Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. That's a Mike Tyson quote, I believe. So the fight's headed to Florida. What do you think is going to happen with Florida and Virginia? Yeah, look, I think Ron DeSantis would probably be foolish to take this on in Florida. I think, first of all, the Florida Constitution makes it very challenging for him to draw a map that nets Republicans the kind of seats that I think they would need to make this worthy effort.

33:17But I think the politics across the board on this are bad. I mean, I think Democrats got this over the finish line in Virginia in part because they really effectively messaged that this was their pushback against Trump's efforts. But across the board, gerrymandering not popular. And I think that ultimately, you know, somebody like Ron DeSantis, who has presumably has eyes on on 2028 and beyond, taking this on as the partisan mantle right now, I think, is is probably not a smart thing for him to do. A concerning story about the governor's debate for Democrats, for Democrats, which is the Atlantic is saying that this is not a particularly strong field.

34:00And let's turn to the debate in California, the first since Eric Swalwell, one of the Democratic fundraisers, dropped out of the race. I don't know if you caught that. There's a story about Swalwell. I heard. I heard. Spend more time with his family. I heard. Spend more. Anyway, Javier Becerra, Biden's former HHS secretary, had said that he, quote, heard rumors of the allegations about Swalwell. He was asked why he never followed up on them when he was the chair of the Democratic caucus. Here's what he said. rumors are not facts and the uh the caucus the democratic caucus is not a place that adjudicates those things it's law enforcement that does if someone had come forward we could then have investigation okay he's right about that i mean i think there are there were rumors about swalwell's infidelity that in and of itself is while repugnant is not a crime uh nor does it fall on members of of the Democratic caucus to investigate it.

34:53I think the sum total of the debate yesterday showed us that there isn't really a front runner in this race yet. I think there was not a particularly standout moment really for any of the candidates. They're obviously all in the wake of the Swalwell disruption, shall we say, trying to both define themselves and also prevent their opponents from taking up that space. So it was sort of a forgettable debate, frankly. And we have a month to go before California voters vote. We'll see. So Leibovitz writes in The Atlantic, even with Swalwell's exit, quote, the Democrats flailing field might be narrowed slightly and perhaps improved by subtraction, but very much remains a bottleneck of B-listers.

35:39Do you think anyone had a standout moment? Do you think that there's any potential for any of these guys or Katie Porter to rise? Well, I don't think because God's not that generous to Republicans, that it'll come down to two Republicans, right? Which was a scenario that people thought was possible. So one of them will rise as a fact of math. I think it is astounding. Look, California, if it was an independent country, I think would have the fourth largest economy in the world. It is this amazingly serious state with massive industry, huge population. And it is a perfect example of how being controlled by one party breeds sort of just sort of subpar political classes.

36:25The state needs real competition. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Investigation is underway tonight in Israel after a man says police took him in custody because they didn't care for the Palestinian flag on the yarmulke he was wearing. He eventually got it back, but says the Palestinian flag on that yarmulke was cut out of it. does this say something more significant about politics in Israel today? Well, we're going to talk with that man next.

36:59A shocking story today of extremism in Israel. A Jewish man was harassed and had his yarmulke ripped apart by Israeli police. Alex Sinclair was minding his business. He was wearing a yarmulke which had knit into it both the Israeli flag and the Palestinian flag. He said he did this to promote peace. Israeli police approached him. They detained him. The police later, according to him, cut off the Palestinian flag portion of his yarmulke before returning it to him. It's a small thing, but certainly illustrative of a bigger problem in Israel. And Alex Sinclair joins us now. Alex, walk us through exactly what happened.

37:34Hi. Thanks for having me on the show. Great to meet you. yeah here's the here's the yarmulke in question you can see it's been ripped up as you can see it's I've been wearing it for many years it has an Israeli flag here on one side it did have a Palestinian flag on that side and as you say I've been I wear this or I used to wear this kippah this yarmulke for many years as a way of expressing my desire as a religious Jew as a religious Israeli my desire for peace my desire my belief that as a Zionist that the Jewish people have a right to a flag and a right to self-determination and a historical, a legitimate historical connection to this part of the world.

38:11And also, so do the Palestinians. The Palestinians are a people and have a legitimate historical connection to this part of the world and also the right to national self-determination. So having both sides of this kippah, a flag on both sides of this yarmulke to show that was my way of kind of saying that to the world. And that's how I've been walking around that way for almost 20 years. So obviously, there's much shocking, much more shocking things that that come out of the Middle East beyond that. I mean, what's going on? For example, in the West Bank, the settlers that are committing horrific acts of violence against Palestinians there.

38:47But this story caught our eye because this is officially sanctioned by the Israeli police against just a flag. And what does this say to you about the state of Israel today that this would happen?

