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Manafort Pleads Guilty; Florence Hammers Coast; Florence Pounds Coast with Rain; Rescues Underway on the Coasts. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 14, 2018 - 13:00   ET

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


[13:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: -- lawyer, Kevin Downing.

Update our viewers, first of all, on what he said and how this is playing out.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, an extraordinary day playing out here in federal court in Washington. Paul Manafort standing before the courtroom saying that he's pleading guilty to two counts here in Washington.

Now, the one count, which is conspiracy against the United States, really covers pretty much all of the charges that he was facing here in court here in D.C. it includes his admission that he got paid over $60 million over the years from the Ukrainian government doing work for the Ukrainian government, the pro-Russian government there in Ukraine, that he laundered more than $30 million over those year and that he cheated the U.S. government out of $15 million in taxes.

As you mentioned, Kevin Downing, his attorney, just addressed the media coming outside of court. Here's what he had to say. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN DOWNING, ATTORNEY FOR PAUL MANAFORT: A tough day for Mr. Manafort as he accepted responsibility and he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. He's accepted responsibility and this is for conduct that dates back many years. And everybody should remember that.

So, thank you, everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And I think you're hearing that from Kevin Downing a little bit of a telegraphing of the message that we've heard really repeatedly from Paul Manafort, that these charges that he was facing really have nothing do with the Trump campaign. These have to do with his activities before he became chairman of the Trump campaign.

However, we now know, Wolf, that as part of this plea agreement, he has agreed to cooperate extensively with the special counsel's office. And part of that includes him being able to be interviewed by prosecutors without the presence of his lawyers, that he may have to testify in any future proceedings, court proceedings, perhaps against -- changes against other people.

Again, one of the big questions here is, does this have anything to do with President Trump? Does this have anything to do with the campaign? We have an answer from Rudy Giuliani. I'll read you a statement that he gave us just a whole ago. It says, once again -- quote, once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason, the president did nothing wrong.

They are making clear, at least from the Trump side, that this plea agreement has nothing to do with the president, Wolf.

But, look, the bottom line here is that prosecutors have gotten a huge victory here from Paul Manafort. He's going to be a cooperator. We do not know what questions they're going to ask him once he goes behind those closed doors with prosecutors. Really they can ask pretty much any question and he can't lie once he answers the questions, Wolf.

BLITZER: Do we know if he remains in jail or has an opportunity now to get out of jail. He's been -- he's been in jail all this time, denied bail because he -- he was engaged in what they called witness tampering.

PEREZ: Right. Exactly. And that's one of the charges he actually admits to is witness tampering, obstruction of justice.

Right now he remains -- he's being taken right now back to the prison -- or jail, rather, in Alexandria where he has been spending the last few -- the last couple of months. We expect that he's going to remain there until sentencing. We now know that as part of this agreement, this resolved the charges that he -- that were outstanding in Alexandria, as well as the charges that he has here in Washington.

When he gets sentenced for both those cases, Wolf, perhaps we'll see what kind of prison time he is going to get. At this point, under these charges that he pleaded guilty to here in Washington, the maximum he can get is 10 years. This is a man, obviously, who is about to turn 70 years old. That's a very long time for somebody of that age.

At this point, though, Wolf, he is going to be spending some time -- some more time in jail at least until his sentencing.

BLITZER: A major development here in Washington.

Evan, thank you very much.

Let's bring in our panel of reports and experts. Our chief political analyst Gloria Borger is with us, our legal analyst Laura Coates, and CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero.

Well, Carrie, what do you think? What are the ramifications? Because this is the question everybody's asking for the president of the United States, the cooperation from his former campaign chairman.

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Wolf, that's really the big question because what we don't know the details of, as everyone was just saying, is who Paul Manafort will be providing information against and about what he'll provide -- be providing information against. So I have no doubt that the special counsel's office, in their communications with him, will be asking about a whole range of issues going from the Russia investigation and Russian influence and the Trump Tower meeting and everything that pertains to their investigation into Russian interference in the election and whether or not there was campaign involvement in that.

But there's also a whole other range of -- what I'll categorize as Washington lobbyist and influence industry that Paul Manafort also probably has a lot of information. And because that's what the crimes pertain to, there may be other individuals not pertaining to the Trump campaign that he may also be cooperating with.

[13:05:15] BLITZER: I assume Robert Mueller and his team, they have a pretty good idea of what he knows. They wouldn't necessarily are agree to this kind of plea agreement, cooperation, potentially a reduced sentence, unless he has something to offer.

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Correct. I mean you would never make a plea offer, especially when you already have eight convictions in the bag against this person. You are in a position of extreme leverage. Although you had a mistrial or a hung trial on the other counts, that's still quite a coo (ph) to have the eight particular charges against that person lead to conviction.

