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Judge Orders Trump Administration to Preserve Signal Group Chat Messages; Investors Wonder if Musk is Spending Enough Time at Tesla; Judge Rules Luigi Mangione Can Have a Laptop for Defense; Canada's Prime Minister: Will Respond Forcefully to Tariff Threat; Panama Shelter Where Migrants Await Asylum. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 28, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Classified or not, a federal judge has now ordered the Trump administration to preserve all of the messages top officials sent within that Signal chat about the attack on Houthi targets in Yemen. The judge assigned to oversee this case is the same judge who is also handling the case challenging Donald Trump's deportation authority, the judge he has attacked so directly and so seriously. Leading to outcry among Trump aides and allies, though these judicial assignments, they are selected at random.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us right now with much more. And Katelyn, people around the president, they're now saying that this judge cannot oversee this case, must be taken off, but where do things stand this morning?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, an order is an order from a court, whether you like the judge or not. And in this case, it is now in writing on the books of the court. The Trump administration does need to preserve all of the Signal chats at all of the agencies where those cabinet officials and the intel chiefs were texting about Yemen attack plans.

Those Signal chats must be preserved from March 11th to March 15th. That's essentially when that chat was taking place or a window around it. The judge says that he wants an update by Monday.

But the administration, they even came into court yesterday before Judge Boasberg, saying they were working on it, at least at the Defense Department and that the Treasury Department. The Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, he had already had images taken of the Signal chat.

The reason this lawsuit is in court is because an outside group, American Oversight, was suing, saying there is a right to federal records and a need for them, for the archives, for the possibility of future investigations, for the public's knowledge.

The executive director of American Oversight after this hearing, after this order came in yesterday, said the public has a right to know how decisions about war and national security are made -- and accountability doesn't disappear just because a message was set to auto delete.

Their major issue was the Signal chat, the use of Signal and the auto delete function there. There were messages in this chat set to delete after a week or four weeks. That's a little bit different than how most federal records work.

It's really hard, Kate, to get a lawsuit like this off the ground. But by God, American Oversight did it. At the same time, though, you have administration officials pushing back already to what Judge Boasberg did here. Here's Attorney General Pam Bondi on Fox News last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: He shouldn't be on any of these cases. He cannot be objective. He's made that crystal clear.

These judges across the country, and again, they think they have authority, but it's going to be short lived because these cases are going to get to the Supreme Court very fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: I should note, though, General Bondi is taking issue with Judge Boasberg's order. That order was agreed to by the Justice Department, the Trump administration, in court yesterday. I listened to the hearing. And of course, the judge, he was randomly selected. That's just how it goes -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Great to see you, Katelyn. Thanks for laying it out -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, journalist and historian and my friend, Garrett Graff. Garrett, great to see you this morning.

You've got a fascinating piece looking at what you call the five overlapping scandals with this whole Signal thing. And one of them is what Katelyn Polantz and Kate were just talking about right now, the Federal Records and Retention Act. With these texts, when you hear that a judge has ordered this retention, why is that important now?

And you also say that you see maybe elements of intent in using Signal to destroy records.

GARRETT GRAFF, JOURNALIST AND HISTORIAN: Absolutely. And, you know, let's let's be very clear here. The reason that this matters is it's the federal law.

Conversations like this, documents like this are supposed to be preserved under the Federal Records Act by law. That's one of the main reasons that serious government conversations and classified and sensitive government conversations are supposed to take place on government networks. That was part of why this scandal was so startling to so many people who work in and around government, the military and the intelligence community.

[07:35:02] And I think that it's important to look at this scandal and try to break down, you know, precisely why it is scandalous. You know, this is something that I think a lot of people sort of feel in their gut is a scandal. But it's important to be direct about why it matters.

BERMAN: Yes, and again, when you're talking about using Signal, why do I use Signal? I use Signal because the messages get erased. That's literally the reason that I'm on it when I am on it.

