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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Determined To See Gaetz Confirmed As Attorney General; Biden Allows Ukraine To Use Long-Range U.S. Weapons in Russia; Trump's Influence Already Causing Drama Among G20 Leaders; New Testimony In Trial Of Man Accused In Nursing Student's Death; Prosecution: Diddy Called Witnesses From Prison. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 18, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: On the bright side, literally summers in this remote arctic enclave are filled with light.

[16:00:06]

They actually have 83 straight days of full sun between May and August. I don't know, Jim. That might be too much of a good thing.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Then you got to pay for it. You got to pay for it later. Sixty-six days of dark. I mean, if you watch it. We were talking about it. A "True Detective: Night Country", I mean, there's some spooky stuff.

KEILAR: Yeah. If you're afraid of the dark, it's rough.

THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts right now.

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We are standing by for more Trump admin name drops.

THE LEAD starts right now.

President-elect Donald Trump all in, according to a source, on Matt Gaetz, his controversial pick for U.S. attorney general. But what about that alleged sexual encounter with a 17-year-old girl which Gaetz denies?

Today, some unbelievable details in a related civil lawsuit. While members of the House Ethics Committee debate if they're going to make the report about the former congressman public.

And the president-elect backing up CNN reporting confirming he is prepared to declare a national emergency to carry out mass deportations. What powers would that give him? How is this going to work?

And for months, Ukraine has wanted to fire long range missiles into Russia. Finally, President Biden is letting that happen. CNN's in Moscow with how Putin is responding

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Whom will President-elect Donald Trump tap next to fill out the rest of his second administration? We're in prime time for those announcements.

In the meantime, sources say Trump is insistent on seeing his U.S. Attorney General Pick Matt Gaetz confirmed by the U.S. Senate despite Republican senators reportedly balking mainly because of those allegations of sexual misconduct.

Sources telling CNN that the house ethics committee is now expected to meet Wednesday as the committee decides whether to release its final report on Gaetz. Meanwhile, we're learning more about what might look like.

Mr. Trump confirming this morning he's prepared to declare a national emergency. This would unlock Pentagon resources to deport undocumented immigrants on a large scale.

Let's begin our coverage today with CNN's Kristen Holmes, who's in West Palm Bach, Florida.

Kristen, is the Trump team worried at all about getting Matt Gaetz confirmed as U.S. attorney general, given that there is some, you know, let's call it background pushback from Republican senators.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake, it depends on who you talk to. I mean, of course, there are people concerned about what could potentially be in this ethics report. There are some who told me just over the weekend that depending on how bad it was, it could potentially shift the way that Donald Trump thinks. But the majority of people that I have spoken to senior advisers, allies say that Donald Trump is all in. He has expressed to the people around him that he wants more than anything, Matt Gaetz to be confirmed. And part of this is because he personally chose him to be attorney general.

And as we have reported since, even before he actually named Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump believes this is the most important position in his cabinet, really, in his entire administration. He believes that this is the person who is going to help him gut the, quote, unquote, deep state and revamp the justice department what he sees in Matt Gaetz is something he didn't see in a number of people that he had interviewed for this position, which is essentially a bomb thrower.

He wants him to be the face of the justice department. The only way that Donald Trump believes he can be the face of the justice department is as attorney general. And so, he has told everyone around all last week, that he is 100 percent behind Matt Gaetz and that what he wants the most out of any of his picks is for Gaetz to be confirmed.

TAPPER: What other positions is the Trump transition team looking closely at filling right now? HOLMES: Well, we know that there's still a number that are out there, Labor, Education, but the one that they're really focused on and have been since last week is Treasury. The thing that was so interesting to me was I was told earlier in the day on Friday that we should expect an announcement for secretary of treasury multiple people. And then it never came. And we're told that was because of a lot of the infighting that was going on.

We know that Donald Trump, at one point, about two weeks ago, had really settled on a hedge fund manager, Scott Bessent. After that, Howard Lutnick, the head of the transition team, got involved. It became kind of a knife fight with Howard Lutnick, I'm told, as the primary knife wielder, and because of that, Donald Trump has expanded the circle. He met with two new people today.