39:05Well, first of all, I would say that I have put in a report against the policewoman who did this to me. I'm hopeful that justice will be done and that she'll be called up on it. But yeah, look, Israel is unfortunately going through a period where there is extremism and the government is turning a blind eye to all kinds of things in the West Bank and in Israel. There are many, many Israelis, including me, who want peace and who are very furious with this government. And we'll be having elections soon and really hoping to create a change in the regime, in the government. But yeah, Israel is a country right now which is struggling, as many countries are, pulled into extreme directions.

39:56And as a Zionist, as a Jew, as an Israeli, this worries me. And I think that people who want peace in the Middle East, people who want peace for Israelis and for Palestinians need to be calling out extremism on the Israeli side and extremism on the Palestinian side. There are people on both parts of the conflict who want to delegitimize the other people's right to exist, the other people's right to self-determination, the other people's legitimacy as a people. There are Palestinians who do that to Israelis, and I think that we and the world need to call that out. Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran and people who say that, anti-Zionists who say that Israel has no right to exist is outrageous.

40:41And it's outrageous when the Israeli police come and say that that's the same thing as the Palestinians. We need to grasp and hold that middle ground, that center ground that really holds up. But both peoples have a legitimate right to exist in this part of the world. And there won't be peace until we really enable that for both peoples. So I want to note, for the people who are not necessarily following all of this, one of the reasons why I think that policewoman may have felt empowered to do what she did is because the national security minister, a horrific anti-Arab racist bigot and zealot named Itamar Ben-Gavir, he ordered police to ban Palestinian flags from public spaces in 2023.

41:21I interviewed Prime Minister Netanyahu in 2023, and I asked him about these two right-wing bigots, Smotrich and Ben-Gavir, who are part of his coalition, who are doing things like this, not just Jews wearing Palestinian flags on their yarmulkes, but much more horrific things to Israeli Arabs and West Bank Palestinians. And take a listen to some of those. Gavir is now in charge of the security apparatus in Israel. One of the first things he did was to ban Palestinian flags being used in demonstrations. That seems completely contrary to any notion of free speech or free demonstration. Do you agree with that, banning Palestinian flags?

42:06That's actually a law that's been on the books in Israel for quite some time. I'm controlling the government, and I'm responsible for its policies, and the policies are sensible, and they're responsible and continue to be that. So I guess my question is, Netanyahu, they're trying to reassure people out there listening that Smotrich and Ben Gavir, again, who are right wing zealots and racist against Arabs, that they're not going to be in charge of his government. It's him in charge of his government. Who is in charge of his government? Well, look, unfortunately, I'm skeptical. I think that, unfortunately, Ben Gavir and Smotrich have inordinate influence over Israeli politics and Israeli society right now.

42:47I agree with you. They're right-wing bigots. They're racists. They're people whose Judaism is not my Judaism. They're people whose Zionism is not my Zionism. They're people who I think have pervert and bastardized Judaism, as I understand it. and my work as a peace activist and many many many Israelis like me who go under the radar who are not reported on are doing everything we can to try to create a different kind of Judaism different kind of Zionism, different kind of Israel but so I really hope that that we'll see a change but yeah I can't defend Ben Gavir and Smotrich and I won't defend them I think that they're taking my country in a terribly dangerous and horrific direction.

43:33Alex and Claire, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. Okay, thank you so much. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, time is not on their side. That is the warning from President Trump about the Iranians tonight, as he also orders the U.S. Navy to shoot and kill any Iranian in boats, placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz. So what does all of this mean for any potential negotiations? Well, we're going to go live to the region and the White House in just moments. Plus, authorities say they have foiled a mass shooting plot set to target a festival in New Orleans, Jazz Fest. The man in custody is a former police officer himself, allegedly arrested this morning with hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

44:13What we're learning about how investigators were tipped off. Also, hundreds of Georgia residents have been forced to evacuate their homes, fleeing the worst fires the state has seen in decades. Tens of thousands of acres already turned to ash and concerns tonight the wins could make it even harder for crews to contain. And the NFL draft kicks off tonight in Pittsburgh, but the player widely expected to be the number one selection will not be there. So CNN is live in Miami tonight, where quarterback Fernando Mendoza is celebrating with his family and friends as he takes this next step in his career.

44:47Late tonight, President Trump defiantly claiming he is in no rush for a deal with Iran. I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now. You know who's under time pressure? They are. Because if they don't get their oil moving, their whole oil infrastructure is going to explode. I'm not under any pressure whatsoever. This coming hours after Trump's post on Truth Social ordering the U.S. Navy to shoot and kill any Iranian boats placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz. CNN's Caitlin Collins is at the White House. CNN's Oren Lieberman is in Jerusalem. Caitlin, to you at first, at what point does Trump's strategic patience on Iran become a political liability, if not already?

