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Suspect Charged with Murder in Shooting of Israeli Embassy Staffers; Trump threatens Straight 50 Percent Tariff on the EU; Ukraine and Russia Begin Large-Scale Prisoner Exchange; Multiple People Dead After Plane Crashes into San Diego Neighborhood. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired May 23, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The 10 accused this morning, they all appeared in court. Now the jury's gone off for its deliberations and we expect it to be a few more hours before we hear what the sentences will be. They go from a fine of 20,000 for the least to 10 years for the most.

Of the 10, only two admit having been involved in this kidnapping of Kim Kardashian. We heard, of course, from Kim Kardashian herself at this courtroom last week. A very emotional witness she was, speaking to what had happened on that night all those years ago, 2016.

You'll remember that she was tied up. She was robbed, their jewelry, $10 million worth never recovered. But she got pretty emotional as she spoke to the courthouse here last week, speaking about the trauma that this had inflicted on her.

And also the fact that really her life has never been the same since. She can't sleep without knowing that her security detail are around her. And she spoke to that trauma even as she looked at the accused and told them that she forgave them.

Today, they'll find out whether or not they're going to jail and how long for. Many of them arriving here this morning, Kate, with their luggage in the expectation that they will be facing at least some jail time.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Melissa Bell, we'll stand by with you. Thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New developments this morning in the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers. What we've learned about the young couple who was killed and new details on the suspect now charged with murder and possibly facing the death penalty.

Plus, the investigation into the deadly private plane crash into a San Diego neighborhood. Homes and cars bursting into flames. What we know about the six people who were on board that small Cessna. And breaking just moments ago, President Trump threatening a quote, 50

percent straight tariff on the European Union and threatening Apple with a 25 percent tariff if they don't build iPhones here in America.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Much more on that brand new tariff threat in just a moment. And in the meantime, new information about the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Jewish Museum in Washington. Thirty one year old Elias Rodriguez has been arrested and charged with federal murder.

One of those charges carries the potential for the death penalty. Authorities are now investigating what they call an online manifesto allegedly written by Rodriguez. Also, after the shooting, a letter was posted on X that allegedly was signed by the shooter.

It decried, quote, atrocities committed by the Israelis against Palestine, armed action, the only sane thing to do.

As of this morning, it's unclear who exactly posted the letter that was allegedly signed by the suspect. With us now, CNN chief law enforcement intelligence analyst John Miller and former FBI supervisory special agent Peter Licata.

John, why don't you bring us up to speed on the new information we have from the affidavit and elsewhere?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, the affidavit was filled with stunning and terrible details. One thing we learned was that they recovered 21 shell casings. That means he fired at least that many rounds.

And the details that were in the affidavit also related to he opened fire on his victims from behind into their backs as they went down. He continued firing as Sara crawled away. He continued firing. And when she tried to sit up, he reloaded and fired more.

It's really the amount of brutality and determination to kill these two strangers on a rainy street crosswalk, leaving an event was extraordinarily disturbing.

BERMAN: Peter, what do you make of that? What do you make of the horrifying and seemingly deliberate nature to get that job done?

PETER LICATA, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Well, it goes toward -- good morning. It goes towards the aforementioned thought, right? So if the manifesto is in fact tied to Rodriguez, we talk about motive opportunity and means on any type of crime.

So that's just going to reinforce the motive. The motive supports the charge. So when you think about these heinous acts, especially as John said, the 21 shots as a victim is crawling away and still firing into their back. There's deliberate intent. It supports the charge, potential federal murder charge, title 18, 111 or 111.1. And we're looking at a potential hate crime here. They're going to tie it to a hate crime or an act of terrorism.

That's what investigators are going to be looking at in order to support those charges with co-conspirators tying that manifesto to Rodriguez and any other actions he's taken in that timeline up until that time.

[08:05:00]

BERMAN: What else, John, are we learning from the investigation, what he had with him, how he got here, those types of things?

MILLER: So that's really interesting. And some of that is not in the affidavit, but he flies in from Chicago on United to Washington, D.C. on the 20th. They find that ticket stub in his pocket. They also find the key to a Hilton hotel.