Kevin Warsh as well as Marc Rowan, two people who have advised him in the past, two people who came down to Mar-a-Lago as the search continues. So, unclear, if we're going to get treasury tonight or early this week, because that was one that they were trying to bang out as quickly as possible, since so many of Donald Trumps policies rely on the economy and what he's going to do involving the economy.

[16:05:04]

TAPPER: All right, Kristen Holmes, West Palm Beach, thanks so much.

Everyone in Washington wants to know what is in that House Ethics Committee report about former Congressman Matt Gaetz.

So let's go to CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid. She's got reporting on a different but related Florida court fight, that's giving us some insight into what might be in the ethics report.

Paula, what's this court fight about?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's interesting about this civil case down in Florida, Jake, is we know that the House Ethics Committee has studied it very closely. And in some instances used it as sort of a roadmap in terms of who to talk to, what evidence to pursue. Now, this civil litigation was brought by an associate of Gaetz, whose name came up a lot during the criminal investigation.

This associate sued another friend named Joel Greenberg, who's currently in jail. Some members of his family, but he also sued the woman, who was just 17, when she allegedly had sex with the former congressman. Now, the problem is that this lawsuit created a whole new record of evidence in the discovery process that you go through during civil litigation, including a deposition with that underage girl, now that is under seal as well as the depositions of other women in this case.

But the lawyers who represented some of the people who were sued in this case, they used portions of her sealed deposition. So portions of the underage girls' deposition in their questions to the man who brought this case, which are all public records. So this was their way of maybe getting a little bit of her story out.

So, for example, in one of their questions, they asked, quote, she said that you observed her and Matt Gaetz having sex on the air hockey table. Now it's important to note that the person who was asked this denied having seen that. But this is the kind of evidence that the committee has because they have much of what was gathered in this civil litigation.

Now separately, a lawyer who represents a woman who talked to the ethics committee says that his client told the ethics committee that she saw Gaetz having sex with a minor. They are using that information to call for the report to be released.

And, of course, Gaetz is no longer a congressman. He was investigated by the Justice Department for these allegations about having sex with a minor, as well as other alleged crimes, and he was not charged. He has always denied wrongdoing, and in a statement to CNN, his representative said, quote, these allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress.

This false smear that follows a three year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.

But this just gives you a little flavor of what they've gathered in that lengthy investigation.

TAPPER: All right, Paula Reid, thanks so much.

Let's bring in our panel.

Jamie Gangel, let me start with you. A source told you that, quote, Trump wants Gaetz confirmed 100 percent. He is not going to back off. He's all in unquote.

So how are Republican senators dealing with this?

I -- you know, when people ask me if Gaetz is going to be confirmed, I say name for me four Republican senators who will defy Donald Trump on this just give me those four names and maybe Lisa Murkowski? That's all I got.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Maybe Susan Collins maybe.

But look, this is John Thune's first test as majority leader, and he has got to decide whether this is about loyalty or advice and consent, because the rest of the Republican senators will take a signal from them. I think what's most important here, though is that Donald Trump feels emboldened and --

TAPPER: I might say he feels invincible honestly.

GANGEL: The sources we've spoken to have said to him, you know, is this a sacrificial lamb? Did you put Matt Gaetz out here so that you could get the other ones in?

TAPPER: No, no, no. GANGEL: No, he is quote all in.

TAPPER: Yeah.

Marc, this is a controversial pick. What's your take on it?

MARC LOTTER, CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, AMERICA FIRST POLICY INSTITUTE: Well, your -- I do believe the president is all in. I have a feeling of Washington has its way, the ethics committee will probably not release the report, and it will still find its way into someone's hands. And become public.

I was talking the other day with another political operative who said, look, regardless of who controls the White House, who controls the Senate, there is always a sacrifice when the Senate exerts its power and reminds the president that there in the Constitution for advise and consent. It will be interesting to see if it's Matt Gaetz or not.

TAPPER: What do you think of this all?

NAYYERA HAQ, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CABINET AFFAIRS, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: I think that there's not a good record in this country of listening to women when it comes to testifying before the Senate for confirmation hearings, like the stories can get told whether they're leaked or told in person. But, you know, the Senate average age of 61 and very heavily white and male, I think the preponderance of evidence is that a sex scandal is not enough to derail a nominee.