There's another aspect to this, which is just the overall use of commercial apps like this for sensitive discussions. I want to play you a little bit of what Attorney General Pam Bondi said about that overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is Signal not going to be used or is it is it going to be used going forward? Are you aware of it?

BONDI: Well, I think Signal is a very safe way to communicate. I don't think foreign adversaries are able to hack Signal as far as I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, when you hear the attorney general talk about what I guess will be the ongoing use of Signal for government work, what questions does that raise?

GRAFF: Yes, so it makes me a little bit concerned since Pam Bondi's department is one of the lead agencies investigating really understand why this is a vulnerability. So yes, Signal is encrypted in the messages in between the phones, but the messages are not encrypted on the phones at either end.

And if you are, for instance, China or Russia, and you are able to hack the phone of the vice president, the defense secretary, the director of national intelligence, you suddenly have access to all of those conversations, you know, sensitive, internal, classified, whatever. And the reason to be concerned about that is because we actually understand that that is happening right now.

There is a major cybersecurity intrusion by a Chinese group known as Salt Typhoon that has been pillaging U.S. cell phone networks and telecom networks. And even we know publicly that it targeted J.D. Vance last fall as a candidate.

So one of the big questions in this scandal is, was this conversation happening on official devices or personal devices? DNI Tulsi Gabbard refused to answer that question before the Senate because she knows that both answers are troublesome in different ways.

BERMAN: In almost any other administration, there would be an FBI investigation into this. Not one that would necessarily press charges or point fingers, but just to determine what happened, you know, where were bounties pushed and how to stop it. Again, there won't be this time, it seems based on what we're hearing from the attorney general. There might be a Pentagon inspector general investigation. What do you think that will look into, Garrett?

GRAFF: Well, I think I was really struck yesterday watching Pam Bondi's comments. She was standing in front at a press conference of other law enforcement agents. If any one of the people in the background of her press conference had texted a buddy on Signal, hey, U.S. F-18s are going to be attacking the Houthis at 1:45 p.m. today in Yemen, that person would be fired and criminally prosecuted.

And the fact that there is a different standard for the cabinet officials in the Trump administration sets a tremendously poor example for everyone who works for them. And that's a major reason, again, why this scandal should matter to these organizations.

BERMAN: No doubt. All right, Garrett Graff, great to see you this morning. Thanks so much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, police have arrested a man accused of targeting Tesla in Las Vegas. Officials say that the suspect spray painted the word resist across the front doors of a Tesla facility, and then he allegedly shot at several vehicles and used Molotov cocktails to set them on fire.

Now, this incident is part of, as we've reported, a wave of attacks in recent weeks targeting Tesla showrooms, charging stations, vehicles, the anger fueled in part by Tesla CEO Elon Musk's work with the Trump administration. And his work with DOGE now has investors -- now has investors worried after Elon Musk himself admitted last week he's got a lot on his plate. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, CEO TESLA: I'd actually love to make airplanes, especially, but stretched pretty thin. So I've like 17 jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Clare Duffy tracking this one for us. So Clare, how worried are investors actually and who's calling the shots in his absence?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Well, investors are really worried both about the state of the company, the future of the company and who is in charge here, given how much of Musk's time he's spending in Washington right now.

[07:40:00]

The company is in a really tough position. It has Tesla has become as one analyst put it a political symbol.

And for some people in this country, that may be a good thing. But for a lot of people, it really is not both in the United States and in important foreign markets like Europe, that has affected car sales. We're not just seeing these, you know, incidents of vandalism and destruction, it also is starting to impact the company's business.

The company posted its first ever global sales decline earlier this year. Shares are down about 30 percent year to date. And this all comes as Tesla is really facing intense global competition on top of these worries about Musk's actions within DOGE.

