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Appeals Court Pauses Ruling that Blocked Trump's Tariffs; Small Business Owner Suing Trump Administration Over Tariffs; Ex-Assistant Testified Combs Sexually Assaulted Her Multiple Times; White House Pushing to Triple Daily Number of Immigration Arrests. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 30, 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]

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: As much as five times in the next one to five years. This is really stark. And he thinks that business leaders and politicians aren't moving quickly enough to adapt to this.

He had some pretty strong words for policymakers in terms of what they should be considering including potentially attacks on AI companies. Here's what he said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARIO AMODEI, CEO, ANTHROPIC: I wouldn't exclude the notion of, you know, levying the tax on AI companies, right? If AI creates huge total wealth, but you know, a lot of that will will by default go to the AI companies and you know, less ordinary people and so, you know, definitely not in my economic interest to say that but I think I think this is something we should consider and you know, I think it shouldn't be a partisan thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: But look one of the things that I think is worth pointing out about this is he's saying this at the same time that he is, of course, building this technology. Anthropic just released a model that it says can work seven hours straight on very complex tasks with very little human intervention. And so I think that's some of the skepticism that we're seeing about this warning is he's trying to sell a product that is doing exactly what he's warning is going to happen.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: There's a lot there and I don't know. It's one of the things I got to think about for a while before I land on on this one, but important, nonetheless. Thanks for bringing it to us, Clare. It's good to see you.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, developing this morning the Treasury secretary says negotiations with China have stalled and it comes as the president's entire tariff policy hangs in the balance as courts weigh in with new rulings. A stunning allegation by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem accusing an

undocumented migrant of sending a threatening letter to the president. But questions this morning about who actually wrote it.

And then the shocking advice from Suge Knight from behind bars to Sean Combs. How he says Combs should handle his sex trafficking trial.

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

This morning first they were on then they were off. Now they are back on. I'm talking about the president's tariffs. So U.S. appeals court reinstated the president's sweeping levies against dozens of America's trading partners. Reinstated at least for now. It came less than 24 hours after a U.S. trade court temporarily blocked them. The president then posted a call for the Supreme Court to permanently reverse that earlier ruling against him.

And he slammed the three judge panel that found that he illegally overstepped his authority. He called them quote, back room hustlers.

Now all of this tariff whiplash is making it pretty hard for U.S. businesses to budget, to plan ahead, to make or take orders because they really don't know what will happen tomorrow or next week or next month.

With us now is one of the small business owners who filed the lawsuit against the president that set off this whole thing. Victor Owen Schwartz is the founder of a wine import company based in New York and the lead plaintiff in the suit. We're also joined by his attorney, Reilly Stephens.

Great to see you Victor.

VICTOR OWEN SCHWARTZ, FOUNDER, V.O.S. SELECTIONS: Great to see you.

BERMAN: So what do you do now?

SCHWARTZ: What do we do now? We wake up and rub our crystal ball and try to figure out what the tariffs are going to be this morning.

BERMAN: But seriously.

SCHWARTZ: Yes.

BERMAN: When you got the news that your suit had won at least in the trade court what was your reaction.

SCHWARTZ: I knew it was the first step. I, you know, I was of course elated. And so just so pleased that that the judges ruled properly and the way we thought they should.

But at the same time we knew there was going to be at least one if not two appeals. And you know, we'd had to go through the legal process. So we weren't lowering our prices or anything like that.

BERMAN: What's the bottom line? How have the tariffs so far affected your business?

SCHWARTZ: Well, I mean we've had to do a lot of planning to have enough capital to pay for those tariffs. You know, it takes us two months to ship. We have to post our prices a month and a half in advance.

So we have to do so much planning in advance. And then when you have something as impactful as a 10 percent 20 percent 50 percent tariff, whatever Mr. Trump decides that morning, you have to have the cash to pay for that. We don't get our -- we don't get our goods out of the port until we pay.

BERMAN: And it has a cost more money already.

SCHWARTZ: Of course it's cost more money. You know, we have to plan for that. And our costs are going up.

BERMAN: Have you passed those costs on to the consumer?

SCHWARTZ: Well we have to be very careful. We raise prices very, very strategically. If we have goods and we think they're going to last a certain amount of time, you know, then we are going to only raise the price as much as necessary. But our prices have not gone up maybe more than 5 percent.

Yes, we have eaten some of the tariffs. Thank you very much Mr. Trump.