And whether or not we like that as a society, that is not how politics has been working for a long time. And so, Matt Gaetz very likely could be the next attorney general, despite the fact that you have senators whose job it is to make sure that the person who gets in that position can withstand legal scrutiny himself.

[16:10:06]

TAPPER: And by the way, I just as an observer, the -- ever since the Anita Hill hearing, it's very clear there isn't a good process for this. Whatever you think about Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, whatever, there isn't good due process. And we learned -- we saw that with Kavanaugh. It's still not a good process. It all get's rushed.

Jamie, "Axios" has reporting of this big blowup at Mar-a-Lago between Elon Musk and Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn, a top adviser. Musk has questioned whether Epshteyn has too much influence in whom Trump is selecting for these posts, and "Axios" reports, quote, Epshteyn responded by telling Musk that he didn't know what he was talking about. What do you know about this? Is this a surprise to you?

GANGEL: I was not in the meeting, so I don't know. But look, this is not a surprise. What do we know about the world of Donald Trump? Chaos, backstabbing, drama, you know, this was bound to happen.

What's -- what's interesting here is Epshteyn is someone who really has survived and remained in the inner circle. That said, you know Donald Trump is enamored with billionaires, as we know this is the ultimate billionaire.

LOTTER: One thing I would say I was at Mar-a-Lago last Thursday, and while I may not have been there at the dinner where this allegedly happened you know how word travels in Mar-a-Lago.

TAPPER: Sure.

LOTTER: So if this had happened, I would have heard about it pretty quickly. And I've also talked to Boris. I've known him for years. He says absolutely did not happen.

TAPPER: Did not happen.

Nayyera?

HAQ: Yeah, I mean, once again, it's not about a certain set of qualifications that can withstand any legal scrutiny or social scrutiny. Its about who works for Donald Trump, what Donald Trump, in this feeling of invincible is going to reward and many of these initial appointments are deep loyalists. They are not people who are practitioners experts, right. In fact, this is an anti expert anti- institution administration that is shaping up. And for those who care more about governing than they do about campaigning and winning, but the actual work of serving the people, there's a lot of cause for concern on what the country will look like after all the whole year.

TAPPER: All right. Thanks to our panel. We're going to have you back.

When Trump takes office in 63 days, Russia's war with Ukraine could look much different because of a decision made by President Biden. Why allow Ukraine to use long range missiles into Russia now?

We're on the ground in Moscow. We'll bring you that story.

Plus, a new dispute over evidence in the case of Sean "Diddy" Combs and how prosecutors got their hands on personal notes from the former music mogul's jail cell.

Stay with us.

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TAPPER: Our world lead takes us to Ukraine now, where Russia unleashed its biggest missile barrage in months.

Dozens killed and injured in southern and northern Ukrainian cities Sunday and today, according to the country's emergency services. These attacks come right after President Biden announced that the United States will finally fulfill Ukraine's long standing request to use American long range missiles ATACMS, so that they can strike deep inside Russia.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen's in Moscow for us, where Russian officials warn any use of these ATACMS, these long range missiles, will mean the U.S. is directly involved in this nearly three-year long conflict.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Moscow is now up in arms over the Biden administration's decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S. supplied missiles capable of striking deep into Russia.

State TV in breaking news mode, blasting the White House.

The Biden administration has decided to continue the war which Trump promised to end, the host says.

The Kremlin spokesman accusing Washington of, quote, pouring oil on the fire of the Ukraine war and Russian President Vladimir Putin for weeks warning that allowing Ukraine to hit deep inside Russia with Western weapons would be a massive escalation.

This will mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries are at war with Russia, Putin said in September.

Sources within the Biden decision tells CNN the decision was made to help Ukraine hold on to territory in Russia's Kursk region, where Kyiv says it's up against nearly 50,000 Russians but also troops from North Korea.

Ukraine's president bullish.

Hits are not made with words, he said. Such things don't need announcements. Missiles will speak for themselves.

But Kyiv's forces are rapidly losing ground on most front lines, especially in the eastern Pokrovsk region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visiting the key battleground on Monday to try and shore up morale amongst his forces. This weekend, even Zelenskyy saying the war must end soon and he believes the incoming Trump administration will try and get it done quickly.