They also see travel arrangements that have him flying back yesterday. So the 22nd. It raises a question about what was the plan.

Did he plan to potentially I mean, he had checked his gun and declared it in the luggage for the flight, which is a little unusual for people who are intending to go commit a homicide. Did he intend to escape and return to Chicago? Was that just the way the tickets were booked by his company for a meeting he was supposed to attend?

Those are things that they're going to have to get through. But, you know, his mindset after the shooting was after briefly fleeing, returning to the venue and sitting there and waiting for the police before announcing himself.

BERMAN: Yes, but then ultimately saying it was me or effectively saying I did it there. And I guess, Peter, the question there is a round trip ticket.

Why book a round trip ticket? It could just be it was easier to book the round trip ticket. But I imagine that is a question they'll be asking.

LICATA: These are -- it's all about the timeline, right? We've got to put those seeds together in order to finalize the future prosecution of Rodriguez, you know, book a round trip ticket. Why was it less expensive? What was your intent?

Again, investigators always go back to the basic principles of motive, opportunity and means. What was the opportunity and the means? How did he buy that ticket? Why did he buy a round round trip ticket? And then obviously, we're kind of understanding the motive, the opportunity and that's usually the hardest thing to prove when the opportunity and means and the things investigators are going to be looking at to see what else ties him to this event.

BERMAN: And before I let you go, John, this manifesto answering any questions, raising questions, you're just confirming what is largely there on its face.

MILLER: The manifesto is a really interesting document in that you've seen them before after school shootings and other things were generous. Sometimes when we call the manifestos in this case, it was extraordinarily well written, carefully written, written in a compelling way about the the amount of death, destruction, tragedy, civilian casualties in Gaza. It mentions nothing about October 7th, but it is filled with empathy, which behavioral science people will look at that and say, how does a person who has so much human empathy, sympathy, caring for the plight of people can be the same individual who opens fire, killing two young strangers in the way he did it.

BERMAN: Firing and firing and firing again. All right, John Miller, Peter Licata, thanks to both of you -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, we've got some breaking news for you. It's just come in. President Trump saying he wants a straight 50 percent tariff on the EU beginning June 1st because trade talks are stuck.

He is typing away and also going after a U.S. company, a big one, Apple, which is already seeing its stocks get a hit. Let's go to CNN's Alayna Treene, who is live for us at the White House. Tell us what you know as we're seeing these social media posts come fast and furious this morning.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, this was definitely a bit of surprise here at the White House, Sara, and we learned of this. He really delivered this new policy via social media, something, of course, the president often does. I want to read you a little bit of what he wrote, because clearly he has long taken issue with the European Union. And now we're actually seeing that result in real repercussions, ones that, of course, are going to be impacting the market today once they open.

He wrote, quote, The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on trade, has been very difficult to deal with. He went on to say that there are powerful trade barriers, VAT taxes.

He talked about monetary manipulations, et cetera, all citing that as reasons for what he argues is a massive trade deficit with the United States.

He went on to say, Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50 percent tariff on the European Union starting on June 1st of 2025. There is no tariff if the is built or manufactured in the United States.

So, again, this is a huge development, Sara, because, of course, the European Union is one of the biggest, you know, they're not one country, but block that the United States and this Trump administration has been trying to negotiate with. We actually saw the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, come to the White House earlier, a couple of weeks ago, to really negotiate on behalf of the European Union, because she, unlike a lot of different European countries, has a really good relationship with the United States. And there was a thought process that perhaps she could be the one to kind of assuage some of the president's big frustrations that he has with the EU.

[08:10:00]

As of now, clearly, it sees that those negotiations have not been going well, that they are stalled. And rather than waiting for the end of that 90-day period -- remember, the president, initially, when he had put on these different tariffs, these reciprocal tariffs for all of these different countries, he said, when he paused them, that he would give them 90 days to negotiate these.

Now the president is moving up the timeline specifically for the EU, because he's very frustrated with how, he argues, they are treating them for trade. So major development. He says 50 percent tariffs will be placed on all of the EU by June 1st.

