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Special Counsel Report Says, Enough Evidence to Convict Trump in Election Case; New Fire Erupts Overnight in Extremely Critical Threat Area; Soon, Trump Defense Secretary Pick Hegseth Faces Confirmation Hearing. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 14, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Donald Trump was not exonerated. Special Counsel Jack Smith condemns what he calls Trump's criminal efforts to retain power and subvert the will of the American people. The new details in the final report released just days before the inauguration.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a new wildfire explodes overnight near Los Angeles. The fire forecast once again bringing no relief to the people of Southern California. Parts of L.A. now under the highest level red flag warning again.

And Pete Hegseth in the hot seat, hoping to be confirmed as defense secretary. In just hours, Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon will sit for his confirmation hearings. He was a once controversial pick. Will he sail through?

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

And breaking overnight, if he was not going to be president in six days, he would have been a convicted federal felon. That is the thrust of the final report from now former Special Counsel Jack Smith, released by the Justice Department while you were sleeping. It is an extraordinary document for posterity, if nothing else.

And there will be nothing else. Jack Smith resigned Friday night and there will be no prosecution. And this pertains only to the election interference case. The report on classified documents will not be made public. But in this, Smith writes, quote, when it became clear Mr. Trump had lost the election and that lawful means of challenging the election results had failed, he resorted to a series of criminal efforts to retain power.

After Mr. Trump's election and imminent return to the presidency, the office addressed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.

Overnight, President-elect Trump responded, quote, Jack is a lame brain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the election, which I won with a landslide. The voters have spoken. Let's get right to CNN's Katelyn Polantz, who's been poring over this report for the very latest. Good morning, Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Good morning, John. This is the final word from Jack Smith on that case against Donald Trump related to the January 6th attack, the 2020 election, and he does not mince words. He goes into about exactly what the prosecutors found as they were researching, considering bringing charges, all of their thinking, and then he comes to the conclusion that he had come to, even after the Supreme Court gave quite a bit of immunity around the presidency and Donald Trump himself, that there were criminal actions that Donald Trump took after the 2020 election, while he was still the president, as a way to maintain power, to hold on to the American presidency.

One of the things that he points out in many, many examples is how Trump knew that the election was not stolen in 2020, that there was not widespread fraud that could have delivered him a victory and that he continued to lie to his supporters, especially in one point of this report, Smith goes into detail about how Trump was speaking to Mike Pence, the vice president. Pence called him directly minutes before Donald Trump went to the (INAUDIBLE) I think it is my power to overturn the result of this election in Congress. And then Trump still, knowing he had that conversation with Pence, went before his supporters and told them, let's rally, let's try and get Mike Pence to overturn the election.

The depth of the lies is quite significant. What Jack Smith wrote, the department's view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government's proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind. So, that quote is Jack Smith assessing that we think that we had the case, that we would have won, convinced a jury to find Donald Trump guilty, even though what the Supreme Court said that there was immunity around the presidency.

[07:05:02]

BERMAN: And, Katelyn, inside this report, there are some new details, including at least one thing that Jack Smith and his team, at least for a time considered.

POLANTZ: They considered a couple things, John, one, that they considered charging other people, potentially some of these other people that were working with Trump, and they decided to keep it focused on the case against Trump and not charge those other people. What they wrote was, this report should not be read to allege that any particular person other than Mr. Trump committed a crime, nor should it be read to exonerate any particular person.

Another thing Jack Smith considered was potentially charging Donald Trump with the Insurrection Act, but that law was used primarily back in the 1800s and hadn't been used much at all. So, they didn't want to dust off something like that to test it in courts, even though it would have sent a really powerful signal. Another thing on politics, Jack Smith said the attacks Donald Trump had against him is, in a word, laughable. John?

BERMAN: All right. Katelyn Polantz, a lot in here to go through this morning. Thanks so much for being with us. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And more breaking news this morning. Parts of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties are under the highest level red flag warnings today. Dangerous winds are expected to return and officials are warning that these winds could be strong enough to cause the way they're describing it as explosive fire growth.