The war will end faster with the policies of this team that will now lead the White House, he said. This is their approach, their promise to their society.

Music to the ears of the Kremlin, while Russia has even changed its nuclear doctrine nukes, if a country like Ukraine attacks with long distance weapons with the help of a nuclear power like the U.S. Moscow's hope for better relations with the incoming Trump administration could cause the Kremlin to refrain from a strong response, Russian political analyst Alexey Naumov tells me.

ALEXEY NAUMOV, POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the Kremlin will give Donald Trump some time to maybe reevaluate this policy, readjust it. We've seen some good signs about this. Elon Musk who plays an outsized role in the incoming administration, criticized the decision. Donald Trump Jr. has criticized the decision.

PLEITGEN: The Kremlin has not yet said what it's response might look like, only that it would be, quote, appropriate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: And, Jake, one of the things we have to point out is that we actually have not heard directly from Vladimir Putin yet today after that decision was made. At the same time, the spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry, she came out and said that all of this could change the very nature of the war, Jake.

[16:20:00]

TAPPER: All right. CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Moscow for us, thanks so much.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, Ukraine is already a topic of conversation at this year's G20 Summit of World Leaders which includes Russia. Today, President Biden urged his counterparts to support Ukraine and he blamed Putin for causing a food crisis.

CNN's Kayla Tausche is traveling with President Biden.

Kayla, President-elect Trump, he's not even in office yet. He's already obviously stirring up a lot of drama.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He is, Jake. And here at the G20 in Rio, leaders are greeting President Biden in person and grappling with some of these recent decisions that he's made, all while trying to figure out how to posture for the incoming administration and as we're now learning, in some cases to the incoming president to visit their countries.

The latest that I've learned of is President Emmanuel Macron of France has invited both President-elect Trump and Elon Musk to visit Paris in early February for a summit on artificial intelligence and their role as head of state and as a CEO, or rather, an owner of a major social media platform respectively.

And Macron is just the latest world leader to seek an in-person audience with Trump to try to smooth over tensions and try to forge new ties as he takes office for a second term. We know that Turkey's president, when he called Trump to congratulate him, invited him to visit his country. Of course their relationship during Trumps first term was marked by tensions over trade and human rights.

And then there's the president of Indonesia, who in a congratulatory -- congratulatory call to Trump, said that he would fly anywhere to visit Trump to meet him and congratulate him in person, to which Trump said, I'd like to come to your country sometime.

The president of Argentina was at Mar-a-Lago at a black tie dinner last week, stirring up the crowd to YMCA.

So, certainly, all of these leaders, Jake, here at the G20 in Rio are trying to figure out how to deal with the incoming administration, even as President Biden is representing the current one. Biden says he has two priorities for leaders here that is number one, to protect Ukraine's sovereignty, and number two, to pressure Hamas to get a ceasefire deal in the Middle East -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Kayla Tausche in Rio, in Brazil. That's a quite an assignment you got yourself there, Kayla. Appreciate your reporting.

And when President Biden leaves the White House, it will be Republicans in Washington, D.C., who decide what's next for Ukraine. I'm going to gauge the tone with a House Republican next.

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[16:26:20]

TAPPER: In our politics lead, Democrats poured tons of money into Nebraska's second congressional district, home to the city of Omaha. Vice President Harris did win the so-called blue dot. And the one electoral vote that came with it in Nebraska. It was hardly a blue wave, though, and Republican Congressman Don Bacon also won reelection in that same blue dot.

Congressman Bacon joins us now.

I'm going to ask you about foreign policy, sir. But first, I've asked a few Democrats that were able to squeak out victories in districts where Trump won. So let me ask you, the reverse question. How did you outrun Donald Trump in your district by about seven points, where so many people, or enough at least went and voted for Kamala Harris for president and Republican Don Bacon for Congress?

REP. DON BACON (R-NE): Yeah, we had about 11,000 Harris-Bacon voters on November 5th. I tried to run as a statesman. I want to put my country first more and more, and over partisan politics.

We had to show that we delivered results to the district and that we're delivering results nationally. I'm on the Armed Services Committee and I'd like to think we had a great impact. So I really focused on being an American over being a Republican first and delivering results.