[08:05:00]

You know, we're trying to work with our customers, with our suppliers and make the thing work and get through it just as we did during tariffs 1.0.

BERMAN: Let me ask about the next legal steps here, counselor. How quickly do you think that this will be resolved?

REILLY STEPHENS, LAW FIR REPRESENTS SMALL BUSINESSES SUING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OVER TARIFFS: So I don't think it will take all that long, but much longer I'm sure than Victor would prefer. But the what happened yesterday was that the Court of Federal Claims, which is the Court of Appeals, the Federal Circuit, which is the Court of Appeals that covers the Port of International Trade, issued a temporary administrative stay just to give themselves a moment to read the papers. They just got this last night or night before and they wanted to take their time.

And so they've given us until the 5th and the government until the 9th to respond. So on that schedule, this will take a couple of weeks for this to hash out on the stay motions. And then, you know, the ultimately the government is in the driver's seat in terms of they could try and go to the Supreme Court in the meantime because they will they are the losers in the district court. And so, you know, this is their appeal. So you'd have to ask them.

But, you know, we think that the Supreme Court probably will have to say something about this sooner rather than later. I just know that for small business owners like Victor all across the country later needs to come a lot sooner.

BERMAN: How do you feel, counselor, about this Supreme Court weighing in on this case?

STEPHENS: Well, you know, I never count my chickens before they're hatched. But the Supreme Court has been very clear, particularly in recent years, that a president shouldn't be making these broad claims of authority based on these vague statutes that, you know, Congress said generally, you know, regulate trade and to take that as an all encompassing power to set unlimited tariffs on any country at any rate at any time at the president's whim and caprice.

That is exactly so -- that is exactly the sort of thing the Supreme Court rejected in the Ocean Mandate case, rejected in the eviction moratorium case, rejected in the student loan case. And we think they should reject it here.

BERMAN: So, Victor, it's interesting. There's this trend for investors. And I assume you're not an investor. This is your life. This is, you know, this is everything invested.

SCHWARTZ: Yes, that's true.

BERMAN: You've got everything invested. This is your daily job. But then you have the investors on the market, in the markets.

And there's this idea, this word that's been floated by a Financial Times reporter, the TACO trade, that Trump always chickens out. And now investors on Wall Street are starting to be like, look, the president will make these threats, but eventually the tariffs come down. Have you adjusted to any of that in your business?

SCHWARTZ: You know, we have to do so much advanced planning. I don't know how we would adjust to that. You know, we're, as I said, we're trying to be strategic and be conservative in our decision making.

But some of these things just come out of the blue. I mean, if there were a 50 percent tariff, for instance, I don't know what we would do with that. We had a, we had a boat arrive on, you know, on Tuesday of next week, and then we pay 50 percent tariff. That would, that would sink us.

BERMAN: And so 50 percent tariff. So that's because a lot of your wine comes from the EU, yes.

SCHWARTZ: Yes. A good chunk of it. Although, you know, 25, 30 percent is domestic too. You know, like most distributors, we have a full range, an international range of wine spirits and sakes.

BERMAN: By the way, sake is excellent. But what if it goes down to 10 percent, which is sort of the default now, how much of a bite would that still take?

SCHWARTZ: It's a bite, but you know, it's about stability.

BERMAN: Right.

SCHWARTZ: I mean, if we'd been living with 10 percent tariffs this whole time, like that was the deal. OK, boom, 10 percent. You would adjust. That would be what you know. But it's the instability is just as bad as these tariffs.

BERMAN: Listen, let's share a bottle of sake sometime.

SCHWARTZ: Oh, I would love that.

BERMAN: You're going to need it. I think in the coming weeks and months, get based on --

SCHWARTZ: No hangover from sake.

BERMAN: I'm told how the whiplash goes here. Great to see you there, thank you. Counselor to you as well. We appreciate your time.

SCHWARTZ: Thank you very much.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's really great to hear from the people at the center of all of this now. Great interview, John.

Coming up next hour, the racketeering and trafficking trial of Sean Diddy Combs resumes and one of his alleged victims will be back on the stand.

Yesterday, the court heard emotional and painful testimony from a former assistant of Combs, a woman only known to the public as Mia, as she was granted anonymity.

She broke down on the stand as it's described by our teams, testifying that Combs sexually abused her and allegedly raped her recalling quote, It's the most traumatizing, the worst thing that's ever happened to me. And also recalling that she, what she described as violent outbursts and blackmail threats from Combs.

She testified, she witnessed Combs abused Cassie Ventura so much so she said that she feared for Cassie's life.