45:24Well, he didn't sound too worried about that, Jake, earlier when he was asked about high gas prices remaining. So for the next foreseeable future, as this war is continuing to go on, because the president said, yes, they may be up for a little bit. But he said in exchange for that, in exchange for what Americans are paying at the pump, they're getting an Iran that cannot have a nuclear weapon, as he phrased it earlier. Of course, whether voters feel the same way about that remains to be seen, Jake. But in terms of the timeline here and what this looks like, you know, the president initially said four to six weeks.

45:53It was a timeline that he repeated many times. So did Caroline Levitt, the press secretary, and so did other top aides. As the president said, that is the foreseeable future for what this war looks like. But now, Jake, of course, we have stretched into the seventh week, fifth day by my count since this war started. And when the president was asked multiple times about the timeline here earlier when he was inside the Oval Office, one of his quotes was, don't rush me. He then talked about how long Vietnam was, how long other wars that the United States has been and lasted. In comparison, he said, to the six weeks, as he described it.

46:26Of course, it's much longer than that. We're now about to hit the eighth week of this war, Jake. But another thing that he was talking about in terms of Iran and the Strait of Hormuz is money that he believes Iran is losing because the strait is closed, as he put it this way earlier. They came to us and they said, we will agree to open the strait. And all my people were happy. Everybody was happy except me. I said, wait a minute, if we open the strait, that means they're going to make$500 million a day. I don't want them to make$500 million a day until they settle this thing. So I'm the one that kept it closed.

47:00We have total control of it. And it'll open when they make a deal or something else happens that's very positive. The president was arguing that the United States has total control of the Strait of Hormuz. Obviously, it doesn't, Jake, because it is still closed. Iran is still able to hit ships. That's why so many of them have not wanted to go through there. Even though the president was saying last week and touting in events on the road that the Strait of Hormuz had been opened, citing Iranian officials, that is obviously still something that is an issue. And, Jake, obviously, this comes after CNN had reported this earlier, but the Pentagon made it official to Congress this week that even if this war ended tomorrow, for example, it could take six months to clear the Strait of Hormuz of mines to make shipping safe and to make these companies feel safe and comfortable going through the strait.

47:45Kaylin Collins at the White House, thanks. We're going to see you on The Source tonight. Meanwhile, Oren, a short time ago, President Trump announced the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, and it's extending three weeks. Tell us more. This was the major expectation coming out of these talks held at the diplomat level between Israel and Lebanon under the auspices of the United States. And you saw Secretary of Marco Rubio taking part in this as well. This is President Donald Trump trying to keep this ceasefire in place. The first one was a temporary 10-day ceasefire. We have seen both Israel and Iranian proxy Hezbollah accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.

48:20We have seen strikes and attacks, rockets and drone launches from Lebanon, from Hezbollah into northern Israel and at Israeli troops occupying southern Lebanon. So it was a question of whether this fragile ceasefire can hold. Trump has the leverage here. He has the ability to make that so, and he announced that it would be extended by three weeks. Now, that gives a month total for diplomatic talks here, but this is an incredibly complex, difficult situation that may require a lot of time to get through the diplomacy required to create diplomatic relations and certainly a broader peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon, which haven't had relations in decades.

48:58Trump also said that he hoped to soon host both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House. He's made clear that's one of his goals, to bring these two together for direct talks. But Aoun had declined to take a call with Netanyahu in recent days and said coming out of a cabinet meeting in Lebanon this morning, or a government meeting, that talks with Netanyahu were not part of the deal here. So arranging that meeting and trying to move this forward still remains a very tall order, Jake. All right, Oren Lieberman in Jerusalem, thanks so much.

49:28We're following some breaking news now. A U.S. Special Forces soldier who was involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has just been arrested. He's accused of placing bets on that operation, bets that won him$400 ,000. I want to bring in CNN's Kara Scannell and CNN's John Miller. Kara, you were first to report last month that this trade was under investigation. What do we know about this arrest? This member was arrested today. What we know from the indictment is that he is an active military member. He was involved in the planning and execution of the capture of Nicolas Maduro.

50:03And according to authorities, he traded based on classified information that he knew about the raid. And here's what we know about the timing of these trades. He made these trades on Polymarket, one of those prediction markets, where he placed a bet that Maduro would be out of Venezuela by the end of January. These bets he started placing on December 27th, and he made them up until January 2nd. That U.S. capture happened in the early morning of January 3rd. So that paid out huge. His initial bets totaled about$32 ,000. He made more than$400 ,000 in profits. Now, this is the first criminal case that has been brought involving prediction markets.

50:41It involves these allegations of insider trading and misuse of government information for one's personal gain. He is facing five charges. According to authorities, he will be presented before a judge in North Carolina where he is based. And then he will come to New York to ultimately face these charges. We don't know who his lawyer is and he's in custody, so we haven't been able to reach him for comment. But prosecutors say that after he made these trades and he cashed out big, he sent the money overseas to a foreign crypto wallet and then ultimately cashed that out to an online brokerage account and then asked Polymarket to take it down once it had attracted so much attention.