SIDNER: Yes, we're also seeing the futures react to that. And it ain't good. Things are dropping fast. The president didn't just go after the EU, though. He went after a U.S. company, Apple. What are you learning on that?

TREENE: Yes, it's clear the president is very focused on trade today, Sara, because he also posted some sort of warning, really, to Apple CEO Tim Cook. He said that essentially, he wrote, quote, I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India or any place else. He went on to say that if they do not do that, they will be paying a tariff of at least 25 percent.

Now, you mentioned this, but shares of Apple are already falling roughly 2 percent in pre-market trading. I note as well that Tim Cook was actually just here at the White House a couple of days ago on Tuesday to talk with President Trump. But this has also been something that the president has been very fixated on, wanting Apple to move manufacturing of iPhones back to the United States.

Now, primarily, Apple manufactures these iPhones in China, but they've also begun to move some of that production to India because they are in better standing with the United States. They understand where the president's kind of frustrations and potential policies could come from. But this is really an entirely new concept now that we are hearing from the president, that if Apple does not change things and does not change things swiftly, he is going to be placing a 25 percent tariff on them.

All to say between this and what he is doing with the EU, major, major moves that are going to have very big consequences. And I'm sure we'll be seeing some of those in the markets today.

SIDNER: We are starting to see them already. If you look across the board, everything has dropped. This is the gift that nobody really wanted for this holiday weekend.

Thank you so much, Alayna Treene. I know you'll be watching all the details of how this rolls out and the response and reaction. Appreciate it -- Kate. BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Also ahead, a large scale prisoner swap is underway right now between Russia and Ukraine. President Trump says it could, quote, lead to something big.

And a plane plunging into a San Diego neighborhood -- a neighborhood that's home to many military families. At least two people were killed. We're learning about the moments leading up to that devastating crash now.

And oh, and also rapper Kid Cudi takes to the stand and compares Sean Diddy Combs to a Marvel supervillain. What else he said about his claim that Diddy set his car on fire?

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Some of the breaking news that we're watching, a major prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine is now underway. The countries are expected to exchange hundreds of prisoners in a deal agreed to last week when they sat down face-to-face for meetings in Turkey.

President Trump posted this morning: Congratulations to both sides on this negotiation and then saying this could lead to something big???

It does appear that those three question marks are doing a lot of work in that message. Nic Robertson is in London tracking all of this for us. Nic, what are you hearing about this?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Let's break down those three question marks because I think they do tell us a lot there, right? So this is important. This is looking like over the next couple of days being the biggest ever prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, possibly as many as 1,000 troops exchanged on each side here.

And it did come out of the first ever face-to-face talk since Russia's illegal, unprovoked, full invasion of Ukraine began 39 months ago. So there's a sort of trajectory here that looks good. But let's break it down a little.

This is the fifth prisoner exchange already this year. It is the 64th prisoner exchange since the war began. Already Russia has released in prisoner exchanges more than 4,700 Ukrainian troops.

So that gives you a little bit of perspective on what's happening. This is not out of the ordinary. It's not that new.

And then look at how these talks came about in Turkey and Istanbul last week. This comes more than two months after President Trump pressured and got President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to agree an unconditional ceasefire. In all that time, President Trump has been trying to pressure President Putin of Russia to do the same.

Last week, those low-level talks in Turkey, albeit at the first, with Putin's answer to getting onto this 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has already signed up to. So yes, the three question marks, that's a lot of question marks. And I think the Ukrainians would nod and say, yes, we're not sure that's going to follow through to translate to something new.

BOLDUAN: Exactly, Nic. So where do things go from here?

ROBERTSON: Yes, and again, that's the sort of open question. But we heard from the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, today reiterating Russia's talking points about talks going forward. And again, you know, it looked good.

[08:20:00]

He said yes, we think there's going to be a second round of talks. But then he went on to question, again, one of Russia's talking points, President Zelenskyy's legitimacy, if you will, to actually sign a peace deal with Russia.

This is what Russia has said before as well, that there should be new elections in Ukraine before Russia can even agree. He said Russia's got a bunch of points in a memorandum they'll put forward in these peace talks. He scotched ideas, by the way, that the peace talks could be held in the Vatican, which was an idea floating around just last weekend, saying that wouldn't be suitable.

