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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Plane Expensive; Interview With Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA); Trump Middle East Business Has More Than Tripled Since First Term; NY Times: Struggling Tiny Tech Company With Ties To China Secured Funding To Buy As Much As $300 Million Of $Trump Memecoin; Reuters: FBI Ordered To Scale Back White Collar Crime Investigations And Prioritize Immigration Enforcement; Erik And Lyle Menendez Resentenced To 50 Years To Life, Opening The Door For Possible Parole, Judge Rules; Cassie Ventura Detailed Alleged "Freak Offs" And Relationship With Combs During His Criminal Trial. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired May 13, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HARRY ENTEN CNN, CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Perhaps not surprisingly, swimming is up there. But of course, it reminded folks this whole thing of the time that we found out that there was a tapeworm inside of RFK, Jr., brain, and now people are thinking about it. I think perhaps they're wondering, when you go in a sewage like that could it possibly be that it gets another tapeworm in his head?
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Or is it the brain worm that makes --
ENTEN: That makes him do it.
BURNETT: -- makes a decision to go into the sewage.
ENTEN: I don't -- you got me, but explain it.
BURNETT: I don't know -- one of the things about him is I bet he would be happy to talk about that.
ENTEN: I think he would.
BURNETT: All right, thank you all. It's time for Anderson.
[20:00:30]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, breaking news in that free gift plane from Qatar, turns out it may cost three quarters of a billion dollars or more to retrofit it for the President.
Also tonight with President Trump in Saudi Arabia, a look at the growing Trump family business in the Middle East.
And later, day two, and stunning testimony in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs as his onetime girlfriend takes the stand about what she says he did to her.
Good evening, thanks for joining us. We begin tonight keeping them honest with breaking news about that
747, the Qatari Royal Family is giving to President Trump, which he will keep, he says, for his library after leaving office. We learned today that it could take two years and three quarters of a billion dollars or more to bring the plane up to Air Force One's standards. Now, that's according to a person familiar with the matter, $750 million or more to take it apart, check for surveillance devices, then refit it with the defenses, communications gear, and all the rest a commander-in-chief needs.
In short, all the gear already on the 747, he flew to Saudi Arabia for a day of pomp and ceremony, fighter escort included, and which he'll fly in just a few hours to Qatar for more of the same. His current 747, though aging, already has all of that, and so will the new 747 Boeing is building, which is years behind schedule, as the President has pointed out, but which the company now says it could deliver in the next two years. In other words, about the same delivery time as the one the President says he'd be stupid not to take.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person, say, no, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane. But it was -- I thought it was a great gesture.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, that notwithstanding the gift which Mr. Trump actually took a tour of back in February raises ethical, constitutional, foreign policy and national security concerns. Some or all of which a number of Republican lawmakers and other Trump loyalists are speaking about. Here's Senator Mike Rounds, who sits on the Intelligence Committee comparing the plane to a Trojan horse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): It seems to me that the Greeks actually had something like that happen one time, a long, long time ago, and somebody happened to have brought a golden horse inside of a community. This aircraft is beautiful, and it would be great if we could accept it but security concerns are also there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, Senator John Cornyn, also on the Intelligence Committee, said off camera, "I just know that our adversaries are pretty creative at planting all sorts of listening devices and other sensors. So, I'd be very concerned about that."
Senator Lisa Murkowski, also off camera, said, "When you get something of that value from a country, one typically thinks that there's something in it for the country that is offering it. So, I think there's certainly a lot of questions."
Senator Rand Paul is opposed on ethical grounds. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): There is a provision in the constitution that says you can't do this. I think it's not worth the appearance of impropriety, whether its improper or not. I don't think it's worth it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Other GOP lawmakers, though, are showing less firmness in their views on the matter. Senator Josh Hawley says he'd prefer a made in America plane, which, other than the interior done by a French design firm, it is.
Senator Thom Tillis seems to be approaching the question as the management consultant he once was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): ...and then you got to work through the cost benefit of it, right? I mean, we're in a world of DOGE, so we've got to figure out whether it's worth up-fitting or writing a check to selling it and writing a check to the Treasury and help us with our debt reduction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, Majority Leader John Thune, on the other hand, would not weigh in at all because it seems it's just not real to him yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I don't think there's anything official out there. This is a hypothetical, and I'm sure that if and when there is, it's no longer a hypothetical. I can assure you there will be plenty of scrutiny of whatever that arrangement might look like.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Senator Joni Ernst tried a version of the old -- I haven't seen the tweet answer, telling CNN's Manu Raju, I haven't heard specifics about the plane. I don't know anything about it. As for Democrats, there's widespread criticism, of course, with Senate Majority Leader Schumer saying he is placing a blanket hold on all Justice Department nominees until he receives answers on the plane.
