Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump Pardons Stars of Reality T.V. Show, Chrisley Knows Best; SpaceX Loses Contact With Starship Upon Re-Entry to Earth; Two of Ten Louisiana Jailbreak Escapees Remain At Large. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 28, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, political reality, a reality T.V. show couple convicted of bank fraud and tax crimes whose daughter just happened to speak at the Republican convention gets a pardon from the president.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking overnight, a SpaceX fail. Elon Musk's space company losing contact with Starship on the rocket's reentry to earth. What the billionaire is saying about this latest test flight.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a possible sighting in the now weeks long manhunt after the New Orleans jailbreak. New details on where police are searching now for the final two men still on the run.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: So, this morning, a reality show where a couple of felons convicted of tens of millions of dollars in fraud gets a pardon from the president with the twist that their daughter is a big political supporter. No, this isn't a story pitch for Bravo or TLC, though it might make for a heck of a show. This is actual reality.

The White House announced the president will free reality T.V. couple Todd and Julie Chrisley from prison. They're known for two things. Their show, Chrisley Knows Best, and their 2022 convictions for conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million.

The president's decision, perhaps not coincidentally, comes after the Chrisleys' daughter, Savannah, spoke at the Republican National Convention last year. She reacted to the news on social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It is a terrible thing, but it's a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean and I hope we can do it by tomorrow. I don't know.

SAVANNAH CHRISLEY, PARENTS PARDONED BY TRUMP: The president called me personally as I was walking into Sam's Club and notified me that he was signing paper, pardon paperwork for both of my parents. So, both my parents are coming home tonight or tomorrow. And I still don't believe it's real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And this comes after the president announced on Monday that he's pardoning a former Virginia sheriff who was sentenced to ten years in federal prison as part of a $75,000 bribes for badges scheme.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House this morning for this barrage of pardons.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's exactly right. And it does seem a bit like a reality T.V. show, John, because, yes, the president issued full pardons yesterday for Todd and Julie Chrisley. These big reality stars in that USA network hit show Chrisleys know best. But remember that they were originally sentenced to federal prison back in 2022 for a conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Roughly $30 million is what they were trying to defund banks of. And they also -- in addition to these bank fraud conditions they were also found guilty of several tax crimes, including attempting to defraud the IRS.

Now, it's clear that these pardons as well as the one that you mentioned on Monday that he issued for that Virginia sheriff, Scott Jenkins, they come as the president has continued to argue and kind of air his political grievances saying that he believes that a lot of these different convictions were a sign of weaponization.

And now when the president called up Savannah Chrisley, the couple's daughter he told her essentially that he believed that their sentences were pretty harsh. He was standing besides Alice Johnson, someone that he had pardoned back during his first term. I want you to take a listen to exactly what he told their daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It is a terrible thing, but it's a great thing because your parents are going to be free and clean, and I hope we can do it by tomorrow.

I don't know them, but give them my regards and wish them luck.

CHASE CHRISLEY, SON OF TODD AND JULIE CHRISLEY: Mr. President.

TRUMP: Yes. How are you?

C. CHRISLEY: I just want to say thank you for bringing my parents back.

TRUMP: Yes. Well, they were given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I'm hearing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now John I would remind you again, and you kind of emphasize this, but Savannah there, this couple's daughter, she did campaign for the president throughout the 2024 presidential campaign.

[07:05:00]

She also got up during the RNC, gave a public speech, and she also was recently on Fox News talking to Laura Ingraham about how she believed that her parents should be released.

Now, similar to the other case where he pardoned that sheriff, Scott Jenkins, he was also a supporter of the present. He was a big supporter of gun rights as well. So, there is a bit of a theme here. But we have seen the president use his pardon power pretty widely, particularly during his first term, but then, of course, at the start of this year as well, of his second administration when he pardoned essentially all of those who were convicted for their role on January 6th.

So, big news in the reality T.V. world today, John.

BERMAN: Reality T.V. world, a bit of a theme, as you say. Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. The Chrisleys' daughter, as you heard, talking about the moment the president told her that her parents would be granted full pardons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISLEY: He was like, you know, you guys don't look like terrorists to me was his exact words, which was pretty funny. But he just said that their sentences were outrageous and they were treated unfairly from everyone that he has spoken to, and that he wanted to bring my parents home and not just grant them a commutation, but he wanted to give them a full pardon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And for the record, they were not charged with terrorism. They were charged and convicted as tax cheats and fraudsters.