But we were we had headwinds and it was running uphill. I mean, Harris spent $21 million in Omaha. President Trump spent zero. He was polling about ten points behind Harris, but he ended up losing by about four and a half, which helped me out closing that gap.

But also Osborn, the independent candidate who was really a Democrat, he won our district by 13 points.

So he put all this together we knew we had to run a really good race we couldn't make many mistakes and -- but thankful -- I thank the voters for putting me back in for two more years.

TAPPER: You're on the House Armed Services Committee. You served in the Air Force. You've been vocal about your view that the U.S. needs to support Ukraine today, you posted on X or Twitter, quote, Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamas invaded Israel, the rest of the world is threatened if we let dictators prevail, unquote. As we just reported, the Biden administration has given Ukraine the

green light to use those ballistic missiles, those ATACMS further into Russian territory. Moscow is now vowing retaliation.

First, do you support that move by Biden? And second, are you concerned about Trumps calls to end the war and how that might end up rewarding Putin for his brutal invasion with some territory?

BACON: A couple of good questions there, Jake. First of all, I do support President Biden's decision to remove the restrictions and the rules of engagement. It reminds me of Vietnam. I'm a student of war and putting all these restrictions on Ukraine. All it did was feed gridlock and lead up to more casualties for Ukraine, which is wrong.

I think there should have been done over a year hard and go after military targets in Russia that are attacking or bombing Ukrainian cities, and I don't know why they waited until now to do it, but I'm glad they made that change.

Now, I talked to President Zelenskyy personally on this, and this was his number one issue. Remove the rules of engagement that are that make it harder for us to for them to fight the war and so I support that.

And I do have concerns by some of the things that I would say, the lack of moral clarity from the former president, the future president, I think he should be very clear. This is Russia's invasion they invaded a sovereign neighbor, and they're doing it because, you know, in the Russian dream is to restore that empire that they had and sort of an imperialistic dream that dates back to Peter the great. I think Putin is trying to restore those borders.

And but the problem is none of the neighbors want to be that. You know, I have to remind people, Stalin killed 4 million Ukrainians in the 1930s. They fought a civil war after World War Two, trying to break away.

[16:30:02]

And I go to the Baltic countries all the time. Every Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian knows a family who had a someone shot in the woods by the -- by the Soviets or sent to the Siberian gulag.

Well, the Ukrainians got the same thing. They want to have their independence. And we got to stand up and stand up to the bully, because if we don't, the bully is going to keep coming after us. They'll be the Baltics, next. Maybe Moldova, maybe Georgia, but Putin's not going to stop until he -- until we -- he gets a bloody nose and a couple of black eyes.

TAPPER: But do you think President-elect Trump is in agreement with you? Do you think that he's willing to increase military aid to Ukraine? It doesn't sound like it based on what he said on the campaign trail and where are your fellow Republicans? Will you all stand for more funding for Ukraine?

BACON: Well, certainly, I will, because I believe it's in our strategic interest that Ukraine remain independent.

If Ukraine falls, it's going to cost us a lot more money. You're going to have Russia on more of the NATO border, and you're going to have future invasions somewhere. I don't know where it'll be. I think it will be Moldova would be next.

I would encourage the president to support Ukraine. Now, I also want peace. I think it's all right to say, okay how can we get Russia to stop this invasion? You can't reward bad behavior by giving Ukrainian territory. But this is ultimately Ukraine's decision but I think we should stand fully on Ukraine's border or Ukraine's corner because they're the victim, they didn't initiate this war. This is all Russia.

Russia is creating crimes against have that moral clarity. So, that would be my words of advice to the future President Trump.

I would take some solace. Some of his nominees have in the past said we need to take the gloves off and end this war. I've heard at times Mike Waltz say that. I have heard the nominee for secretary of defense, Hegseth, has said that at times.

So I know they both want to increase the sanctions against Russia, stop their natural gas shipments, for example. That's feeding this war. So there are some seeds where I could see that, maybe that they will go down the right path, but I can I can control my voice. And I'm going to be a strong advocate for Ukraine.

TAPPER: The House Ethics Committee is going to meet in a couple of days to determine what to do with their investigation into your former colleague, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, who's now Trump's pick for attorney general. Do you think that committee should, at the very least send their investigation to the Senate so that Senate Republicans especially, but all of the senators can see what they uncover?