However, that hold can be overcome by a simple majority, which Republicans now hold. And some Republican lawmakers, such as Montana Congressman and former Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. He's apparently not worried.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any ethics concerns or constitutional concerns?
REP. RYAN ZINKE (R-MT): Well, I'm glad Pam Bondi stepped in and looked at it from a legal point of view, which is helpful. Again, I'll go back, this must be one heck of a complaint of a plane -- because he, you know, he was on Air Force One, I've been on Air Force One. To me, it's a nice plane, evidently.
Remember, who President Trump is, he's a billionaire businessman from New York. He doesn't sleep in a sleeping bag overnight. You know, he's making deals and I think it's transactional to him. He looks at it and goes, hey, it's a better airplane. His comment was, you'd be stupid not to take it. I think that's from a business point of view, because he is a business guy. He goes out and, you know, he's making deals everywhere and he's mister deal maker.
[20:05:32]
COOPER: Well, keeping them honest, you may remember that, as Interior Secretary, he was found to have broken ethics rules while in office by the department's inspector general. The congressman's seal of approval or not? There is criticism as well, from some of the President's biggest backers in the right wing media world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN SHAPIRO, HOST, "THE SHAPIRO SHOW": Taking sacks of goodies from people who support Hamas, the Muslim brotherhood, Al Jazeera, all the rest. That's not America first. Like, please define America first in a way that says you should take sacks of cash from the Qatari royals who are behind Al Jazeera. It just isn't America first in any conceivable way.
So, back to the original question. Is this good for President Trump? Is it good for his agenda? Is it good for draining the swamp and getting things done? The answer is no, it isn't. It isn't. If you want President Trump to succeed, this kind of sleazy stuff needs to stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Laura Loomer, another fierce Trump loyalist says she cannot support the President on this, but his staunchest critic might just come from out of the past, namely from Donald Trump writing about President Obama in 2012. His tweet reads how many illegal foreign donations will Obama collect this final week? Another scandal ignored by the liberal media.
CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins starts us off tonight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Did the White House -- do you think, fully grasp how much controversy over this jet would follow the President on this trip?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, Anderson, it's not clear that they did, because ever since we started reporting on this over the weekend, as we were talking to officials getting ready to come here to Riyadh, they were defending this move and saying that they had been looking around for a plane. The President had been frustrated by delays by Boeing. And then obviously, once the reporting was public, that he did plan to accept this plane after touring it earlier this year. That's really when the scrutiny started to come in. But I should note
it's about 3:00 A.M. here in Riyadh. The President just posted on Truth Social defending taking this plane from the Qataris saying that only a fool would not take a free plane from them, suggesting that in the end it will actually end up saving American taxpayer's money by not paying for the plane. Of course, we do know our reporting has shown that this, even though it will go from the Ministry of Defense here, or the Ministry of Defense in Qatar to the Pentagon, it's still going to have to be modified to be usable by a President.
There's a lot of security modifications that have to go to that, including state of the art communication systems, air to air missiles to protect the President and those who are traveling with him. I mean, the list goes on and on, Anderson, of just how much has to go into that. But what we have been hearing from officials behind-the-scenes is just really simply defending this.
None of them that I've been speaking to have backed off this notion of taking this plane or question whether or not they should. They seem very intent that this is still the plan that they are going to do. And I think being on the ground here today, and I was at that Saudi investment forum earlier today for about ten hours, where the President was -- where he came in with the Saudi Crown Prince. They were looking at all the investment that the Crown Prince is making here in Saudi Arabia, what that's going to look like down to models that he had displayed around the room showing what this was going to look like, part of it is called Vision 2030 that the Saudi Crown Prince is trying to implement here, to the tune of a lot of money.
You can see why this is what appeals to President Trump. I mean, these are Gulf leaders who know how to speak his language. There's a lot of opulence here. They are flying around in their own massive planes. I mean, we were just looking around in the conference room as it was described earlier today. It does not look like your average conference room. There's these massive chandeliers.
It is all an incredibly opulent affair. And you can hear in the President's voice and the way he talks about the Saudi Crown Prince and their relationship, just how much he appreciates him and what he thinks of him.
And it's just such a stark contrast to when we were here four or five years ago, Anderson, and President Biden's aides were worried whether or not he should even shake the Crown Prince's hand. After that, U.S. intelligence found that that he ordered the death of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
And so, it really just speaks to how the President views this overall. And I think the plane is just a part of the lens to that, really -- Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, Kaitlan, thanks very much. A reminder you can join Kaitlan at the top of the hour for "The Source."
With me now, from Capitol Hill is Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, did you see the plane the President's accepted from
Qatar, the business deals his family has made overseas, the crypto ventures, all against this backdrop of the Mideast trip -- Is this the purest version of him that we are seeing lately?
REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): It is, I mean, this is just President Trump who thinks he's above the law, doesn't mind violating the law, even the U.S. constitution. And frankly, I'm sure were going to see a lot more corruption as this administration takes its course.
COOPER: The President has pitched this as a free airplane. He doesn't talk about the hundreds of millions it will cost taxpayers to retrofit it, if he chooses to do that. There really -- I mean, is there really any such thing as a free gift when it comes to presidents and Royal families and jumbo jets?
[20:10:22]
MOULTON: No, I mean, there's no free gift. It's hard to imagine that the Qataris aren't asking for something in return. And as you pointed out earlier, it's going to take a couple years to tear this plane apart because the Qataris would be crazy not to try to bug every nook and cranny of this thing. So the entire thing will have to be taken apart, reconstructed. That's going to cost a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of effort that, frankly, should be just directed to fixing the problems at Boeing and getting the planes that the President ordered back on track.
COOPER: Tonight, the House Speaker Mike Johnson, who used to be a constitutional lawyer, said that accepting the plane is not his decision, but he doesn't think it would violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. Does it give Republican lawmakers some political cover to shrug it off, then as not a big deal?
MOULTON: I have never heard Speaker Johnson agree with anything that Trump does or says, so that doesn't really tell us anything. But I think that most people can see that this clearly violates the Constitution, especially if Trump intends to take it for his own personal use after he leaves the presidency.
I mean, France gave us the Statue of Liberty, but Grover Cleveland didn't take it home with him or put it in his library when he was when he was not President anymore. And yet that's what Trump plans to do with his plane.
COOPER: Can Congress do anything other than complain about it?
MOULTON: Well, that's a good question. I mean, under Republican leadership, it doesn't look like much is going to happen, although it is significant how many Republicans already, not just in Congress, but in the commentary world, you know, people like Ben Shapiro, that lunatic, Laura Loomer that you mentioned have already spoken out against this.
What Congress should be doing is actually focusing some effort on fixing the problems at Boeing, because those are legitimate problems. I mean, I don't want the door flying off my plane any more than the
next guy when I'm on a flight. Those are things that need to be fixed and, you know, when United Airlines or American Airlines or Delta can't get its planes delivered on time, they're not just going to borrow jets from the Middle East, any more than an F-18 fighter pilot. F-18s are made by Boeing, you can just borrow a Middle Eastern jet.
So rather than just take this gift, let's focus our efforts on actually fixing the problem and get these American made planes produced on time.
COOPER: Even if one accepts that, okay, its fine for the President to have this plane or accept this gift. Does it make any sense that he would take it after he leaves office? And it would, I mean, allegedly, he's saying it would be it would go to the library. You know, take that for what it's worth.
MOULTON: I mean, this is just one of many ways, Anderson, that Trump and his family plan to profit off the presidency. You heard Ryan Zinke praise Trump as a businessman. You know, I think that if he had just taken the money his father gave him and invested it in an old mutual fund, he would have actually be wealthier today than he than he is now after all his failed ventures.
So, he is not a very successful businessman, but he does see the world in those very transactional terms. And that's why he started this cryptocurrency. That's why he's going around, you know, hosting dinners at the White House for people who buy his cryptocurrency.
This is just -- this administration is corrupt, full and through, because that's just the way Trump has always operated his entire life.
COOPER: Congressman Seth Moulton, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
With me, here is CNN's senior political and global affairs commentator, Rahm Emanuel. He served as White House chief-of-staff for President Obama and ambassador to Japan in the Biden administration.
If President Obama had accepted a plane like this, I mean, people's heads would have exploded.
RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: That's a yes, and everything else. And there'd also be hearings about it rather than that rather than a Congress, basically, that does a three monkey routine -- see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. And this is just one long litany of things that from an ethical standpoint.
COOPER: David Axelrod called it a bribe last night.
EMANUEL: Yes, look, I mean, my thing is, whether it's a cryptocurrency, whether it's the real estate deals. And I'll take one side note, since you brought David up. President Obama's first trip overseas was also Saudi Arabia. We went to the King's ranch for his horses. I walked into my room. I had my own cabinet sitting there on the bed. Ostrich briefcase, he opened it up -- massive amount of diamond earrings and sapphire necklaces and rings and bracelets.
COOPER: Wait a minute, so, there was an ostrich briefcase on your on the bed?
EMANUEL: Yes, and it was right there.
COOPER: Full of jewels?
EMANUEL: Yes, and I walked in. It was my room. There it is. Now, I took a picture, I sent it to my wife. I said not happening. And I walked it over to the State Department, it had a room and you had to present it, you had to open it up. So nothing was missing. And that was it. It was gone.