Now, last night, a new fire did erupt in Ventura County. It's called the Auto fire. It's so far 0 percent contained. Emergency crews say the next 48 hours are going to be critical as these winds are expected to potentially gust back up to 70 miles per hour.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Pacific Palisades. She's joining us now. And, Stephanie, when it's gusting 70 miles an hour, we've all quickly learned that means that aircraft could once again be grounded. What does this mean for fire containing efforts?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Kate, that is really key to containing a fire is having that battle from the sky. One good thing about the Auto fire is while they haven't contained it, they said that they had stopped the further progression of it so far. But what we are expecting is more of these winds to start actually about next hour or so here.

Now, they won't be as strong as those hurricane force winds that we saw last week that led to the devastation that we see here, but still strong winds could be a problem as there's still some hot spots burning out there.

I'm going to move out the way so you can see where I am now here in Pacific Palisades. This was an apartment complex that had ocean views. I believe that's an elevator there in the background. Right now, some ATF special assets are coming into the area to investigate what could have started this Palisades fire because it's not clear yet if there's any one thing.

However, on the other side of the Eaton fire, the other massively devastating fire, the Los Angeles Times reporting that they are investigating a tower, an electrical transmission tower. And to that end, there's this video from a couple, Cheryl and Jeffrey Ku, who CNN did speak to. And they talk about when Cheryl was making her way back home, what she saw and then what they were able to proceed to see through the Ring camera. Take a listen to Jeffrey Ku,

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY KU, NARROWLY ESCAPED EATON FIRE: The mountains, the canyon was dark. She could see a light in the hillside, and as she got closer to the house. Sure enough, it was burning bright and it was the base of the tower on fire. And that was when the video started where she came in to get me, and her voice, which I'll never ever forget, which is you need to come out here now, we have a big problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: Now, a lot of people obviously want to know what started these blazes. But at the same time, there's still a need to protect what has remained standing and also to be prepared for any other blazes that may pop up, just like we saw this auto fire pop up last night.

So, officials here asking people to be prepared, ready to go in the event that with these winds we see a blaze start someplace else that people take these warnings very seriously. Kate?

BOLDUAN: It's been a week now, and we're entering yet another critical day of dangerous winds. Stephanie, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. In Washington, the first confirmation hearing soon to get underway. First up, the man hoping to lead the most powerful military on Earth. Will the controversy surrounding Pete Hegseth matter to senators as he fights for what he calls the most important deployment of his life?

As the nation waits for the Supreme Court to rule on a TikTok ban, a group of lawmakers is trying to keep Americans logged on to the app, at least until next year.

And could Israel and Hamas be ready to agree to a ceasefire deal? A new report says they are closer than ever before.

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Lots of new developments overnight on that story. We'll have them all coming up.

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BERMAN: All right. Very shortly, Donald Trump's controversial pick to be defense secretary faces the Senate. Pete Hegseth will be before the Senate Armed Services Committee and is expected to get tough questions over allegations of sexual assault and personal misconduct, allegations he says are false. And breaking moments ago, we got our hands on Hegseth's planned opening statement to the committee.

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Let's get right to Capitol Hill, CNN's Lauren Fox is there. Good morning, Lauren.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're going to be talking about Republicans on Texas planned opening statement to the committee. Let's get right to Capitol Hill. CNN's Lauren Fox is there. Good morning, Lauren.

Good morning, John. Right over my shoulder, that is the hot seat where we expect Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's pick to be the next secretary of defense, that's where he's going to take sharp questions from Democrats who are going to be asking a lot about concerns they have about his past actions. Those include an alleged sexual assault, alleged workplace drinking, as well as alleged mismanagement of a veterans' organization.

Now, these are all allegations that Pete Hegseth has denied and he was never charged with sexual assault. But this morning, Pete Hegseth is going to be trying to define himself for how he envisions changes at the Pentagon.

Here's what he said in his opening statement, quote, the standard issue SECDEFs have degraded our readiness, our lethality and our ability to win wars. There's never been a singular focus on the warfighter, and that's why we're losing wars and deterrence capabilities.

Now, a couple of people to watch today, obviously Senator Joni Ernst, she is a member of this committee. She is also a sexual assault survivor and a veteran herself. We're going to be watching really closely on how she questions Pete Hegseth today because she's one of the Republicans who could influence whether or not he makes it out of this committee and whether or not he gets the votes he needs on the Senate floor.

Obviously, Democrats are going to have a lot of tough questions. They gaggled together last night with their top Democrat on this committee, Jack Reed, behind closed doors, where we'd really walked them through what he learned in that background investigation, at least what was included and what wasn't.