But so far, Musk has really focused on the sort of political attacks piece of this rather than acknowledging any perhaps accountability related to the fact that he is spending so much of his time with the Trump administration. Here's what he told Fox News last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSK: I think a great wrong is being done to the people of Tesla and to our customers. Tesla is a peaceful, peaceful company that has made great cars, great product. It's not like the, you know, crazy guy that firebombs a Tesla dealership. It's the people pushing the propaganda that that that caused that guy to do it. Those are the real villains here. And we're going to go after them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: And look, that is no longer enough for investors that push back to these attacks. They are saying, where is Elon Musk? Why isn't he starting to spend more time with the company at this moment of crisis?

BOLDUAN: Fascinating and not going away. Those concerns that they have. It's good to see you, Clare. Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, a judge says he has no objection to accuse CEO killer Luigi Mangione's request for a laptop behind bars. Mangione's team requested the device so he can review documents related to his upcoming murder trial.

CNN's Kara Scannell is with us. So what's going on here?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so the judge has saying that Mangione can have this laptop. His lawyers asked for it because there are thousands of hours of surveillance video. Remember the manhunt? Remember everyone looking for him? So thousands of hours for him to review, as well as some of those surveillance photos. So they said that he should be able to get this to help his defense.

Now, the next step here will be that they will have to ask a federal judge because he's in federal custody to sign off on this, him getting the laptop.

And it was interesting. Prosecutors had objected to it because they said that Mangione had already violated some of these special privileges he got, including being able to change from a prison jumpsuit into regular clothes when he went into court.

And one of the reasons there is because of these heart-shaped letters that were found wrapped in socks that were provided to Mangione, which had message from some admirer to him, you know, saying that there were a lot of people out there supporting him. So prosecutors tried to keep this out, but the judge is saying he doesn't object. He can have a laptop to help prepare for his defense. BERMAN: Is this an unusual request in cases like this? And how is it handled? I mean, will he have unfettered access to whatever he wants to surf the web?

SCANNELL: It's not unusual in these complicated cases where there is a lot of evidence. Like Sean Diddy Combs himself has access to a laptop. Now, there are parameters around it.

It's generally, you know, in certain spaces within the jail complex, also certain hours of the day that they're allowed to do it. But it's not where he can surf the Internet and just chitchat with some of his supporters. It will have the evidence preloaded. He won't be able to communicate that way.

There are still other ways through prison monitored systems that they can communicate with the outside world, but that's a different situation than the laptop, which would be separate and offline.

BERMAN: Got it. All right, Kara Scannell, thanks so much for explaining it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Breaking news is still unfolding in Southeast Asia that we were tracking this morning after a major earthquake hit overnight. Skyscrapers collapsing after the 7.7 magnitude quake. There is a lot still to be learned. We're going to bring you the very latest that we know.

And then there's also this. The old relationship is over. What Canada's prime minister is now saying and really threatening about the U.S.-Canada alliance after President Trump announced another round of tariffs.

[07:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, the woman convicted of killing Tejano music legend Selena has been denied parole. It has been 30 years since a jury found Yolanda Saldivar guilty of first degree murder after shooting the singer at a Texas motel in 1995. Saldivar founded the Selena fan club and had been running the singer's clothing business before she was fired after being accused of embezzlement. Saldivar is currently serving a life sentence in a Texas prison.

Intense thunderstorms and severe ash flooding across southern Texas. There have been multiple water rescues. Video shows floodwaters pouring into the hallway of a hospital. This morning, authorities are warning people to avoid low-lying areas.

And this morning, a genuine nightmare of a story here. A child in Kansas asked his babysitter to check under the bed for monsters. She did, and she actually found something. Police say the babysitter came face to face with a man hiding under the bed. Police say that man was arrested after a struggle with the babysitter. He had once lived in the home, but there had been a protection order issued against him to stay away -- Kate. BOLDUAN: I cannot, cannot imagine.

Let's turn to this right now.