COOPER: Did other people get the --
EMANUEL: Yes, the chief-of-staff got one ranking. I don't know if Axelrod got -- I don't, I guarantee you I did not get the same thing. But they did it by title in the position. That's what they did. And you had to turn it in. Now, I slightly and I very much in duty field.
COOPER: Did you feel like a loser because it's a free gift?
EMANUEL: Well, let me say this, I have three kids, I'm a loser every day, okay, every hour of the day.
COOPER: Okay.
[20:15:27]
EMANUEL: That was not the reason I'm only a loser. But here's the thing. The idea that you work on Boeing, that should be done. But there's a piece of legislation, bipartisan support, congressmen cannot trade stocks, et cetera. Take that legislation. Create a universal standard both for the executive branch, the legislative branch and the Supreme Court justice and the rest of the justices, an ethics standard that cleans the swamp in Washington and deals not just with this plane. The plane is what's caught people's attention.
The moniker of this White House is cash and carry. That's what's going on here. When you give a donation, you get a break on a tariff. When you've got Bitcoin, you've got fundraisers, I worked -- I mean, I've never seen anything like this. And I have a very high standard. I'm from Chicago. I mean an older man would be embarrassed by this.
So, my whole thing is you have problems in Congress. The Senator from New Jersey, Menendez, Democrat, just went to jail.
COOPER: You're saying across the board --
EMANUEL: Across the board, you have Supreme Court justices taking planes from people presenting cases in front of them. You have a President of the United States. So, I would have a single piece of legislation doesn't narrow just on the plane. And from a foreign leader, clean the whole thing up, make a standard that's universal. We have higher ethical standards and I'll give you an example. When I was ambassador in Japan, you'd get a gift for 25 bucks. You had
to fill out an ethics form. You had to sign it. You had a Croatian sparkling wine, cookies or whatever, anything that went above 25 bucks. This is three quarters of a billion dollars.
Now, it's caught people's attention. Use it to the public good. Washington has no confidence. Both parties have been involved. All three branches of government, just be honest with the public. Take the bipartisan legislation that exists. Add pieces on the executive and judicial one standard for everybody that works for the public.
COOPER: But from a National Security standpoint, not just on the plane, but the crypto part of this, you know, going to the highest bidder gets access to the President at a dinner. The really high bidders get a tour of the White House.
EMANUEL: Yes, and you also had small time investors who lost money.
COOPER: You have this is the majority, like you're talking like 700,000 of them.
EMANUEL: Yes, when people wrote corrupt crony capitalism, this puts that to shame.
COOPER: Right, according to "The New York Times," I believe it was hundreds of thousands lost, about 50 some odd, people --
EMANUEL: People walked out, yes, made real money. And they're all friends of his. And they're all close investors of him. The wealthy made off like boatloads and the retail investors and mom-and-pop. And that's why the Republicans, they are they are in a bad place. They don't want to point the finger at the President, yet their publics are going to get more angry.
Now, in 2006, when I ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, we did a monitor the first time, a web page, the House that Tom DeLay built, and it was about all the corruption that was going on. Bob Cunningham, or rather, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, et cetera and it didn't hit at first, but it built as a crescendo to 2006.
The President refusing to give in, is a gift from a political standpoint and he's not going to give in. He's going to want to take this plane, and it should be used to finally fully drain the swamp and force the Republicans to pick between their constituents' anger or their loyalty to Donald Trump, and put him on the spot and put the entire Congress on the spot because it's a bipartisan problem.
COOPER: You're talking Democrats and Republicans.
EMANUEL: There's no doubt and I want to remind everybody, Clarence Thomas and other members of the Supreme Court have flaunted the rules as it relates to Supreme Court and people presenting and then taking gifts. So, clean up the whole place, all three branches, they're co- equal in corruption.
COOPER: Rahm Emanuel, thanks very much, appreciate it. Coming up next, a closer look at the Trump family's growing business
interests in the region the President is visiting right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP'S SON AND VICE PRESIDENT OF TRUMP ORGANIZATION: On behalf of my family, we love Dubai. We love the Gulf. We love the people. We have so many incredible friends here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Later, new reporting on a company with ties to China. They just announced it is spending nearly a third of $1 billion on Trump meme coins. More on that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:23:50]
COOPER: With President Trump on a four-day visit this week through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, his family's expanding business interests in the Middle East are facing fresh scrutiny.
The Trump Organization has plans for luxury skyscrapers, golf courses and a deal involving cryptocurrency in the region. CNN's senior investigative correspondent Kyung Lah has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A close look at the Trump organization portfolio finds the Trump family's business ties to the Middle East have more than tripled since his first term in office, according to a CNN tally.
Even after Trump retook office, the Trump brand has been out promoting flashy new construction projects in countries President Trump is visiting this week.