And he couldn't offer a time or place where the talks will happen. You can see here Russia still has massive, significant hurdles that are too high for Ukraine, too high for its Western backers, and President Trump still giving President Putin time to come up with a different answer.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and it seems even with those big question marks, putting more distance between himself and the negotiations going forward in terms of President Trump. It's good to see you, Nic. Thank you so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: Speaking of high-level talks, the U.S. and Iran set to hold nuclear talks in Rome. What we know about the path to a possible deal and the sticking points that could block the deal.

And University of Maryland grads getting that oh-so-special commencement message from Kermit the Frog as he urges students to dream big and, quote, keep believing.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: This morning, investigators are working to determine how a small business jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood early yesterday. Look at what happened. Homes, cars, on fire. More than a dozen homes hit by the debris. Six people were on board the plane. At least two are now confirmed dead. And officials don't believe anyone else on board survived. Remarkably, no one on the ground was killed. But there are injuries. New details show the pilot of the plane was concerned about the weather just before coming in for landing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONTROLLER: For 0955 Zulu with wind calm, visibility one half and indefinite ceiling 200.

PILOT: All right, that doesn't sound great but we'll give it a go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Doesn't sound great. Those words are going to haunt that family for a long time.

Joining me now is CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety investigator David Soucie. Wow. The pictures from this, you know, you think of the small plane, you think that it hits maybe one, maybe two houses.

What explains just the enormous destruction from a very small Cessna?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, due to the speed and the inertia of what the airplane's doing, it can do that. What is interesting to me, and I have done accident investigations where the airplane did land in a residential area on the buildings themselves. So the pilot took extra care.

You can tell to make sure that he went down the street. But as that happened, it appears that the airplane spun and got into several different houses at the same time. So it is tragic and just a horrific sight to see so many.

And as you mentioned, it's just a miracle that no people were injured or killed on the ground.

SIDNER: I mean, seeing something like this, it sort of reminds you also what happened in Philadelphia not long ago -- or in Pennsylvania. It was an awful, awful scene.

Can you give us some sense of where the investigation goes from now in a plane that small, but you did see there were bits of it as you're seeing the cars there on fire.

There were parts of the plane that I'm assuming can be salvaged and hopefully the black box would be available still?

SOUCIE: Yes, if there's a flight data recorder on board, they should be able to get that still even through those. We've seen even worse accidents than that, like the Philadelphia one that didn't have much left there, but still the black boxes are recoverable. So they're designed to be available after that accident.

But yes, going through the accident investigation at this point, of course, there are no survivors. So that part of the investigation is over. So they're going to look through that. But each one of these things is going to be looked at, the pilot's qualifications, which it appears he was perfectly qualified to fly the airplane. One of the things that I was looking at is the fact that this airplane can't have a single pilot. And that appears that's how it was being flown, is with a single pilot at the time.

SIDNER: How would having, you know, a co-pilot help in this particular scenario? We don't yet know exactly what went wrong, but we do know from that recording with the tower that there was definitely some concern because it was extremely foggy where the fire chief had said that you could barely sort of see in front of you if you were just standing there while that flight was going on. How would a co-pilot might have sort of helped in this situation?

SOUCIE: Well, the workload is different. And also to have one set of eyes working and flying the airplane and communicating and the other person actually looking at, observing and trying to spot the airport, that's two things that have to happen. And with one pilot, it's a large burden to do that. So with two pilots, it helps you do that.

The other thing with two pilots is you get to discuss that in place with someone who's looking at the same thing you are to make the better decision whether to go into that airport with those minimums that were below minimums, actually even for an ILS approach. So it would have helped in the decision-making to go around or not.

SIDNER: Wow. David Soucie, it is always a pleasure. Thank you for bringing your expertise to this tragedy there in San Diego. Appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, a manhunt underway for the five inmates still on the run after a jailbreak. We've got new details on how they got out and how police plan to track them down.

And then breaking news, President Trump threatens to slap a 25 percent.