51:16John Miller, walk us through the investigative process when something like this gets on the radar of law enforcement. Well, this is one of these things where first you see the suspicious activity. Then you focus on poly market. As Kara said, you sit down with them. You issue federal grand jury subpoenas and you trace that trade and that payment back to its origin. You know, Jake, we've been talking about insider trading and inside information since the days of Ivan Boski and Mike Milken. This is an entire new wrinkle when it's not just inside information, but it's inside classified information from an operator from U.S.

51:57Special Forces. Now, the Maduro raid was carried out by JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command. The principal actors there were Delta Force, which is the elite U.S. Army equivalent to the Navy SEALs, and they were accompanied by FBI agents. But this is not just a question of the law, as he's going to find out in a prosecution. This becomes a question of the safety of his team by divulging classified information and a question of honor. All right, John Miller, Karas Cannell, thanks to both of you. CNN senior legal analyst Ellie Honig is back with us. And Ellie, last hour we were talking about possible insider trading around the Iran war.

52:37And here is possible insider trading regarding the Maduro seizure. So let's take the principles we just discussed last hour, right? The three-part test. Is the information material? Does it matter? Well, if he's on the strike team and he knows we are about to take out Maduro, you bet that's material. Is it non-public? Of course. As John Miller just said, it's not just confidential, it's highly classified. And then finally, does he have a fiduciary duty? Does he have some duty to protect this? Of course he does. He's a soldier. The indictment actually specifies that he signed paperwork saying, I will not disclose classified or sensitive information.

53:11So you can see, I think the lesson here is insider trading charges are not necessarily just for Wall Street brokers and CEOs. They can be applied to anyone who has that type of sense of information and then trades on it. Well, exactly. Especially these days when you can bet on literally anything. So what do we know about who's going to handle the prosecution, if anything? So this, as Kara said, he got arrested. So he'll initially appear in federal court in North Carolina. He'll quickly be brought up to the Southern District of New York, my old office, which has made its bones over the years. it's famous for doing these insider trading cases.

53:43The office is a few blocks away from Wall Street. But again, it will apply here. The case has been assigned to a district court judge named Margaret Garnett. She was a colleague of mine as a prosecutor at the SDNY. She was actually in charge of the gangs and violent crimes unit. Very tough judge. Very fair judge. I'm not sure I'd want to appear in front of her if I was a defendant. This individual is looking at a max of 20 years. He's not going to get anything like 20 years if he's convicted. Also, there's the question of bail. You know, Cara raised that. Typically, someone arrested with no priors on an insider trading case like this would get released on bail.

54:16So I don't expect him to be held before trial. But this is an insider trading case like any other you might see out of the SDNY. All right. Ellie Honan, thanks so much for the update. Appreciate it. Today, police arrested a former cop who they say was planning a mass shooting, hoping to carry it out at a festival in New Orleans. We're going to dig into the allegations ahead. plus the head of the Oversight Committee in the House says some of his members are in favor of a pardon for Epstein-accomplish Ghislaine Maxwell because that's the only way she will testify. I'm going to get a reaction from a Democrat on that committee coming up.

54:52We're back with our world lead and more on the breaking news of that U.S. soldier involved in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who was arrested after allegedly betting big on that very operation. Let's bring in Democratic Congresswoman Madeline Dean of Pennsylvania, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congresswoman, what is your reaction to this news? It's appalling. It's staggering. And maybe in this climate, it should not be surprising. But think about it. This is insider trading of a whole nother level. This is classified information. This is operational information.

55:28This is within days of the actual strike by special forces to get Maduro. It is staggering, obviously clearly unregulated, clearly dishonorable, I hope criminal. But I worry that we're in a climate where folks see the grift at the top, the special betting on outcomes at the very top of this administration. and they think, I want a piece of it. It's so dishonorable, if it is as alleged. Let's be clear, this is alleged. It is so incredibly dishonorable. But you saw we had Lutnick in front of us today in the appropriations subcommittee hearing, and it appears his own sons are betting and buying up refunds for tariffs for pennies on the dollar in order to collect those tariffs because they bet that they would be found illegal.

56:28It's happening grotesquely in this administration. On the subject of Lutnick, I also wanted to ask you about Lutnick's past ties to Jeffrey Epstein. And specifically, you referenced an interview he did last year with the New York Post where he claims he cut off ties with Epstein in 2005. But then with the release of the Epstein files, it was proven that that was not true. I want to play part of today's exchange between you two. Why did you lie about your relationship with Epstein? The House Oversight Committee and I have agreed we will spend the time. Reclaiming my time. I do not accept that answer.

57:09Why did you lie to the Post? I have voluntarily agreed to spend the time and talk about it. So we should note, of course, that Lutnick is not accused of any criminal wrongdoing, but he is going to testify before the House Oversight Committee. We're told that that's going to happen on May 6. What were you hoping to learn from him about his past ties to Epstein and his obvious lie about the fact that he had previously claimed he had nothing to do with him after 2005 when he had lunch with him after that? I think it just goes to his credibility, his veracity. He is the sitting commerce secretary.