E. TRUMP: On behalf of my family. We love Dubai. We love the Gulf.
LAH (voice over): In Dubai, a new Trump International Hotel and Tower; in Saudi Arabia, a new Trump Tower in Jeddah and two projects in Riyadh.
E. TRUMP: We are going to redefine luxury anywhere in the world. His sons sealing deals for projects around the Middle East.
PRESENTER: The project, unlike any other.
LAH (voice over): In Oman. Don Jr. and Eric Trump met with the Crown Prince last summer about a Trump branded resort being developed with the nation's tourism arm.
PRESENTER: Trump International Hotel Oman.
[20:25:08] LAH (voice over): In Qatar, a Trump branded golf club announced just
last month, involves a firm that's headed by a Qatari official and backed by Qatar's Sovereign Wealth Fund.
A Trump organization spokesperson says the company does not conduct business with any government entity, adding the Trump branding agreement on the Qatar project is with a builder, a separate company.
Eric Trump, is currently in charge of Trump org decisions and has promised to keep them separate from his father. But the President still owns the company, so he stands to make money on any successful deal, whether he's involved or not. The Trump organization has said Trump would put his assets in a trust managed by his children.
[20:25:49]
E. TRUMP: We'll make sure that there's no conflicts and we will have those signed off by the best legal teams in the world.
LAH (voice over): During his first term, Trump's company pledged to make no new deals overseas, but not this time around. And it's not just Trump's real estate deals. An Abu Dhabi backed fund is using a cryptocurrency from the Trump family crypto firm World Liberty Financial for a $2 billion investment.
Critics say the result the public can't separate Trump the President from Trump the businessman.
NOAH BOOKBINDER, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON: Is he making the decision from the basis of what's in the United States' interest? What's in the American people's interest, or is he looking to benefit his business partners, his own business, his own bottom line?
LAH (voice over): The White House rejects those questions.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.
LAH (voice over): Trump says his business relationships aren't just for the billionaires, but for Americans.
D. TRUMP: It's an honor to have such a great investor investing in our country.
LAH (voice over): One publicized early win came from this Emirati billionaire, Hussain Sajwani. He built a Trump branded golf course and villas in Dubai years ago, and spent New Year's Eve at Mar-a-Lago. He's promising to invest $20 billion in U.S. data centers. I sat down with Sajwani earlier this year.
LAH (on camera): The election of Mr. Trump impacted the decision to invest.
HUSSAIN SAJWANI, CHAIRMAN, DAMAC PROPERTIES: Yes, impacted from the point of view that we think it's going to be more pro-business. And if that happens, of course we'll invest.
LAH (on camera): How important is the Trump name to your business, to your brand?
SAJWANI: It's very important, those villas we have done. We made money out of them, you know, and customers are happy and we are happy and he's happy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And Kyung Lah joins me now. Can you remind people the claims that President Trump made heading into this trip?
LAH: Well, he's summing it into one word, Anderson -- jobs. Now, President Trump says that he will bring in more investment into the United States by traveling into the Middle East as Donald Trump, because he is so well known, because of those relationships.
He is estimating that just based on the meetings that he is having this week, that he will be able to create two million jobs without getting specific as to how he's coming up with that number -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right. Kyung Lah, thanks very much.
Now, some breaking news, according to a new report in "The New York Times," there's a new connection to the President's cryptocurrency plans. Here's the headline: Tiny company with China ties announces big purchase of Trump cryptocurrency. It's a fascinating story. "The Times" reports that, "The firm which produces content for TikTok, recorded no revenue last year, but it announced this week that a mysterious stock sale would allow it to invest heavily in the Trump and the Trump Meme coin."
David Yaffe-Bellany shares the byline on the story. He joins me now. This story is amazing to me. Just lay it out. This company ties to China announcing this purchase of Trump cryptocurrency.
DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY, REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": So, this is a tiny company called GD Culture Group, that's something a company I certainly hadn't heard of until the last couple of days. But it announced completely out of nowhere that it has raised up to $300 million, and it's going to spend it on Bitcoin and on the Trump meme coin.
And how exactly it's raising this money isn't totally clear. It's brokered some sort of deal with a business entity in the British Virgin Islands, which is buying stock from this again, this tiny technology firm, and it's going to use those proceeds to buy the Trump meme coin.
COOPER: And is it clear why they're doing this? I mean, have they said why they're --
YAFFE-BELLANY: I mean, what they publicly said is that they just want to kind of embrace innovation and be part of the crypto industry. But, you know, you look into the details of how this company operates, and it looks like it has a clear incentive to curry favor with the administration, like many of the other kind of foreign based players who've gotten involved in the Trump crypto ventures.
It's business is pretty much entirely built on TikTok. And, of course, the fate of TikTok in the U.S. rests largely with the President.
COOPER: And has this organization, this company, the White House or the Trump organization. Have they responded to your reporting?