BACON: A short answer yes. I think that the Senate is entitled to see it. It would be one thing if my -- my colleague just resigned and wasn't going to come back or try to do something in the executive branch, but the fact that he wants to be the attorney general, I think we should have all that information out there, whether it's a, you know, exonerates him or that shows guilt. And either way, the senators deserve to know. Otherwise, you just assume the worst. And I think if he had plans to come back in the 119th Congress, that report should still be made public.

TAPPER: All right. Republican Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska, thanks so much. Congratulations again on your -- your victory.

We want to get to the world lead in that decision by President Biden authorizing Ukraine to use those long range ballistic missiles, the ATACMS, into Russia.

Retired U.S. Army General David Petraeus served as CIA director under President Obama.

General, good to see you. What do you make of the argument that Biden's decision to allow

Ukraine to use these ATACMS inside Russia is too little, too late?

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS (RET.), U.S. ARMY; FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Well, it's never too late, Jake, that would have been much better if it had been done many, many months ago. As the congressman, I thought quite persuasively explained but this opens up hundreds of additional targets. The Institute for the Study of War back in August laid out all the targets that could not be moved.

Certainly, the Russians have moved some of the critical aircraft and others out of range, out of the 190 mile range that ATACMS will provide but there are plenty of targets left including, of course, the reported 50,000-strong force that is massing in the Russian province of Kursk, which includes apparently some 10,000 North Korean troops to try to expel the Ukrainian forces that still control a fair amount of that province just across the border from Ukraine.

TAPPER: There's going to be a new secretary of defense and a new president in January. If they wanted to, how hard would it be for them to reverse President Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russia and put those restrictions back on the use of ATACMS?

PETRAEUS: Well, it's an executive branch decision. So presumably it's something that they could -- they could do. I suspect that Ukraine is going to be quite conscious of that. We have a couple of months still to go.

I can't imagine that they have huge numbers of ATACMS left. They're very, very effective.

[16:35:01]

I should note that as the commander of 101st Airborne Division during the invasion of Iraq, our division shot about 103 of these, and they are devastatingly effective, whether in the solid 375-pound projectile, that explosive weight that it has, or actually in the improved conventional munition. In other words the cluster munitions effective against airfields, large groupings of troops and convoys and so forth.

TAPPER: You told CNN in February of this year that the U.S. aid to Ukraine is, quote, not charity. What we do around the world is not out of the goodness of our heart. It's out of a cold calculation, unquote.

I don't know if it's been explained to President Trump in those terms, but what do you think would happen if he stopped that aid?

PETRAEUS: Well, first of all, I think we should be very conscious that what we do in one part of the world has reverberations in others. So for those that say we need to ensure deterrence of whatever China might contemplate doing against Taiwan or in the South China Sea, if you don't continue to support a partner who's fighting against a common enemy of the most important alliance we're a member of, Russia, what message does that send? Keep in mind that deterrence is a function of a potential adversaries' assessment of your capabilities, on the one hand, and your willingness to employ them. And if you're not willing to help Russia, I think that undermines deterrence out there, very, very substantially.

Then there's the obvious effect on Ukraine itself, which is in a very difficult position right now. I was just there again a few weeks ago, my fourth trip in the last 18 months, and the pressure on the front lines is quite intense, and the Russians have been carrying out systematic attacks damaging or destroying every single thermal power plant, hydroelectric power plant and then the transmission and transformer infrastructure that supports the nuclear power plants.

So it's going to be a long cold, dark, hard winter for Ukraine and then if this assistance were to be cut off in some way or limited, I think that would be very, very unwise. As a congressman also explained correctly, Russia won't stop in Ukraine. They'll go on to Moldova, then it will be Lithuania, a bigger war then something with NATO.

So we need to do everything we can to enable Ukraine to stop them here. And really, in my view, to change the dynamic on the battlefield so that Russia finally realizes, Putin realizes that he can't achieve additional gains at an acceptable cost.

His casualties have been staggering, 700,000 killed and seriously wounded so far. The losses every day are just almost unimaginable for someone who commanded two different wars and wrote letters of condolence to America's mothers and fathers almost every night of those commands.