Joining us now to talk about the pardon, CNN Legal Analyst and Criminal Defense Attorney Joey Jackson. All right, Trump says he doesn't know the reality T.V. show couple, but as you saw there, that his daughter -- the daughter of the Chrisleys was on the campaign for him for his second presidency. Now, he's in the presidency. And has pardoned the parents and he says, you got a pretty bad deal, a pretty raw deal there. Did they for what they were convicted of?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, you know what happened, Sara? Good morning to you. What happens is that we have a process in this country and that process is pretty varied and what ends up happening is that you have a Department of Justice that investigates with the FBI. They decide to bring forward charges. You have a U.S. attorney's office full of prosecutors, and then they go to a grand jury of our peers and a grand jury more often than not returns and indictments, saying you're accused of various things. In this case, there were ten charges that they were found guilty of relating to bank and tax fraud. And that's after a jury reaches a determination. So, my only thing is, look, you have a president, and all presidents are constitutionally imbued with the authority of pardoning, but the process in terms of a practitioner is about court and what a jury makes a determination of. And this jury made a determination on ten separate occasions with accounts, $36 million bank fraud, but that's all wiped away based upon the Presidential Authority Department.

SIDNER: I am curious when you look at this. You know, each time Donald Trump has basically said, look, the Biden Justice Department, the Justice Department in office when Biden was in office is, you know, mistreating all of these people. And he said that about the January 6th people, even though some of them are caught on camera being violent. They were pardoned. What is this doing to the justice system? What do you see this doing to the justice system when you see it's very obvious that almost all of the people that he has pardoned now have been either on his campaign or big supporters, vocal supporters of Donald Trump?

JACKSON: Yes. I think that, listen, there's a concern and the concern is that you have to live in a society where the rule of law prevails. Now, the pushback to that would be the rule of law would suggest that Article 2 of the Constitution says that the president makes a decision with regard to who to pardon. But I think people look at a justice system and they look at it and they say, well, is it justice for all? Is it justice for us or is it, you know, justice in whatever people have power and authority, et cetera?

And so when you look at pardons that are being issued, you know, reality T.V. stars after being convicted of a jury of their peers, you look at a variety of other pardons based upon political support, et cetera, it kind of makes you wonder. But there is some notion that there's this weaponization of the prosecutor's office of Department of Justice, et cetera. And I think what Republicans will point to is they'll say, hey, well look at Mayor Adams. He's a Democrat. Look at Rod Blagojevich, he's a Democrat. But I think when you look at it, it has to be a system that is really proportionate and that does the right thing.

And I think, historically, I think pardons are meant for what is appropriate and just not just to undo what you think politically is in your best advantage. And that's the problem I have.

SIDNER: What he's doing at this point, and every president can do this is sort of thumbing his nose at the jury, especially in some of these cases, one of which the person had not yet gone to jail, in the case of that sheriff.

JACKSON: The entire system of justice, it turns it on its head. And that is somewhat problematic. But I think there's a president who, of course, he himself was convicted of things. So, he has a personal, I think, feeling about this.

SIDNER: All right, that is a very good point. Joey Jackson, as you always do, making good points, that's why we keep inviting you back.

[07:10:03] I appreciate you.

JACKSON: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the most powerful rocket ever built, the SpaceX Starship, launched yesterday and then lost control. What went right and what went wrong on this latest test flight.

And breaking overnight, a new sighting of one of the two inmates still on the run after breaking out of a New Orleans jail, where the new clues are now leading.

And Elon Musk is now speaking out against the president's spending bill. Here's the quote. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't think it can be both. Musk explaining why he's disappointed now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BOLDUAN: Some of the big news coming in overnight, Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship launched into space for its ninth test flight, but coming back down proved a bit more challenging. SpaceX lost contact with the spacecraft upon its reentry to Earth. The Starship then broke apart as it spun out of control apparently due to a fuel tank leak. Before that, though, the Starship made it further along its flight path than in previous.

Right now CNN Space Contributor Kristin Fisher, host of the Endless Void on YouTube. So, Kristin, help us understand what happened here.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE CONTRIBUTOR: So, Kate, there was, there's two parts to Starship. You have the super heavy booster on the bottom, and then you have this Starship spacecraft on top. The booster did what it was supposed to do. It performed great. It got Starship up into the very edge of space, but Starship is what all eyes were on during this test flight because it had exploded at about seven to eight minutes in during the previous two test flights, flight seven and flight eight.

So, for flight nine, the mission that happened last night, it made it further than the previous two missions, which is good, but it too suffered a rapid, unscheduled disassembly, as SpaceX calls it, or as we call it an explosion about 30 minutes into flight. So made it much further than last time but was not able to accomplish its primary objective of this mission, according to Elon Musk, which was to test out all of the heat shield tiles right there, you can kind of see them there, on the belly of the ship as it reenters the Earth's atmosphere, because it was just spinning out of control, Kate. They couldn't test those tiles like they'd wanted to on this test flight, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Look, and the point of these test flights, and it falls into it, it fell into part of the ocean that is uninhabited and that's by design. The point of these tests is to work this stuff out, which is great. So, what's learned from this and what's next then?