YAFFE-BELLANY: They didn't respond today when we approached them about this particular story. But as we've covered this topic over the last few weeks, the Trump administration and the Trump organization have said to us repeatedly that there are no conflicts of interests and that there's nothing improper about what the President's doing in the crypto world.
COOPER: And did this company put this out there that they had bought these Meme coins?
YAFFE-BELLANY: Yes, this was a public announcement that the company made on Monday.
COOPER: So, they wanted attention on -- they wanted somebody to pay attention to.
YAFFE-BELLANY: And this fits a pattern. I mean, a lot of companies, a lot of really small companies have seen an opportunity here to kind of latch themselves to the Trump business and, you know, promote themselves that way. And so the stock of this company went up something like 12 percent on Monday after this announcement. It later went back down. But you can see a kind of concrete sort of benefit to the company just from announcing this.
[20:30:44]
COOPER: It's -- and this company has no revenue?
YAFFE-BELLANY: This company has no revenue. It only has eight employees. It has no real public footprint. Honestly, our conversation about it tonight is probably the most publicity it's ever gotten.
COOPER: Wow. It's just -- it's a fascinating story, it's The New York Times.
David Yaffe-Bellany, thank you so much.
YAFFE-BELLANY: Thanks.
COOPER: Really appreciate it.
New reporting on a wholesale change of focus of the FBI, the crimes they'll now prioritize, and the ones they no longer will.
And later, Sean "Diddy" Combs' ex-girlfriend takes a stand in his racketeering and sex trafficking trial. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:35:54]
COOPER: A new focus reportedly for the FBI across America ordered by the Trump administration. According to Reuters, FBI agents have been told to scale back investigating white collar cases and prioritize immigration enforcement. Now it's important to note that the FBI is typically not focused on that issue and largely leaves that to Department of Homeland Security.
Joining me with his perspective, Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who's now CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst. What is your reaction to this? What do you think the reaction of white collar criminals is?
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, my reaction to the white collar criminals reaction are going to be quite different. Mine, my first reaction, Anderson, is this is really bad news because there is no one else who does this work. It's unrealistic to expect that your state and local police and local prosecutors will be able to pick up this wealth of knowledge and activity that the FBI, focuses on white collar crime every year.
You've got hundreds of agents around the country who do this work. They are very large, very complicated investigations that require intensive search warrants based on federal law. They're document intensive cases. They're data intensive cases. And if the FBI is not doing it, neither is anyone else.
That is going to provoke a very different reaction among white collar criminals who will think green light, game on. The Fox is no longer watching the hen house. It's time to get back to stealing people's savings, taking advantage of our seniors or things like telemarketing fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, perpetuating crimes of all sorts against Americans in every community. And, apparently, that activity will now go unpoliced.
COOPER: And we've also seen, you know, regulator -- you know, regulations against, you know, or any kind of regulation regarding crypto stuff. We've seen that -- attempts at that being lessened, stuff going on at the IRS as well. This is part of a piece.
MCCABE: It absolutely is. I mean, we had an executive order signed by President Trump basically telling the Justice Department to no longer prosecute the people investigated for businesses, investigated for bribing foreign companies.
So what sort of message does that send to all of our American businesses that are trying to compete in foreign markets? Again, game on. It's OK to start bribing. It's OK to start engaging in the sort of disreputable practices that other countries -- that businesses in other countries have done for years and that we have always held ourselves up as better, fairer, more even handed competitors in the marketplace. That's something that I believe makes our economy stronger, makes our reputation around the world stronger. But this administration has walked away from enforcing those laws in a in a very concerning way, but one that sends a very clear message to our business community.
COOPER: Yes. Andrew McCabe, thanks very much.
Up next, more breaking news. What a California judge has now ruled just moments ago in the case of Erik and Lyle Menendez who were doing life without parole and seeking their freedom decades after they were convicted of murdering their parents in 1989.
And day two of testimony in Sean "Diddy" Combs' criminal trial, the prosecution's star witness, the ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, takes the stand. She is the one in that hotel surveillance video obtained by CNN.
Our Laura Coates joins us. She was in the courtroom.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: When she passed Sean "Diddy" Combs, the man she says was her controller, her abuser, and the prosecution says a racketeer and sex trafficker. They did not even look at each other, like ships passing in the night.
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[20:44:22]
COOPER: There's breaking news tonight in a notorious murder from more than three decades ago. Lyle and Erik Menendez are serving life without parole for killing their parents in 1989. Today, after seven months of hearings, court filings, and publicity, they were in a court for a resentencing hearing. And just moments ago, the judge made a ruling.
CNN's Nick Watt in Los Angeles joins us now with more. So the brother's lawyer is calling this a great day. What happened?