CNN's Kara Scannell is outside of court. And Kara, you were inside for this testimony. You heard all of this yesterday.

What was that like and what is going to happen then today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. Yes, when Mia, the personal assistant, was testifying, she stammered and at times had difficulty getting the words out. And her body language was telling.

Her head was facing down for most of her testimony where the most visible part of her was the part in her hair. And when she turned to those allegations of sexual assault, it's when her voice fell to a near whisper and you could hear a pin drop in the courtroom. And in that testimony, she said she'd been working for Combs for just a few months the first time he sexually assaulted her.

She said it was at his 40th birthday party in a penthouse suite at the Plaza Hotel. They had taken two shots in the kitchen and she said Combs leaned in and kissed her. Another time, she said that as part of her employment, the first several years, she actually lived in one of Combs' homes, so did security members.

But she said the rule was that there were no locks on the door. And one time she said she woke up feeling the weight of someone on top of her. It was Combs. And she said that he raped her.

She was asked what if she ever said no to him. And she testified, I couldn't tell him no. I couldn't tell him no about a sandwich. I couldn't tell him no about anything.

She also detailed what it was like to work for Combs, saying in her first day, she worked 24 hours straight. She was taking extended release Adderall to keep up with the pace. And in an e-mail that was shown to the jury, she described to a colleague what her workday could be like.

She said it changed every day. PD can ask you to do 17,000 things at one time that range from cracking his knuckles to writing his next movie to doing his taxes. He can also just have you standing next to him for 22 hours and not ask you one thing.

She also corroborated some of what Cassie Ventura herself testified about some of the abuse Ventura suffered. She provided her own firsthand account of that. And she also described being with Ventura once when she received a message from Combs about one of the, quote, hotel nights. And she said that Ventura became physically sick.

So this witness will be back on the stand this morning. Prosecutors will continue to question her, and then it will be the defense's turn to question her. One of the lawyers for Combs said he expects that to go all day -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Wow. There's a lot there. And that woman has a lot that she's still going to be going through and retelling in this testimony today.

Kara, thank you so much. So important that you're in there. We really appreciate it.

Coming up for us still, the White House wants immigration agents to triple the amount of migrants that they are arresting each day. And sources, though, now say the surge in arrests and deportations is already straining resources and could pose an even greater threat now.

And sources tell CNN a New York City police detective assigned to Mayor Eric Adams security detail will be questioned, all in connection with the bizarre kidnapping and torture plot of a man over his Bitcoin password, why they think the detective is allegedly connected.

Plus, a critical new report out just minutes from now with new numbers on inflation during the back and forth of President Trump's trade war.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: White House demand to triple the daily number of migrant apprehensions is putting a big strain on federal law enforcement. The Trump administration wants to see one million deportations a year. This has shifted focus from other critical investigations.

One FBI source tells CNN supervisors are telling agents not to document the move away from high-priority cases.

Let's get right to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who's done so much reporting on this. How much of a strain is this really placing on these agencies?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a strain because these agencies have multiple priorities, not just immigration, but the entire administration has shifted to making this the number one priority. And this is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to build up immense manpower to meet the lofty goals that are being set by the White House, most recently that they want to triple the number of immigration arrests that they are making daily.

That is difficult for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to do alone because they only have about 6,000 agents. So with that limited personnel and limited resources, they have been looking to and asking other agencies to step up. That includes, for example, as you see there, those 500 CBP officers, 600 DEA agents, 300 ATF agents and 300 U.S. Marshals.

Now for the FBI, sources tell CNN that they are providing or offering incentives for them to participate in this as they sort of shift their priorities to work on these immigration arrests.

Immigration arrests, John, that are not always those with criminal records, which of course can come and become a part of the tension here among agencies, agencies that typically do target criminals.

Now the FBI in a statement said, quote, Our agents and support staff are dedicated professionals working around the clock to defend the homeland and crush violent crime. We are proud to work with our interagency partners to keep the American people safe.

But part of this, John, is that there is frustration within the White House that arrests aren't where they want them to be, hovering around 1,000 a day when they want them to be 3,000 a day to try again to meet their million deportations annually. Take a listen to what White House borders czar, Tom Homan, had to say about these numbers just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: I have not been satisfied with the numbers. Kristi Noem, Steve Miller, myself, we all want more numbers.