TAPPER: Yeah.

PETRAEUS: But we need to get that point across to him. Only then could Ukraine negotiate from a position of reasonable strength and get an outcome that would be one that would be acceptable to them, which I think, by the way, wouldn't just be stopping the violence and the war. It would also need to have a security guarantee for Ukraine, that is very, very clear and probably would involve U.S. commitment and perhaps NATO commitment to Ukraine.

TAPPER: General Petraeus, always good to see you, sir. Thank you so much.

Coming up next, the Laken Riley murder trial and a jailhouse phone call played in court. What the suspect's wife told her husband behind bars and what police body camera video would reveal?

Stay with us.

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[16:42:48]

TAPPER: In our law and justice lead, prosecution witnesses presented more evidence against the undocumented immigrant charged with February's horrific murder of Georgia college student Laken Riley. The brutal killing made nationwide headlines and figured in the presidential race. The trial is being held before a judge rather than before a jury.

CNN's Rafael Romo was in the courtroom for us today and filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On day two of the trial for the 26 year old man accused of murdering, kidnapping and intending to rape Laken Riley, the state played a recorded jailhouse call in Spanish between suspect Jose Ibarra and his estranged wife. She repeatedly confronted him about Riley's killing while he evaded direct answers.

ABEISIS RAMIREZ, TRANSLATOR: She said that she thinks it's crazy that they don't have anyone else's DNA. They only have his. And she said she doesn't understand how someone can see someone dying and not call 911.

ROMO: Body camera video played in the Athens, Georgia courtroom showed the moment officers found Ibarra.

REPORTER: Slowly get out.

ROMO: It was late February, the morning after the 22 year old nursing student out for a jog on the University of Georgia campus, was killed.

Outside the apartment, Spanish interpreter and UGA officer Rafael Sayan testified Ibarra and his brother seemed to be in a good mood.

CPL. RAFAEL SAYAN, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA POLICE: They seemed very relaxed. There was a lot of laughing

ROMO: But UGA Police Sergeant Joshua Epps noticed something was wrong with Ibarra.

SAYAN: At first, he says, I don't have anything there. There's nothing there.

ROMO: But Epps told the court it looked like a defensive wound.

SGT. JOSHUA EPPS, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA POLICE: His left arm -- he had a forearm scratch that was very similar, which in my mind I looked like fingernail scratches to me.

ROMO: And on Jose Ibarra's left wrist, Epps said he noticed a half inch or an inch wide puncture.

EPPS: I could see, like, wet flesh, like almost like it was fresh.

SAYAN: I could see there was still a little bit of pus in it.

ROMO: A crime scene investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the judge her team found restaurant style gloves in Ibarra's home.

ANNIE MOORMAN, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: Officers had located gloves that had been described as looking sort of like these from a bush at the apartment complex.

[16:45:10]

ROMO: FBI special agent Jamie Hipkiss introduced into evidence data collected from Ibarra's cellphones. Hipkiss said surveillance video showed Ibarra's clothing the day of the killing when he trashed the jacket appeared the same as the day after.

JAMIE HIPKISS, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: See him removing the navy blue jacket and stuffing it into the recycling bin in his apartment complex. He appears to be wearing that exact same shirt there.

ROMO: Ibarra has pleaded not guilty. He waived his right to a jury, so the judge will decide his fate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMO: And, Jake, the defense team has subpoenaed Jose Ibarra's brothers to testify later in the week. Diego and Argenis Ibarra are both facing federal charges for allegedly using fake immigration documents. They were turned over to local custody in Athens so they could appear at this courthouse here -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. CNN's Rafael Romo, thanks so much.

Attorneys for Sean "Diddy" Combs are demanding answers. They want to know how did prosecutors get ahold of personal notes from inside their client's jail cell. My next guest is someone well-versed in what's appropriate in criminal cases such as this.

Stay with us.

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[16:50:25]

TAPPER: In our law and justice lead, another shocking turn in the case of Sean "Diddy" Combs. Prosecutors as you know, say that the music mogul committed some unspeakable acts, and now, they're saying that he's engaging in witness tampering from behind bars.