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lyle and Erik Menendez Anderson are now eligible for parole, and their lawyer, Mark Geragos, just said over here that he hopes they will be released from prison sometime within 2025. They have been behind bars for thirty five years.
[20:45:00]
Now this resentencing hearing, we heard from their family members. A cousin said the family has universally forgiven the brothers. We heard from a fellow inmate who was counseled, he said, by the brothers behind bars. We heard a lot about the work that they have done behind bars to rehabilitate themselves and to try to help others. And the judge at the end before he made his ruling, he said a couple of things. He said, one, I have never received letters like this from correctional officers petitioning for prisoners to be released. That was huge. He said that he is going to resentence them to 50 years to life, so it's now up to the parole board and the governor as to whether they actually get out.
Now there's a clemency hearing scheduled for June 13th to address this matter. So their lawyers hope that they'll be out by the end of the year is not an impossible one. And we also heard from the brothers themselves speaking via video link from where they're being held down near San Diego.
Lyle spoke for us, the older brother, was very emotional. Both of them talked about what they did was unforgivable. They apologized again to their family for the trauma that they put them through. They said that they made terrible choices. They make no excuses for those choices, and they apologized for lying to investigators throughout the years.
The D.A.'s office said, listen, they're not ready for parole. They're not ready to be let out because they haven't fully accepted insight into their crime, but the judge disagreed.
Now the judge could have said, you are sentenced to time already served. They could have walked out of jail today. That did not happen. The judge has now pushed this to the parole board and to the governor because the judge said, listen, I cannot say that they will commit another crime.
I don't think that there is a danger they're going to commit another crime, so I am going to resentence them to life with the possibility of parole.
COOPER: Right.
WATT: And now it's up to the governor and the parole board to decide if and when they get out.
COOPER: Yes.
WATT: Anderson?
COOPER: Incredible development. Nick Watt, thank you.
Joining us to talk about it and the testimony in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial here in New York, CNN Anchor and Chief Legal Strategist Laura Coates, also Criminal Defense Attorney Arthur Aidala. Arthur, surprise to you?
ARTHUR AIDALA, NEW YORK CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A little bit but, I mean, it's a huge, huge, event. I mean, it really is. Mark Geragos is not minimizing it. Basically, what happened, though, is the last district attorney was the one who put in this motion when he was running for re-election, and then he lost. And the new district attorney came in and tried to pull back the motion. He put in the D.A.'s office originally put in the motion for resentencing. And then when they the new D.A. said, no, no, no. They shouldn't be resentenced. They should stay in jail. The judge said, nope, too late.
And the D.A.'s office is still going to fight it. But I know, Mr. Geragos said, they're really hoping the governor just gives them clemency at this point after this judge's ruling, and they could be out in, I think, what he said, June 3rd. I mean, they could be out in six weeks. And, obviously, the judge took this into tremendous consideration.
He heard from a lot of witnesses and he's confident that they've -- you know, 35 years. You know how different life is going to be for them when they get out?
COOPER: Yes.
AIDALA: Like, the world they left 1989 --
COOPER: Yes.
AIDALA: -- to the world they're going to come into.
COOPER: Laura, you made the point. A lot of people don't get this kind of attention, this kind of legal help.
COATES: They do not. And that's not to take away from an injustice if it has occurred in this matter. They should not get the benefit of having that reviewed. But this could open in many ways, and that's why the D.A., the new D.A. was a little bit skeptical because if the idea behind it in part was that they failed to introduce evidence to support that they had been abused and that was not consistently led or raised in the testimony of the trial, there's a lot of people in prison right now who talk about a trauma that they experienced that may have contributed to their action in the real world.
And so that's going to be an interesting how they address it. Remember, we had Kim Kardashian was supporting them. You had movies made about them. These are very well known figures, and I wonder how it will translate for the average person who is behind bars as well.
COOPER: You were in the courtroom today at the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial in New York. What was that like?
COATES: That was unbelievable to finally see the person, Cassie Ventura, who we've all been waiting to hear from. The woman who was the linchpin of the prosecution's case. What was she saying?
COOPER: She's the one on the video that --
COATES: She is that one on the video who was beaten in the surveillance video that CNN obtained. She was in a more than decade long relationship with him, and the prosecution needs her testimony to bridge the gap between the Sean "Diddy" Combs the public knew, and the one the prosecutors want you to see, a racketeer, somebody who's a sex trafficker involved in prostitution.
Hearing her speak after so many years of watching her as almost a fixture besides Sean "Diddy" Combs speaking almost in a very calm voice, very matter of fact, describing violence. And also her love for him and her sense of being a people pleaser to allow this to continue even when she said she did not want to and drug use.
[20:50:00]
COOPER: I just want to play that video because, I mean, people should see this because it's the backstory for her testimony today. This was in the hotel. This is her being assaulted by Mr. Combs. And for the first time today, she explained what happened in her own words.