57:47So he was in front of us, the Appropriations Committee, for us to consider that which the department is asking for in its budget and take a look at what he did. What he did there was to act as though he was being magnanimous. He's going to go before the Oversight Committee. It's not testimony. Let's be very, very clear. It's not testimony. It's not under oath. It is not in public. It is not subject to subpoena. It's basically a closed-door conversation. Why wouldn't he, if he wanted to make sure everybody in America knew he had nothing to do with this guy, Mr. Epstein, whom he called disgusting from 2005, I think it was, when he and his wife first set foot in the next door neighbor's house, Mr.

58:32Epstein's house. Why wouldn't he want to say to us, you know what, I am so looking forward to telling you right now how I had nothing to do with this gentleman. But he can't, because he dramatically, in that podcast, talked about how they were so disgusted never to see him again, and only to find that the Epstein files, which I have gone through myself in the Department of Justice, how absurd is this that members of Congress have to do this, have found his name and his relationship with Mr. Epstein goes on for years and years and years to the point of visiting the island with his wife, children, and nannies, and to the point of five days after that visit, entering into signing a business deal alongside Mr.

59:19Epstein. He can't be trusted. He's not telling the truth. He was, at a minimum, an Epstein enabler. Congresswoman Madeline Dean, Democrat of Pennsylvania, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Dozens of homes and businesses destroyed as wildfires spread across Georgia. We're going to live to one of the hardest hit areas next.

59:43In our national lead, a drought ridden Georgia is facing several rapidly expanding wildfires in the southeast. The Highway 82 fire has grown more than 5 ,000 acres, burning at least 54 structures in Brantley County, Georgia, including this wedding chapel we're showing you. CNN's Derek Van Dam is on the ground in Georgia with more on the wildfires devastation. My house is gone. It's among the worst wildfires in Georgia in decades, leaving behind swaths of devastation. This is what's left. Sad day here. So far, officials say 87 homes have been destroyed in what's called the Highway 82 fire in southeast Georgia, and many more are considered at risk.

1:00:27A state of emergency declared in more than half of the state's counties a region facing unprecedented drought conditions. Be aware this situation is continuing to be fluid. It's not a really good situation for the folks that are in front of this fire. Two of the biggest fires have already burned more than 30 ,000 acres, now nothing more than ash and debris. Like a scene out of a movie, flames surrounding properties sparing some and destroying others, almost like the indiscriminate nature of a tornado. Now, when these residents left their home, they left this sprinkler going, hoping to keep any additional flames at bay.

1:01:06Hundreds of residents forced to evacuate as the fires quickly spread. It wasn't panic until we seen the fire over the tree line. Drake Smith and his young family among those who left their home quickly as flames threatened the nearby community. And when did you know that it was time to leave? When the flames got close to us. Making the decision to leave everything behind other than a change of clothes. A lot of stuff we had to leave, like all the toys and everything. I mean, most of our life was just in the trailer. Their home in hard-hit Brantley County spared this day. But the threat is far from over and their future uncertain.

1:01:48If we do have to leave, we'll just have to be in the cars because we really don't have a plan. Smoke from the fires in southeast Georgia have reached the skies over Atlanta, hundreds of miles away. The air quality deemed unhealthy so far. There have been no reports of serious injuries or fatalities, but erratic winds and no rain in sight could make bad conditions worse. Literally within the last hour, we went from no evacuation need to a crisis evacuation need. It's just a constantly changing situation with the wind.

1:02:20Jake, during a press briefing just a few moments ago, the media watched as the Highway 82 fire escalated in size. It actually created a pyrocumulus cloud, which you can see directly behind me, with the smoke and the winds fueling the flames once again. We have seen large air tankers and Chinook helicopters dropping fire retardant and trying to suppress the fire, it is going to be a long and excruciating night for firefighters and authorities on the ground here in Brentley County. Jake, back to you. All right, Derek, thanks so much. Appreciate your reporting. The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations against Republican Congressman Corey Mills of Florida.

1:02:58We're going to dig into exactly what he's accused of and his response to the charges next.

1:03:12In the House of Representatives, there was a growing group of members talking about a resolution to remove four House members from the body. This is about a week or two ago. The four members were two Democrats and two Republicans. And over the last week and a half, three of those members resigned before Congress could kick them out. The only one left from that list is Congressman Corey Mills, Republican of Florida. So what is it that Mills is alleged to have done? It all seems to have really started in February 2025 when the Metropolitan Police Department here in Washington DC was dispatched to investigate a report of an assault on a woman.