[07:50:00]

Canada's Prime Minister has now declared the old relationship between the U.S. and Canada is, quote, over. He called President Trump's promise to follow through with that 25 percent tariff on all cars and car parts shipped to the U.S. a, quote, direct attack on Canadians. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: We won't back down. We will respond forcefully. Nothing is off the table to defend our workers and our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That from the Prime Minister. And the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, he's become one of Canada's staunchest defenders against President Trump, saying now Canadians must maximize the pain for Americans.

Joining us right now is the mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow. Thank you so much for coming in, Mayor. I really appreciate it.

The old relationship with the U.S. over. How would you describe the shift now between this alliance between the U.S. and Canada? If the old relationship is over, what is the new relationship?

MAYOR OLIVIA CHOW, TORONTO: The new relationship means that, unfortunately, because of the tariff, because of the attack on Canada, everything is going to go up. The price of cars are going to go up. If you need the car now, buy it now. It's going to go up dramatically.

Costs of gasoline, building a home, the groceries, food, everything is going to go up because of this tariff. So Canada has to defend ourselves, which is why in Toronto we're the fourth largest city in North America with a $79 billion budget, we are saying that we are not going to allow American companies to bid on our contracts anymore.

We are doing a huge buy Canadian, buy local campaign, which is Canadians love American goods. We buy $500 billion Canadian goods -- American goods, which is bigger than China, Japan, France, all add together.

We're now saying because you treat us badly, because you're putting this tariff, you're costing us loss of jobs, you're going to stop buying Americans goods.

BOLDUAN: I want to play for you --

CHOW: And that's going to hurt everyone. BOLDUAN: No, no, it's OK. I saw that the city council had voted unanimously to back your plan of saying that Americans businesses cannot bid on contracts for the city.

What else is coming? What what is what are what other steps are you promising or threatening to take in order to, as you say, stand up for Canadians, but to retaliate against these tariffs?

CHOW: Well, Ontario Premier Doug Ford just cancelled a contract that he had with Starlink, which belongs to Elon Musk, and that's gone. The energy there's been talk about whether we are going to stop shipping energy, electricity to to America. Everything is on the table.

We're watching and waiting to see what President Trump might do on April 2nd. And then there will be a huge defense plan where we're going to attack back. We love Americans. We've been neighbors, good neighbors and allies for so long. We have economic benefits of each other that is the envy of the world.

Just Toronto alone, $123 billion of trade and all of that because of the Trump tariff are just being sacrificed. And it's just really unfortunate.

BOLDUAN: The prime minister --

CHOW: But we don't want to.

BOLDUAN: The prime minister, mayor, also said that there is no going backwards with the U.S.-Canada relationship. I mean, do you agree with that? Or if the tariffs fell away, if the threatened tariffs don't go into effect, do you think things could go back to, quote unquote, normal?

CHOW: Look, Americans and Canadians love each other. My brother is an American since the 70s. He lives in Seattle right now. We have this friendship with each other. It's just the government that are attacking us. We don't want to be Americans' 51st state. We are Canadians and we're proud Canadians.

BOLDUAN: So do you think it is fundamentally changed for, you know, forever?

CHOW: I think the people, our relationship in terms of our support for each other is still there.

[07:55:00]

I'm not sure the trust is there anymore right now. Absolutely that's gone. The four years we're being attacked. So we say, this is over. We can't handle it. We are going to attack back.

As to what would happen if everything got pulled back and go back to normal, that we could trade with each other again, calmly and normally. Would it get back? I don't know. But that's on the government level, whether there's trust there anymore. Because right now things are so unpredictable. One day is this, the other day is that. And how could you build a relationship when there's no trust? So it is over. Yes, but Americans and Canadians, we're still very, very close.

BOLDUAN: Let's see what happens next. Mayor, thank you for your time -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, more than 100 migrants from Afghanistan, Russia and Iran are in Panama with no real sense of what happens next for them. They were expelled from the United States.