COATES: She did. And remember in defense opening statement, they suggested that he was not dragging her back to that room and beating her violently for any other reason than he wanted to retain and get her phone -- his phone back from her. Well, today, she told a very different story. She said, actually, there was essentially a freak off that was happening.
These days long, hours long, drug fueled, sexual, non-consensual events, and he was taking her back to that room that he had struck her before this video occurred, and she was trying to get away. So you're seeing finally what she has to say about what happened in that event.
But this is only a part of the conversation. They have to prove racketeering. They have to prove sex trafficking and also prostitution. This is no cakewalk for the prosecution, but this is going to start the ball rolling.
COOPER: Arthur, during the opening statements yesterday, the defense called the hotel security video indefensible, which --
AIDALA: Because you have --
COOPER: What else are they going to do?
AIDALA: Exactly, yes. You have to own it, and you have to own the domestic violence, but you have to make clear, and they did in the opening statement. You know, we're just talking about Mark Geragos. This was his daughter who did the opening statement.
You know, she said that he's not charged with domestic violence. He's clearly guilty of domestic violence, but that's in another courthouse down the street.
COOPER: And by the way, it's incredible that her father has the Menendez trial in Los Angeles.
AIDALA: Yes. Right. That's what I'm saying. And I was texting with Mark, congratulating him in. It's a wonderful situation for a father and a daughter in the same legal field.
Just to give you some insight, though, into the drama of the courtroom and the way defense attorneys think, the defense attorneys asked that she'd be put on the stand before the jury comes in because she's very pregnant. And, you know, there's already so much prejudice against him because of that video.
I mean, that video is horrible. It's so hard to get over. And now you have a pregnant woman talking about being beaten and talking about, you know, men abusing her. The flip side, what you're going to see in cross examination, Anderson, is so you're with him for 10 years, correct?
And one of the times you said he beat you was in January of 2015, correct? I want to show you this photograph. Who's in that photograph? I am. Who else is in that photograph? Sean is. And where are you on that day? We're on the top of the Empire State Building. What day was that?
Oh, the Empire State Building is red. Oh, it's Valentine's Day. And isn't it true that Sean paid $250,000 to close the Empire State Building so the two of you could make love on the top of the Empire State Building and then go for dinner? Yes.
And you did that voluntarily, correct? And you did that lovingly, correct? Just like you've done everything with Sean voluntarily and lovingly, correct?
COOPER: So what would the response to that? And also just -- they didn't -- did they make eye contact in the courtroom?
COATES: They did not. I was waiting to see whether these two people who had not been in touch for over six years ever since the death of the mother of four of Sean "Diddy" Combs' children, Kim Porter, died tragically of pneumonia. They were like ships passing in the night.
She had -- she did not look towards him. He was staring in her direction, but as she passed by him, there was no eye contact made. I will say that he was much more fidgety this time around. He was leaning away from the desk. He was passing notes to his attorney.
This was the witness that is going to strike the biggest chord with him. The jurors are going to be watching. But, you know, in terms of the -- what you're going to say in the cross examination, they're going to go after, and they're going to go after with everything they have because they know how significant this witness is.
The prosecution has to make their case that suggests that she was by force, by fraud, or intimidation, not giving consent.
COOPER: Yes. Laura Coates, Arthur Aidala, thanks so much.
Reminder not to miss a special edition, "Laura Coates Live" at 11:00 p.m. Eastern. More developments from today in court and a look at what's expected when testimony resumes tomorrow.
Next on 360, news on a familiar note, President Trump's speech today concluding with a surprising tune for an event in Saudi Arabia. We'll explain ahead.
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[20:58:32]
COOPER: Before we go, an interesting moment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia after President Trump was finished with his Middle East policy speech, which we covered at the top of the broadcast. What you might have missed, however, is what happened after.
The music that someone there chose to play as the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, made his way to the stage to shake hands with the president.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: That is, of course, YMCA by the Village People, which was from their third studio album, Cruisin'. It was for many years thought to be something of a gay anthem, but, of course, President Trump has it on his playlist at rallies. And Victor Willis, who sang and co-wrote the song, has in recent years made it clear it has nothing to do with gay people staying at the YMCA.
Which is good because in Saudi Arabia, according to human dignity trust, same sex activity is criminalized, and the maximum penalty under Sharia law is death. But, again, this was not a gay song.
I remember finally when I first heard YMCA, I was 13, and the Village People appeared in the movie, "Can't Stop the Music" with Bruce Jenner and Valerie Perrine. If you've never seen it, here's a scene I remember well as a teenager.
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(MUSIC)
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COOPER: I don't know why I found that scene so compelling as a teenager, but it's good to know it's not at all gay.
That's it for us. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