So he would have had to proffer information that's useful to them that they did not already know and that he alone could be credible to actually tie this all together with a very neat bow. So you're looking to yourself, and you're right, Carrie, about the notion of, what are we waiting for? A way to figure out what he actually knows. But you don't make a plea offer with eight convictions in the bag and then say, OK, I will turn the power over to you. He has some information that they want and that's akin to what they're looking for, for the Mueller probe.

BLITZER: Gloria, what do you think? How worried should the president be?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, according to people who work with the president on legal issues, he shouldn't be worried at all, because as Sarah Sanders said publically, you just heard Evan Perez talk about what Rudy Giuliani is saying publically. I've talked to a source privately today saying, yes, none of this has anything to do with Donald Trump. They've always said that. This happened years ago. This is before he was engaged by the Trump campaign and he only worked for the Trump campaign for a short period of time.

However, however, we all know that Paul Manafort was in the Trump Tower meeting. We all know that it would be malpractice not to ask him about it. And of course he's going to be asked about it.

There are things in this document, though, that are kind of stunning about the whole artifice (ph) that Manafort set up with PR firms and with a law firm about how to hide Ukraine as their client, not filing as they should have, so they could rake in millions of dollars, launder the money and get paid by Ukraine. And there was one thing in this -- and so I think there's going to be a larger investigation into the other kind of swamp that exists in Washington.

And there was one, you know, there were a couple of quotes in this that just came out at me but -- from Companies A and B, which are probably PR firms, but Company A employee noted that -- and they knew that they were working for Ukraine, but they couldn't say it. So one said, you've got to see through the nonsense of that. It's like Alice in Wonderland. And the other person said, it's a fig leaf on a fig leaf. And all of this was orchestrated by Paul Manafort. And they were cooperating in this. So that's going to be a part of -- a part of what they're going to ask him as well.

BLITZER: Yes.

COATES: He also does talk about, too, that he needed the services of Rick Gates.

BORGER: Yes.

COATES: To do some of this orchestration (ph). Of course someone who was a cooperator against him in the Virginia trial. And we still have this whole looming and salacious section about how they conspired to talk about what they called the Obama Jews and tried to use the administration with Barack Obama and Joe Biden to try to infiltrate that administration and lobby on behalf of a particular cause. All of this is coming out for really the first time and it really belie his entire defense in the court of public opinion and now that he had nothing do and was simply just a minion to Rick Gates.

BLITZER: And let's not forget, these Ukrainians that he was getting these tens of millions of dollars from were pro-Russian Ukrainians.

COATES: Right.

BLITZER: Including Russian oligarchs. And that potentially is very significant as well.

BORGER: And when they lobbied, they never told anyone that they were getting paid by Ukraine. And so --

BLITZER: They --

BORGER: People who cooperated with them, which were former heads of state and PR firms, et cetera, et cetera, I mean, you know, there's a lot of swamp in this.

BLITZER: Yes, they stole millions of dollars from the American people.

BORGER: Exactly.

BLITZER: Manafort cheated the United States out of over $15 million in taxes.

We're going to have a lot more on the breaking news here in Washington, but there's also continuing breaking news down in the Carolinas.

I want to go to CNN's Don Lemon, who's watching all of this very, very closely.

Tell our viewers exactly where you are, Don, and what you're seeing and hearing.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good afternoon to you, Wolf, and everyone who is watching.

We're here in Myrtle Beach. And this is exactly as promised, exactly as promised. Not necessarily a wind maker, but this is a water maker. We're getting lots of rain. The rain eases up and then we get more of a downpour.

Right now we're going through not a big period for rain right now, but it has been going off and on here. Listen, this thing is forecast still -- forecasted still as a category one, but there are power outages all over the state here. We're told all over the Carolinas, 620,000 people without power, and that is mostly in North Carolina.

And, of course, you've been seeing the horrible pictures of that flooding, especially New Bern. New Bern, up to 40 feet of water and also storm surges of up to 10 feet. This is not boding well for the people here.

[13:10:09] And this thing is moving anywhere between 10 and three miles an hour, which means it's basically just sort of sitting here and producing rain, rain, rain, which is going to cause flooding as we have been saying.

A lot of my colleagues have been out in it. There are lots of rescues that are underway here in the Carolinas as well. And these people are going to be dealing with this for a couple of days. Usually the hurricane comes through. It comes through very quickly, especially if it's a category two, three or higher. It comes through and then it moves out and it leaves a devastation behind.

This one is sitting on top of the people here, causing them to have to sit in their homes, causing them to have to endure flooding, have to endure those power outages and what have you.