How do they know that? Well, through evidence that Diddy's attorneys say the feds should never have been able to obtain, they are accusing federal prosecutors of what they call outrageous misconduct. Personal notes -- notes that allegedly contain attorney client defense strategies were seized from Diddy's New York jail cell. Combs' legal team calls that search a violation of his constitutional rights, and they're demanding an evidentiary hearing.

Not so fast, though prosecutors defend the seizure, they say the notes were obtained during a nationwide pre-planned sweep of multiple prison facilities. They claim the notes were reviewed by a filter team. Someone not involved in the case to remove privileged materials before they were turned over to prosecutors.

Now, prosecutors are arguing that the notes that they got contain evidence that Diddy may have tried to influence witnesses alleging that he paid a witness after making a public statement. Diddy's team strongly denies these allegations.

This development comes as Diddy, who has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking, racketeering and related charges, is set to appear in court Friday. This would be his third attempt to be released on bond. The case is now raising serious questions about due process and pretrial detainee rights.

To clear up some of these questions for us, Joey Jackson, criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst.

Joey, just to remind everybody, you know, allegations are not -- is not conviction and Diddy is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the big question here is, is it legal for the prosecutors to seize personal notes from a pretrial detainee, even if a filter team has gone through them and taken out anything privileged? And also explain what a filter team is first, if you could.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah. So, Jake, this discussion, no matter whether you love Diddy, don't like him, think he's guilty, think he's not guilty, that's not the issue. The issue is the propriety of the conduct of the government as alleged. Everyone is entitled to a fair trial.

Now the first question comes well, should the government have been searching his cell jails is that appropriate? I think the general answer is yes. They're going to have searches of various detainee cells for safety reasons and other reasons. So as a result of that expect and anticipate that your cell will be searched.

The next question becomes, well, if there's information with respect to that search that deals with your case, that is attorney work product, right? Not attorney work product, but certainly attorney client. When you go when you're visiting a client in a jail, you have discussions about your case, about witnesses, about strategy, about issues.

You may take notes or do anything you like, either with your attorneys or when you go back. Now, if the government has gotten that specific information, the answer becomes well, why and how?

That leads me to the question about a filter team. If you get information and it could be attorney-client privilege, right, you should have the right to speak to your attorney about everything and anything but it should be filtered. There are government teams, in fact, the Department of Justice created a team in 2020 to do just this filter information so that that team is not part of the case, not part of the prosecution.

You look for attorney client privilege information. You parse that out then you give it to prosecutors. What was the process followed? What was the protocol followed? Was it followed properly or appropriately? We don't know. That's why a hearing is necessary.

That should never get into the hands of prosecutors. It's unfair. It's inappropriate. It shouldn't happen. And that raises serious questions.

That's what a filter team did. Did they abdicate their responsibility? We'll see at a hearing.

TAPPER: This all coming on the heels, of course, of a recent court filing where prosecutors were citing jail phone records.

They claim that Diddy used the phone accounts of at least eight inmates to evade monitoring and to make calls that they allege are also witness tampering.

How does his defense team respond to that as they're trying to get Diddy released on bond?

JACKSON: Listen, that's a question of fact. And either the government has the goods on that and he was attempting to do it or not. That's an allegation.

That's something else that could be addressed at a hearing or not addressed. But I think the main and core question is if you have materials that's prepared with your defense lawyers, how do prosecutors get that? Should prosecutors have gotten that? Should the defense team have been given notice to object to that prior to it being given to prosecutors?

So, again, no matter what you believe in his guilt, we have to have a process where people believe, whether people believe in their government and their governments not going to overreach.

[16:55:06]

And I think there's a critical question here that will be determined not by me but at a hearing as to whether or not those protocols were followed, whether the search team or filter team followed the appropriate steps and parsed out the information that they should have.

TAPPER: All right. Joey Jackson, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

As president-elect, Trump fills in names for his incoming administration, what CNN is learning about his plans for mass deportations and the direct impact you might soon see in your own community.

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TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

This hour, your cell phone and the personal contents you have on it, not just photos and video, but your call log, your private messages. You might be surprised who can access all of that data. Ronan Farrow is here to tell us what he learned in a compelling new investigation into spyware, and how your device could be turned against you.

Plus, the shocking death of a Russian ballet star who like so many others in that country accidentally fell from a building's balcony.