Here's what we know so far from that. Here's Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat on the committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): My understanding is that several of the witnesses were not interviewed by the FBI, even though they wanted to be.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And that includes the accuser of his sexual assault accuser?

DUCKWORTH: I have not seen the FBI report and they've not made it available to us.

RAJU: But who was not interviewed?

DUCKWORTH: I only know that some of the folks that have the women in his past, women in his life have wanted to be interviewed, but have not been interviewed by the veterans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, it's important to keep in mind that Pete Hegseth can get through without a single Democratic vote. That includes a single Democratic vote on the committee. It's really those key Republicans that we're going to have to keep an eye out for to determine whether or not Hegseth is going to have the votes to get this job. His performance today, a lot is at stake. John?

BERMAN: A lot is at stake, though his prospects seem to be radically different than they were a few weeks ago when confirmation seemed unlikely. Now, it might just be the reverse.

Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill in the room where it will happen, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, breaking news out of California firefighters bracing for new rounds of powerful winds as a brand new fire erupts in another California county. We are live on the scene of the devastation.

And Israel saying it is ready for a ceasefire. We will go there live where any moment we're watching for an update on a possible agreement with Hamas and that would set in place a release of hostages. Those stories ahead.

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[07:20:00]

Breaking this morning, Hamas' ceasefire and hostage deal with Israel is now in its final stages. This as an Israeli officials tell CNN that Israel is ready for a ceasefire. The potential deal could bring home 33 hostages as part of the first phase of the agreement. It would mean a 42-day ceasefire in a war that has gone on for 15 months, but the agreement is still being finalized by negotiators in Doha this morning.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is tracking it all from Tel Aviv. Jeremy, a deal until it is signed is not a deal. What do you know about how close this is and what it would entail?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right, Sara. And there's no question that these parties are now closer to a ceasefire deal than they ever have been since the last ceasefire fell apart in late November of 2023, 15 months of war, months of negotiations that could finally reach some kind of a conclusion, at least a temporary ceasefire of at least six weeks here, if indeed these parties can cross the finish line with this agreement.

For now, both Israeli and Hamas officials are sounding quite optimistic about the prospects of a deal and their willingness to reach a deal. I spoke with an Israeli official this morning who told me that Israel is ready for a ceasefire. They believe that they have made all the compromises necessary in order to reach a deal. Hamas meanwhile just released a statement saying that the negotiations are in their final stages and that they hope that this negotiation will conclude with a, quote, clear and comprehensive agreement.

The Qatari mediators say that they are now negotiating over some of the simpler details involved in the actual implementation mechanisms of this agreement but also cautions once again that these negotiations remain delicate. And until there is actually an agreement announced, we cannot yet say that things are concluded. Now, in terms of this actual deal, what we know about it, 33 Israeli hostages would be released in the first phase of this agreement, according to an Israeli official. Most of those 33 are indeed believed to be alive, but it is also expected that there will be the bodies of some deceased hostages included in that number.

[07:25:02]

The negotiations for the second phase of this agreement will begin on the 16th day of these talks. Israeli forces are expected to retain a presence along that Philadelphia corridor along the border between Gaza and Egypt. That had previously been subject of contention. And we also know that Israel will allow the free return of Palestinians who live in Northern Gaza to return to that part of the Gaza Strip during the course of this agreement.

Of course, until all of this happens, we cannot yet say that an agreement has been reached. But make no mistake, if a deal is reached, this would be enormous, not only for those hostages who have been held for over 15 months now, many of them not having seen the light of day for months on end, but, of course, also for the people of Gaza who have faced unrelenting bombardment from the Israeli military over the course of the last 15 months.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed throughout the course of the war, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. And what we would also see if this agreement goes through is the entry of hundreds of trucks of humanitarian aid per day to alleviate the dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Jeremy Diamond, I know you are keeping an eye out for this. It could happen at any time. We will be keeping you around for the next few hours. Thank you so much, Jeremy. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Just after Jack Smith resigns, the Department of Justice releases his final report on the investigation into Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Why Jack Smith says there was enough evidence to convict Donald Trump at a trial, if there would be a trial.

And a much needed win for Los Angeles. The L.A. Rams beat the NFL playoffs. We'll show you how the team paid tribute to the victims of the California wildfires.

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