1:03:49This is at 4.30 in the morning, according to the Washington Post. The woman, CNN has learned, was Sarah Raviani. She was then 27. She posted this picture of her and Congressman Mills to her ex-account in 2023. She's a co-founder of Iranians for Trump. She was initially accusing Mills of some offenses. The Washington Post obtained the body camera footage. This is a still from the video that the Post published. The Post did not identify Raviani as the woman involved in the incident, but CNN has. And the Post writes that she showed the police officer, quote, bruises on her arms and marks on her face.

1:04:23Tearful, she told the officer that Mills had harmed her during an argument and forcibly removed her from his Southwest Washington penthouse apartment, saying, quote, I just wanted to make record of this because I don't want it to happen to anyone else, unquote. But Congressman Mills denied it, and Rabiani soon changed her story and said it didn't happen after all. Mills' office said the police, quote, asked to resolve a private matter, but the congressman vehemently denies any wrongdoing whatsoever and is confident any investigation will clear this matter quickly. There was not an investigation, though, because she recanted her initial accusation.

1:04:58However, apparently the news of that situation in February 2025 caused more chaos because after that story broke, a separate woman, Miss United States, Lindsay Langston, who says she had been dating Congressman Mills since 2021, since before he was a congressman, she then broke up with him. And in the ensuing breakup, she ended up filing a police report in July 2025 against Congressman Mills. This is with the Columbia County, Florida Sheriff's Office. This is July 2025. saying that Congressman Mills threatened to release intimate images of her, what is commonly called revenge porn. Now, Congressman Mills, in a statement, said these claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interactions.

1:05:38I have always conducted myself with integrity, both personally and in service to Florida's 7th Congressional District. Now, Langston ended up seeking a protective order against Mills. And in court, she told the judge, quote, he's powerful, he's well-connected, he's wealthy. She claimed the congressman threatened to harm any man with whom she became involved. Quote, I'm scared. I thought I could handle it by myself. Please help me, she said to the judge. Now, according to text messages that she later provided to a court, Congressman Mills seemed to threaten to release videos of her. Lake County Florida Commissioner Anthony Sabatini released copies on X of what appears to be those threatening text messages.

1:06:17Quote, Mills says, I'm sorry to see this is how you treat things. Good luck to you. Thanks again for the videos. She says, haven't you hurt me enough? June 12th, she says to him, please leave me alone. He says, okay, Linz, get me his number and I can send him videos. Take care. Apparently referring to her new boyfriend. Another time he says, quote, I can send him a few videos of you as well. Oh, I still have them. In October, a judge granted her request for a restraining order, banning Congressman Mills from contacting her or even mentioning her on social media. Now, these allegations have even some Republicans in Congress, women notably, leaving the door open for the ouster of Congressman Corey Mills.

1:07:04Yeah, you're beating women. I don't think that you should be a representative in Congress. He's denied the allegations. Do you not believe him? I mean, who hasn't denied allegations? Everybody does. So, I mean, you have temporary restraining orders. You have body cam footage of stories changing. Corey Mills embodies many of the things that I believe are corrupt, that are predatory toward women. Joining us now to discuss, among other issues, Democratic Congresswoman Yasemin Ansari of Arizona. What is your reaction to all these allegations about Congressman Mills? I mean, the allegations are incredibly, incredibly disturbing.

1:07:44When I first heard about them, I was devastated to hear that and thought that action should be taken immediately. It has taken a little bit longer than necessary to get to the point where now there is an investigation within the Ethics Committee. And there are several colleagues of mine. It's a bipartisan committee, so Democrats and Republicans are investigating the allegations against Congressman Mills. And I think that, you know, if they are to be found true, I think there should be very serious repercussions. And I think expulsion should certainly be on the table. And we should know if Congressman Mills is out there and he wants to come on the show to talk about this open invitation.

1:08:19Please come on. Let's turn to some other disturbing reports. We learned today that the Justice Department's internal watchdog, the inspector general, is launching an investigation into the Justice Department's production of files and documents related to the Epstein case, specifically some of the redaction issues where there were allegedly over-redactions of men and under-redactions of victims or survivors. How much faith do you have that this inspector general will be able to bring some accountability here? I think it's an important step. The role that inspector generals play in our government is really important.

1:08:53That's why the gutting of some of these inspector general offices last year by Doge and the Trump administration were very disturbing. So it's a great first step. I have no doubt that under Pam Bondi's leadership, the former attorney general, there has been a massive cover up under this White House at the direction of Donald Trump. That's why, you know, as part of the Oversight Committee, as you know, there was a bipartisan subpoena to have Pam Bondi come forward. And they have displayed just outright defiance of the law and this lawful subpoena. Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche came before us and tried to have this fake hearing with the oversight committee, closed doors, no media, no C-SPAN, you know, nothing was transcribed.