I just want to show you just sort of the around the beach here. Yesterday, when you joined us here, there were people who were still on the beach. A couple -- people who were stir-crazy. They were in their hotel rooms or in their homes and they wanted to get out and get a last glimpse of the beach and daylight and mother nature before they had to hunker down in their homes. No one out on the beach now, and that is a good thing, especially for the people here who are trying to protect the folks here, law enforcement, rescue workers, because the people who did not get out, the people who are sitting this storm out, if you get into trouble, you're going to have to call these rescue people to come out and get to you. And that's going to put their lives in jeopardy and danger as well.

My colleague, Miguel Marquez, has been out in this all morning. Miguel, I have been watching you. You are at Carolina Beach now. You

are getting pelted by rain. And then it eased up a bit. What are you seeing now?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the rain is coming down. The wind is coming very fast and furiously. And the water is coming up.

This is the corner of Myrtle Avenue in Carl Winter (ph) Avenue in Carolina Beach. I just spoke to the city manager here a little while ago and he said that this is going to get higher. There's an area in town just down this way that will probably flood over and it will be -- the town will essentially be cut off, at least that part of town. And it -- he believes it will be Saturday or Sunday before they will be able to open up the bridge that people can get back into town and out of town.

But these are the conditions. For the last three hours or so, it has just been raining. The wind has been very intense and it is just not leading up at Carolina Beach. It's incredible because we're talking to Anderson and other folks who are just 20, 30 miles away in Wilmington and they're not experiencing nearly this sort of conditions that we -- we're having right now.

What you're looking at now is the marina here in Carolina Beach. And a lot of those boats -- it is -- obviously is overflowing. This is an area that often floods even on good days. But what is stunning about what's happened in this storm is how quickly it came up. This water came up after about 30, 40 minutes once that storm surge started to come in. It happened just after high tide. So it really came up fast.

Now the tide is waning. So it should be letting off, but it's going up -- either it's creeping up just a little bit or staying where it is. Just looking along the edge here, it doesn't seem that it's going down very much at all.

One thing that they're asking in New Hanover, the county here where Carolina Beach is, is that if you have emergencies -- an emergency situation and you need to call 911, make sure it is a life-threatening emergency. Downed trees, downed lines, just, you know, more mundane issues, they just can't deal with right now and their 911 operators are being overwhelmed. So that's the sort of situation that they have here.

About 600 people of the 6,200 that live in Carolina Beach decided to stay. We saw many of them when the eye came over and things got very calm. We have not seen anybody since. People now back in their homes just waiting this storm out, Don.

LEMON: Yes, Miguel, and that is the issue. If you get into trouble, any -- just a routine issue, it's really tough for emergency workers to get to you. And that was the warning all along. And many times people don't think about that. They think about, well, no one's going to have to come rescue me because of the flooding. No one's going to have to come rescue me because of the wind. But you can get any sort of medical issue and then you still have to get emergency resources out to you. And that's very difficult in this moment, John. And they're telling you, do not call them unless it's a dire emergency.

Miguel Marquez, thank you very much. We will get back to Miguel. You can see Miguel getting blown around there.

It comes in, in waves here. We get a lot of rain and then it eases off and then we get gusts of wind, it comes in and eases off, and then we have the sand blowing back and forth. And this is just going to happen for hours and hours, days and days. People are going to be inundated ere with water.

And there are rescues that are underway in the Carolinas. And witnessing some of those rescues out where it's happening is Brian Todd. And he's in Wilmington, North Carolina.

[13:15:01] Brian, what are you seeing? What's going on?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Don, this is a rescue attempt at this house right here, this brick house here, just west of downtown Wilmington. You see all the emergency personnel, the rescuers over here.

What we know is this. They've been at this, by the way, for hours at this house, since the overnight hours. They have pulled one person out of here to get medical care. They do not have any information on that person's condition. We are told by a police spokesperson that there are two other people in here who they are trying to rescue.

If we can get a shot of the tree that fell on this house, that is the issue here. This massive tree weighing several thousand pounds fell on this house during the storm. Two people are clearly in need of rescue here. We do not know the conditions of those people inside.

These rescuers here just brought some rescue dogs, some search and rescue dogs. Some -- what they call cribbing equipment that will enable them to cut through some elements, including the trees and even possibly the big of the house because one of the police officials just told me that part of the house has collapsed as well and they've got to remove bricks and other things to get to two people who are inside this house. So it's a very urgent situation. They've been trying to get at this for hours. They're huddling now over there, as you can see. They're trying to, you know, obviously kind of (INAUDIBLE) and figure out who's going to go in where. We have seen teams going in and out and in and out all morning and early afternoon. So this is a very involved rescue effort.

