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Firebombing Attack Suspect Charged With Hate Crime, Attempted Murder; White House to Send DOGE Cuts to Congress to Approve; Instagram Video Appears to Show Escaped Louisiana Inmate. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired June 03, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a federal hate crimes charge for the man accused of the anti-Semitic attack on a gathering of Jewish demonstrators in Colorado. New details also this morning on what the suspect told police once in custody.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And happening today, the White House suspected to send its $9.4 billion package of DOGE cuts to Congress as Republicans draw their lines in the sand over President Trump's spending bill.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And what did President Trump and rappers Meek Mill and Lil Wayne have in common? They were all mentioned in a new Instagram post made by a man claiming to be one of the inmates who escaped from a New Orleans prison.

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

BOLDUAN: This morning, hate and horror. We have new details coming in about the anti-Semitic attack in Boulder, Colorado, that left at least 12 people injured, some severely. The suspect is now charged with a federal hate crime and 16 counts of attempted murder. The FBI initially described it as a targeted terror attack, but as of now, no terror related charges have been filed.

So, a lot though coming out in court documents though. They say the suspect who's seen in this video we're showing you right here, they say that he planned the attack for a year. Officials said that he yelled, free Palestine, as he used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to set people on fire during a peaceful march in support of these Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

Now, after the attack, the district attorney says 16 unused Molotov cocktails were recovered, basically suggesting this could have still been a whole lot worse.

The suspect, an Egyptian national made his first appearance in court on Monday. Homeland Security says he is in the United States illegally. According to the arrest warrant, he learned how to make Molotov cocktails after he was rejected, he tried to and was unable to buy a gun because he is not a legal citizen.

CNN's Whitney Wild is at the scene in Boulder following all of this and a lot more we learned since we last spoke yesterday. Whitney?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Kate, there's so much more detail coming out in court records this morning. Law enforcement really stressed those 16 unused Molotov cocktails and the fact, as you had mentioned, that he tried to buy a gun. He went so far, Kate, as to take a concealed carry class. He intended for this to be much deadlier.

But the court records described this moment during when this attack happened and he threw the first two Molotov cocktails and then he told law enforcement he actually got scared. He sort of recoiled because he had never hurt anyone before. But even still, they say that he told law enforcement in his interviews after this attack that he would do it again.

As you'd mentioned, we're learning more about the victims today. The number of victims has gone from 8 to 12. We know that they range in age from 52 to 88 years old. Sadly, horrifyingly, one of those victims is a Holocaust survivor.

Law enforcement really praised not just the law enforcement response. It was quick. They were able to apprehend the suspect really, really quickly, but also the reaction from the community. People rushed into help when they saw that there were people who were injured. Here's what one witness saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON BROOKS, WITNESSED ATTACK: I don't want to just move on. I want to make sure that the truth is told, you know? I want to make sure that people know clearly this was an anti-Semitic attack. I was here. I heard what he said. I heard him clearly say, you're burning my people, or you burnt my people. I immediately saw this guy standing here, the guy here, smoke here, blood over here, smoke coming -- literally coming from a human being.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: We are also learning more about the suspect, Mohamed Sabry Solinman. He's the father of five children. He actually -- his daughter graduated high school. She graduated on Thursday. He actually left messages for his family in an iPhone that was later turned over to police.

Again, Kate we're learning much more about his legal status. What we know is that he had previously applied for a visa, that's according to law enforcement sources telling John Miller, that he had applied as early as 2005.

[07:05:01]

He was denied. He later came over on a non-immigrant visa in August of 2022. He was able to gain a work authorization in March of 2023, but that expired. And the Department of Homeland Security and the White House are saying squarely he is in the country illegally.

Law enforcement in their press conference yesterday has really stressed a couple of things, first, again, how much deadlier this could have been. And then finally, Kate, and I'll leave you with this, there are charges at the state level, there's more than 40 charges at the state level, the maximum prison sentence there could be more than 400 years behind bars. As you mentioned, there's this Department of Justice hate crime charge, that with an attempted murder, could carry also life behind bars.

And, again, I'll leave you with this law enforcement chair, the Department of Justice, the state authorities here stressed the cooperation that they were able to work so well together. That's how they were able to bring these charges so quickly, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Whitney, thank you very much. She's going to be back in court again Thursday. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now is Daniel Brunner, retired FBI special agent. Thank you so much for being with us. A lot of charges filed already, but no terror charges specifically yet. Why not? What should we read into that?

DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, I don't think we really should read into anything since it's so soon after the attack, but there's a lot that needs to be done by the federal authorities, including coordinating with locals. There's a lot of evidence and a lot of that needs to be collected, made sure that everything is in place.