FISHER: So, the engineers on the ground, the SpaceX engineers that have been working on Starship in the newly incorporated city of Starship, I might -- Star Base, I might add, in the very south point of Texas, these engineers can gather tons of data from sensors that are on Starship when they push it to the extreme, when they push it to its limit, when they push it to the point of explosion that it did last night.

So, they're still going to get a lot of data. They're still going to learn a lot of things that will help them improve Starship for the next version. But this is to make -- you know, make it very clear this is not the outcome that SpaceX and Elon Musk wanted. And, you know, even so, Elon Musk was supposed to give a speech yesterday. First, he was supposed to give a speech before test flight. Then he was supposed to give it afterwards. He said it had been postponed until after the launch. That never happened, Kate.

So, a lot of questions there, but he did post on X that we're going to see this cadence happen much more quickly, this launch cadence. He expects the next three test flights to happen every three to four weeks, which is a massive acceleration of this test flight program. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. A postponed press conference, said another way, could be a canceled one due to unforeseen circumstances, a little bit like the creative use of the thesaurus with the, what was it, unscheduled rapid disassembly. I think I got it a little bit right.

FISHER: Rapid unscheduled disassembly, a RUD.

BOLDUAN: A RUD, there we go. Great to see you, Kristin, thank you so much. John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, an urgent manhunt underway for two escaped inmates considered armed and dangerous, authorities chasing a new lead after receiving a tip about a possible sighting.

And on the Elon Musk front, new this morning, apparently he is not happy with the president's huge tax and spending bill this after criticizing his tariff plan. Is this why Elon Musk says he's backing off political giving?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: This morning, a potential sighting of one of two escaped Louisiana Inmates who remain at large. Authorities say, Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves should be considered armed and dangerous. Police in Southern Mississippi say they received a tip Tuesday about a possible sighting of Massey, but could not confirm he is or was in the area.

It is still uncertain how big of a role he played in planning the jailbreak two weeks ago. You'll remember that there were ten inmates that all escaped. Eight of them have been recaptured. CNN's Ryan Young is joining me now. What do you know about the latest on the whereabouts from authorities?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sara, we're learning so many more details about this, even how some of this kind of played out. When you talk about the ten who escaped, some of the ten may have just seen others escaped and went right behind them. When you talk about Massey and Groves, the U.S. Marshal's Office telling us they both are street savvy, considered to be pretty smart and could have been a part of the planning process. And, of course, Massey has escaped from three other facilities. So you know there's a lot of attention on this.

Now, the video that we're showing to the side of you right now, that's body camera video from Walker County, Texas. That's when two other suspects were taken into custody. As much as we can show their pictures on camera, it's been good for authorities because the U.S. Marshal Service, the FBI all searching for these ten suspects, the tips from Crime Stoppers have been coming in pretty fast. So, you know, as this winds out past Louisiana into Mississippi, into Texas, someone's seeing these guys as they're traveling down the highway or at a mall. This can really help authorities.

But take a listen to the sound bite from the D.A.'s office that where Jake Tapper was basically asking questions not only about this investigation, but where they feel right now with this manhunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON WILLIAMS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, ORLEANS PARISH: We've got a lot of leads. The Crime Stopper tips are coming in my office.

[07:25:00]

The digital forensics team has been scouring through hours and hours of jail calls using some A.I. software to figure out who they were in contact with the night before, hours before to figure out where they may have been heading. Their circle is tightening. And as people who are assisting are being arrested, that circle is tightening around these last two.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes. Sara, look, everyone has a group chat at this point. Not even the folks who are coming to see the inmates have to realize that they're on recordings talking to these folks over the last few weeks. They've been able to go through those jail calls. We have reporting about this and some of this actually shows the inmates in the process of trying to plan parts of this.

Now, of course, when you look at it in a small space, you might not know that's what they were planning. But, once again, now that they've been able to go through A.I. and look at this, they know they're sort of focused on these last two, hoping more tips come in as we see that picture one more time. Sara? SIDNER: Yes. You've done some great reporting on this. Massey obviously has very distinctive tattoos as well. The more you see the picture, the more you might recognize them. But it is interesting that you note that he is responsible for other jail breaks before this one. So, certainly, police looking at him as a possible mastermind in all this.

Ryan Young, great reporting, thank you so much. It's great to see you this morning. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Vladimir Putin lays out conditions to end the war in Ukraine as President Trump issues a new warning to the Russian president, saying that he's, quote, playing with fire.

And a former police chief serving time convicted of murder and rape, he's still on the run. The former prosecutor who helped put him behind bars calls the man a, quote, sociopath. We have more on the search for him now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]