1:09:35And when we realized what a sham the whole thing was, and this was their attempt to get out of the, you know, actual hearing, an actual deposition, we all walked out. And, you know, our ranking member, Robert Garcia, and all of us as Democrats have said that we will hold Pam Bondi in contempt if she does not come forward. The hearing was supposed to be on the 14th of April, and she is clearly trying to defy the law here. The chairman of your committee, James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, he says that there's a split in the committee over whether or not Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein accomplice who's in prison, should be pardoned by the president in exchange for her testimony.

1:10:14Who on the committee wants her to be pardoned? I have not heard the specific names, but that is enraging if that is true. I mean, Comer has said that he does not believe that. I know he said that he was misquoted. But I mean, to be honest with you, Jake, there's only a handful of people on that committee who are genuine on the Republican side about getting accountability at some of the women that you just showed, you know, who have been consistent in, you know, working with Democrats on subpoenas to have people come forward. The rest of the crew does not care. And in fact, they would love nothing more than for this to go away.

1:10:48That is unbelievable. Let's remind the American public that Ghislaine Maxwell is an absolute monster. I mean, she is just in line with Jeffrey Epstein. She's committed vast crimes and was critical in this child sex trafficking ring. She should not be pardoned at all. She should not be in the cushy prison that she's in. And she should be testifying under oath without any sort of incentives provided to her. It's absurd. You are the only Iranian American Democrat in the House of Representatives, and you co-signed a letter today requesting that the Trump administration immediately institute protections for Iranian nationals who are currently in the United States who can't go home because of the war.

1:11:29Tell us about that. So under this administration's policies, USCIS has put a pause on all processing of immigration benefits, and actually there's now no legal pathway. So think about people like students. There's 12 ,000 Iranian students at everywhere from Arizona State University to Stanford to MIT studying and, you know, potential future contributors to our economy. There's people lawfully here on work visas. All of those people are in limbo. So let's say they're graduating in May. They will be forced to return to Iran, where the regime in Iran just massacred thousands and thousands of people.

1:12:07And now we have a heightened situation with the ongoing U.S. war on Iran. And so what Senator Markey and I are asking for is to protect those individuals, to have processes for them. And then I will be introducing legislation in short order to grant those individuals temporary protected status because that they would qualify. When you look at the designation of what TPS means, it's for a country that is having civil unrest, has a repressive regime, is in a war, and all of that applies here. People being sent back to Iran right now would be facing persecution and potentially even worse. Yeah. Congresswoman Yasemin Ansari, Democrat of Arizona, thank you.

1:12:48Don't be a stranger. Thank you. Come back here soon. The New York Times says the FBI investigated one of its reporters after she wrote a story about Director Kash Patel's girlfriend. Hear what Patel said when asked if that story was true. That's next.

1:13:07Our politics lead now. The New York Times is slamming the FBI for an investigation of one of its reporters, the Times says, after that journalist reported this story in February about the use of FBI personnel to protect the FBI director's girlfriend. Now, at issue, the FBI director claims that a death threat made against his girlfriend was a result of that New York Times story, and a 26-year-old man was later arrested for the alleged threat. According to an FBI affidavit, quote, the suspect stated that he had read the news article described above and became upset, leading him to send a threatening email.

1:13:37But the New York Times reports that the investigation into the journalist who wrote that report raised concern among some Justice Department officials who, quote, determined there was no legal basis to proceed with the investigation. The FBI does acknowledge that there was a conversation about whether or not the journalist violated stalking laws, but says there was no serious consideration of an investigation or charges against her. Here now our panel. What a time we're in, huh? So FBI Director Patel was asked if the FBI was investigating the journalist last night. Here is what he had to say. Absolutely not.

1:14:14The reality is, and thanks, Sean, is that this same reporter delivered a baseless story, which caused a direct threat of life to my girlfriend. Jonah? I've seen no evidence that the story was baseless. And the fact that I think it's fair to say we get quite a bit of disturbing email out there. Yeah, because of the likes of Kash Patel and Donald Trump. Yeah, and Kash Patel actually had a list of people in his book that he wanted to have rounded up when they got back in power. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. My only point is that the fact that someone sent an email that was threatening is not a predicate for launching an FBI investigation into a reporter.

1:15:00It's just a pretextual excuse to make it sound like this was something appropriate. Of course they're acknowledging the investigation because the whole point is to have a chilling effect. The whole point is to say, look at my drinking or look at my girlfriend stuff and all that, and we're going to come after you. So the FBI, again, the FBI insists that there was no actual official investigation. There was a conversation or conversations about whether this reporter crossed the line into stalking. But Joseph Kahn, the executive editor of the New York Times, he doesn't take that poo-pooing well. He says that the effort was done to, quote, prevent journalists from scrutinizing the FBI's actions.

1:15:37It's alarming, it's unconstitutional, and it's wrong. You used to work at the Justice Department during the Biden years. What do you make of the fact that, according to the New York Times, this reporter's name was run through databases? It sounds like it was a preliminary investigation, whether they call it a full-on investigation or something they were just looking at internally. The fact that the FBI was looking at it raises, you know, some major problems. I'll say that there were policies in place at the Justice Department that we put in while I was there. That they removed. That they prevented, yeah, that prevented this kind of thing.