And as you can see, Don, it's being complicate by another torrential downpour. Another band of rain from this storm, which has not relented. I mean, you know, as you've seen myself and other -- our other reporters say throughout the day, it kind of comes and goes. There are lulls in it. There are times when there's not much wind and rain at all. But there are other times like this where the rain is coming down very hard and, of course, that complicates the effort here.

Another complication is simply getting to these houses. Over here, you can see some -- there's a downed tree over to my right. There have been downed trees and power lines here. All through these neighborhoods, and I talked to the fire chief, Buddy Martinette, a short time ago about this. He talked about just how difficult it is to get to so many of these people and how difficult it has been all night long. They have been trying to do it, you know, and -- but it's just been very difficult with all the downed trees and power lines and just navigating almost every street around here, Don, is very difficult.

We're going to hang here and see if they can get these two people out and what their conditions are.

LEMON: Yes, and, Brian, you summed it up really well, that's the problem here. That's what the difficulty of dealing with this storm. This particular storm, which has been different according to forecasters, than many of the hurricanes that come through, because it is just sort of sitting here spinning, whipping up wind and mostly water. You can see the dangerous situation that's happening where Brian and those rescues are going on. And the rescue workers, I mean, really they brought in people from 19 other states, according to the governor here. But, man, if it continues on like this and you're continuing -- the flooding continues, many more people will have to be rescued. And that's just going to draw resources thin.

We're going to continue our special coverage here as Florence in the Carolinas as it just came ashore this morning. But there's still a lot to this storm left. Our coverage continues right after this very quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:22:50] LEMON: I'm Don Lemon.

We continue on now with our special hurricane coverage, our coverage of Florence.

Listen, I'm in Myrtle Beach. Just to give you an idea, this is what they have along the beach here in certain sections. And it's a storm water drain.

As I got here yesterday, this was not nearly as big as it is today. I'm not sure. I don't think it's always covered. But it was a small storm drain. And now this thing is opening up, the water is running off and running out into the Atlantic Ocean.

That is the problem. If you didn't have this, you'd probably have more flooding. But, still, there is flooding going on in a number of areas.

There are also rescues happening in a number of different areas. You saw Brian Todd out just moments ago before the break. He saw some active rescues as well.

My colleague Ed Lavandera is in New Bern, where there is major flooding there. Also rescues underway.

Ed, what are you seeing?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. Well, if you'll bear with us, we can kind of paint a picture of where we're at. We're underneath the tarp in a -- in the -- in the back of a military-style high-water vehicle that's being driven by a retired Marine who's jumped into action here in New Bern, helping get to these neighborhoods that have been taking on water and getting people back into higher -- safety ground and getting them to shelters. So we're literally riding in the back of the truck underneath this tarp. That's why it's so dark in the picture that you're probably seeing on the screen here is rather eerie looking.

But we have been on a couple of runs with this retired Marine. He's just pulled seven people from a neighborhood and taken them to a shelter. The shelter where they were dropped off, Don, is interesting. We just spoke with one of the volunteers that told us -- it was a Red Cross volunteer who told us they were given about an hour to set up this shelter because of the influx of people that were being brought to them. And this is in the town of New Bern.

And after they set up that shelter, they've already taken in some 300 people into that shelter right now. So this is the scene, kind of the chaotic nature and the improvised nature of how all of this is unfolding this afternoon in New Bern as people are racing out into the streets, in the torrential downpours, to help people in the neighborhoods that have taken on so much water here over the course of the last 24 hours.

[13:25:02] There was one family on the truck here with us who said that they got three feet of water in their house, that the house started taking on -- ooh, that was a transformer exploding right as we were driving past there. Sorry about that. Their house had taken on about three feet of water. They started -- that was started at 5:00 in the afternoon yesterday. They rode out the rest of the storm overnight on the second floor of their home before being pulled out just a short while ago. So, you know, these are the scenes of the rescues and the recovery attempts that we're seeing all across this region here in North Carolina this afternoon, Don.

LEMON: Ed, you're doing great work out there, Ed. And here's the thing, people don't realize there are other dangers that happen. Like you talked about the transformer. You never know what's under the floodwaters. All kinds of things. You can be electrocuted from certain things. So you see the dangers. You saw it happening live there with Ed Lavandera. A transformer blowing right in the middle of his live shot and then people being rescued. I'm sure many of these folks, good intentions to stay with their -- with their property and with their family, but the best decision is always to get out. And there's still a window for some folks to get out. That window is pretty much closed.

We're going to have a new forecast for Hurricane Florence just moments away. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)