[08:20:00] So we've increased the teams a lot. We're increased targeting a lot. So we expect a fast increase in number of arrests every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: What they're also doing is changing leadership at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Just yesterday, two senior officials, one retiring, another being reassigned. And in announcing those changes, ICE said that this was part of their efforts to ramp up arrests.

This is just another shakeup happening at ICE, which is indicative, again, of the pressure that is being placed by the White House to increase the arrests, increase the deportations with the very limited resources that they have so far -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, again, you know, policies do come at a cost. There are often tradeoffs to be made when you're pushing one agenda here. Priscilla Alvarez, great reporting. Thank you very much.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, we were just talking about her, said a migrant threatened to kill President Trump and had him arrested. Questions this morning about whether it was a setup.

And a look at stock futures this morning. We're just minutes away from a key inflation report, and futures have turned negative. There are some rumblings now.

President Trump just posted on talks with China, new rifts emerging, important rifts emerging between the U.S. and China as these talks seem to have stalled.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: The details -- we have new details this morning, in the bizarre cryptocurrency kidnapping and torture case out of New York. We're now learning that two NYPD detectives are being questioned in connection with the plot. Still not clear what, if anything, they knew, but multiple law enforcement officials tell CNN one of the detectives allegedly delivered the victim to his tormentors. Two men have been charged in this violent scheme.

CNN's Josh Campbell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A daring escape captured on this video, obtained exclusively by CNN. The alleged victim, an unidentified Italian cryptocurrency trader who prosecutors say was held hostage for several weeks in Manhattan.

Two men are now charged with kidnapping and assault, among other counts.

In Paris, four masked men attempting to kidnap the daughter and grandson of a French cryptocurrency executive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get off, sir.

CAMPBELL: Coming after two other kidnappings in France that involved hand-and-finger mutilations as part of demands for ransom.

And last year, a judge in Florida sentenced a man to 47 years in prison for stealing more than $3.5 million in virtual currency after he and coconspirators targeted victims in violent home invasions.

ARI REDBORD, GLOBAL HEAD OF POLICY, TRM LABS: They're just criminal gangs who are looking to go where the money is to steal large amounts.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): Law enforcement is now ramping up efforts to combat these emerging threats, called wrench attacks, that target victims with physical violence or threats and coerce them to reveal crypto passwords.

REDBORD: Bad actors can move funds faster and in larger amounts than ever before. And that's why they're moving quickly in these types of cases to try to get that -- those passwords and move the funds.

ADAM HEALY, CEO, STATION70: This is only getting worse.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): While criminals face the risk of being caught, they potentially stand to reap millions. And experts say physical threats of violence require much less sophistication.

HEALY: Being able to break a human is actually not as hard as oftentimes as breaking a safe or breaking some smart contract or breaking some encryption.

CAMPBELL (voice-over): This month, federal prosecutors announced charges against 12 people for stealing more than $263 million in virtual currency by hacking into cryptocurrency databases and defrauding victims through bogus schemes.

According to the indictment, the men used the money for nightclub services, exotic cars, jewelry, luxury goods and renting private jets and mansions.

The FBI is seeing an explosion in cyber-related complaints from victims, pointing to a new record for losses reported in 2024. The reported losses from cryptocurrency fraud alone more than $9 billion.

Security experts say the actual number of violent threats related to cryptocurrency is likely severely underreported. And in an age where companies have spent billions to lock down their computer networks from intrusion, now the physical safety of cryptocurrency users can't be ignored.

HEALY: You can have executive protection. Your board can get engaged. But at the end of the day, you're your own first responder. You need to have situational awareness. You need to be aware of your surroundings. CAMPBELL: Now, an important update on that New York case that we just brought you. We're learning from multiple law enforcement sources that an NYPD detective who was assigned to the security detail of Mayor Eric Adams was working off duty at a private security job and allegedly delivered the victim to his tormentors.

It remains a big question for investigators right now whether that detective actually knew what was about to transpire. We're told that remains under investigation.

Now, I've spoken with people in the crypto industry who point out that the odds of a violent incident like this happening is very low when you think of the millions and millions of crypto owners around the world.

But this is very much the evolution of crime. You know, three decades ago there was a surge in bank robberies because that's where the money is. Today, these crypto markets are becoming very lucrative targets for these thieves.

Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Josh, thank you so much for that.

Still ahead for us, wildfires are triggering the biggest evacuation in recent memory. Thousands forced from their homes in Canada with wildfires burning in at least three provinces.

And we have a winner, the 13-year-old from Texas who just took home the top prize at the premier spelling competition. And he is our guest.

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