1:16:10And what Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche said at the time is because they were not going to protect journalists that leak information. Let me just remind you that journalists are not privy to classified information by the federal government. Someone may leak to them, but they are not the leakers of the information. They are the receivers at times when someone illegally leaks to them. They're not the people who should be investigated. The leaker should be investigated. So there is a problem with their argument in the beginning. When I left the Justice Department, we were very concerned that this would start happening.

1:16:42And we were right. It not only happened with the Washington Post to get more information about sourcing, but now you're hearing the same thing. What the FBI and DOJ are trying to do is not only chill speech, but they're trying to get information from these reporters that exposes who is leaking to them and how they're getting the information. And that is the reason why we put those policies in place, but they rescinded them. So Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, to move on to another topic, signed in order today reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Posting, quote, these actions will enable more targeted rigorous research into marijuana safety and efficacy, expanding patients' access to treatments, and empowering doctors to make better informed health care decisions.

1:17:29What do you make of this? You know, I don't know. I do not like our lurch towards sort of completely de-stigmatizing, decriminalizing marijuana and all that. I think it's gone too far. I think the marijuana we have today is 10x, 20x more powerful than marijuana. It's nothing like - Stuff I grew up with. That's right. And it's gone too fast and society hasn't had time to figure it out. That all said, particularly on the medical marijuana side and on the tax law treatment and some of this stuff, they're perfectly colorable, defensible reasons for this kind of policy. It just feels like a follow the money kind of thing.

1:18:06because this is a massive windfall for the pot industry, the legal pot industry, in terms of how they're treated as a tax... Oh, and they're spending political money like crazy. And they pour money into all sorts of stuff. I would like to look at the lobbying of this and whether this originated in the White House and was handed off to Blanche to make it happen. So, and just whether you think this deserves, Trump deserves credit or blame for this, it was started under Biden at the Justice Department. Yeah, I chuckled when this whole happened in this photo op that you just showed, with Todd Blanche sitting there signing this piece of paper.

1:18:38Smoking a doobie. You know, I mean, that would have been... He was not smoking a doobie. He would have fired her. He came out of a van at fast times. Saying puff, puff, give, puff, puff, give. This is not new. The Justice Department of the Biden administration started the process to reclassify it. It takes time. There needs to be a hearing. A judge needs to go ahead and decide, et cetera. What Todd Blanche is clearly doing is he's auditioning for it to keep his job. He was able to go after the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was able to reclassify or show that he is reclassifying marijuana when the Biden administration already did that.

1:19:13He is. And just to interrupt for one second. And President Trump at a meeting in the Oval Office the other day was expressing irritation that it hadn't yet happened. Yes. He was like, why are they slow walking it? Why are they slow walking? And then Blanche delivers it. And I think one thing to add to the list is I thought it was pretty funny that he had Cash Patel standing there with him at the Southern Poverty Law Center press conference for the reason that Todd Blanche wasn't going to get the tough questions. And he knew that Cash Patel was going to get the questions about the Atlantic story, which provided him some cover and actually made Todd Blanche look quite reasonable next to Cash Patel.

1:19:51So I do think there is a full campaign from Todd Blanche to be attorney general, and you're seeing it right before us. Very quickly, going back to his CPAC appearance, which was sort of outrageous before he was acting attorney general. He said that Trump's pardons of the January 6 rioters were proof of his commitment to his base. And he bragged about how every single agent who worked on any of the investigations of Trump had been fired. That is a creepy thing for the deputy attorney general to be talking about. Not exactly back in the blue either. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. We'll be right back.

1:20:27Our last lead started our law and justice lead. Police arrested a former cop in Florida today for allegedly planning a mass shooting. According to authorities, Christopher Gillum, who was at one point named Orange County, Florida's officer of the month. I'm sorry, Orange County, North Carolina last June, allegedly planned to travel to a festival in New Orleans, carrying out a mass shooting. Then he was planning to commit suicide by cop. Gillen's family alerted police that he had expressed interest in harming black people, according to law enforcement. Deputies recovered a handgun, about 200 rounds of ammunition from Gillen's hotel room.

1:21:02Good job to those officers. In our sports lead, we're just about one hour away from the start of the NFL draft, where Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is widely expected to be the number one pick. But when his name is called, Mendoza will not walk across the stage in Pittsburgh like the other picks. Mendoza is watching the draft at home in Miami with his friends and family, including his mom, who lives there with multiple sclerosis. Aaron Burnett Outfront starts now. I will see you tomorrow.

1:21:35I'm Daniel Dae Kim. I'm going to South Korea to figure out how this small nation conquered the world with its culture. Join me and meet the artists and creators behind the phenomenon. K-Everything, streaming May 9th on the CNN app.