CNN's Omar Jimenez went to see them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, we're on our way to a shelter right now here in Panama City, Panama, where migrants are caught in this sort of Trump created limbo where they've been deported from the United States. But they also can't go home.

"AMBO", MIGRANT FROM CAMEROON: I left Cameroon due to political issues. It is either I will be sentenced dead or I will spend the rest of my life in prison.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Life for Ambo, as she asked to be called, is now this shelter. She's among the dozens of migrants here from places like Afghanistan, Russia, China and more.

JIMENEZ: These are all people who say they can't go home because they fear either persecution or potentially being killed.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Ambo didn't want her face identified on camera. She says she arrived at the U.S. Mexico border on January 23rd, hoping to make a case for asylum. The U.S. eventually put her on a plane, and she thought she was being transferred to another American immigration facility until they landed in Panama.

"AMBO": We're asking them. Why are they bringing us to Panama? Why are we in Panama?

JIMENEZ (voice-over): It was actually part of the Trump administration's mass deportation plan, which it has pressured Latin American countries like Panama to help with. The Panamanian government then took these migrants to a hotel in Panama City, guarded by tight security, the migrants say, with little to no access to outside communication.

"AMBO": Maybe the immigration from the U.S. has come to Panama to listen to our stories, why we went there, maybe they were --

JIMENEZ: So, you still had hope that someone from the United States would come and fix the situation?

"AMBO": Yeah.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Her optimism was shattered.

"AMBO": It shouldn't just, like, abandon us like that without telling us what we have done wrong. It becomes very, very difficult and confusing to us. I've left my children back home.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Others don't have anything at home to go back to.

JIMENEZ: Why can't you go back to Ethiopia?

"SALAM", MIGRANT FROM ETHIOPIA: That is political. I cannot go back. I don't have family. They die already, our family. All of my family.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Salam, as she wanted to be called, is from Ethiopia. She also didn't want her face on camera.

JIMENEZ: Is this where you all sleep? In this room?

"SALAM": Yeah. Everyone is in a bad situation.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): It's one of multiple places in Panama where these migrants are trying to navigate life in a country they've never known.

ARTEMIS GHASEMZADEH, MIGRANT FROM IRAN: We are lost here.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Artemis Ghasemzadeh fled Iran.

GHASEMZADEH: I changed my religion in Iran. And the punishment of that is maybe a long prison. Or at the end is death.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): She was seen in this February photo from "The New York Times" with the words help us written on the hotel window where these migrants were first taken. They were then moved to a location hours outside the city.

JIMENEZ: Over 100 of the migrants that were sent here to Panama City were then taken to a remote jungle camp, away from the resources of Panama City, but also, for the most part, away from effective means of communication.

GHASEMZADEH: The food was really disgusting. The bathroom was really dirty. privacy. No door.

"SALAM": The water -- even if you will take shower, it's itchy. You can see my leg --

JIMENEZ: Wow.

"SALAM": All my body is like this.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Through every step along the way, attorneys for these migrants argue their rights were violated.

SILVIA SERNA ROMAN, REGIONAL LITIGATOR FOR MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA: When they got to America, and when they got to Panama, they were never allowed to speak to an official that wanted necessarily to hear their story and their circumstance. And so even though they all claim to be asylum seekers, they have never had the right to be heard.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): In early March, the government released the over 100 migrants from the remote jungle camp but gave them temporary permits to find another place to go or risk deportation from Panama.

ROMAN: They might be, like involuntarily be taken back to their countries. And that's our concern.

JIMENEZ: If you went back to your country, do you think you would be killed?

"SALAM": Yeah.

GHASEMZADEH: If I come back to my country, my government kill me.

JIMENEZ: Ambo still dreams of America but has no idea how this nightmare will end.

"AMBO": I don't think I can stay in Panama. But now the point is, where am I going to go to?

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Omar Jimenez, CNN, Panama City, Panama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)