The investigation still is in its infancy stages. There's a lot of probably digital evidence. They're going to look at his social media content, all of his phones, all of their conversations, they're going to look for if he was -- you know, it was an outside element, if there was an extremism that he was influenced overseas. That's what they're going to need for an international terrorism charge. Unfortunately, there are no domestic terrorism charges.

So, if this is going in the direction of what it appears to be, that this is a lone wolf attack, that he wasn't influenced by overseas actors, that these charges, you know, the hate crimes, the civil rights violations in line with the Colorado state laws, I think that's what we're going to be looking at right now. But it's still very young, in its infancy stages. The FBI cart team, the evidence response teams, they're going to be looking at everything, all of his actions over the last few days. Those are the things that really needs to still be conducted.

So, yes, there could be some federal charges now in the short-term to just hold, have a federal charge over him, but there's still a lot more that can still be done in the further days and weeks.

BERMAN: One of the things that we've learned from some of these documents is that allegedly this attack was been planned for more than a year. And when you hear that, you say, well, shouldn't there have been signs? Why didn't anyone pick something up? But why is that easier said than done?

BRUNNER: Well, that is easier said than done because the lone wolf attack, without a doubt, is the most difficult to defend against, because the individual is just moving themselves forward along the pathway of violence. There is no other groups that they're coordinating with. There's nobody supporting them. They're not looking to build a larger explosive, like other FBI investigations where there could be informants, there could be undercover agents that could be providing and collecting that evidence along the pathway. And then we stop the individual right before they're going to initiate the attack.

A lone wolf attack is just a individual whose -- you know, their purpose, they feel that their extremism only they can move forward, the attack. So, those are the most difficult to stop, and those are the ones that the intelligence is very difficult to collect from.

BERMAN: Which is why they're trying to learn as much as they possibly can right now to learn if anyone else was involved.

Daniel Brunner, thank you very much for your help on this. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, the $9.4 billion DOGE cuts package the White House is sending to Congress may not be the only one.

And what is a man claiming to be one of the inmates who escaped New Orleans Prison asking of rappers Lil Wayne and Meek Mill and President Trump?

And tourists running for their lives as Mount Etna, the largest volcano in Europe, erupts in a fiery explosion.

Those stories are more ahead.

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SIDNER: Happening today, a key test for the Trump administration. The White House will send parts of its long awaited rescission package to Congress. Their goal, to get lawmakers to approve many of the controversial cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. Russell Vought, the Office of Management and Budgets director, told our Dana Bash this first package is expected to include $9.4 billion in cuts to funding that had previously been approved by Congress, including cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us this morning. Alayna, what are you learning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Sara. I mean, this rescissions package comes after a long internal battle here at the White House over how to really formalize the cuts laid out by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. Now, the $9.4 billion package being sent to Capitol Hill today is just a portion, of course, of the cuts that Elon Musk and DOGE has made over his time here, but it also falls very well short of the multi-trillion dollar aspirations that Musk had.

[07:15:00]

Now, we have heard, as you mentioned, from the president's budget chief, Russell Vought. He said that this is essentially just one part of a broader number of packages that they're hoping to send to Capitol Hill, to formally codify and really make more permanent these cuts laid out by DOGE. I want you to take a listen though to how he framed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSSELL VOUGHT, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF BUDGET AND MANAGEMENT: I want to see if it passes. I think we're very interested to make sure it passes both the House and the Senate. But we're very open to sending multiple bills.

We want to send up general rescissions bills to use the process if it's appropriate to get them through the House and the Senate. We also have pocket rescissions.

So, there's a lot of things that we're looking at all of them here towards figuring out how to make these cuts permanent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, Sara, part of this as well, and, really, this is, as you framed, I think exactly right, a key test of how they're going to do this. Because when I talk to Trump administration officials, White House officials, they say they want to see how this rescissions package goes down on Capitol Hill first, and then they will consider how to more formally do this with other of the cuts that Elon Musk and DOGE have laid out. You mentioned this, but NPR, PBS, those are all included in the rescissions package. The cuts to those different agencies are included in that package that's going to Capitol Hill today.

But, look, all of this comes, of course, as the president and his team have a much bigger battle ahead of them over the next four weeks, and that is trying to really push through his, you know, quote/unquote, one big, beautiful bill through the Senate. They got it through the House. But House Republicans now have a new slew of challenges that they are presenting to the White House. And from my conversations with White House officials, they are very heavily involved still four weeks out from their self-imposed July 4th deadline of trying to get that bill through, of really trying to, you know, talk with these different senators, these holdouts who are bringing their concerns to the White House, all to say it's still very much an uphill battle.

And White House officials tell me, as long as the president gets what he wants in that bill through, which is what he's been saying for, you know, no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, et cetera, he is okay with some changes, all of that still to come over these next couple of days. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Lots going on, Alayna Treene, thank you so much. I appreciate it there live from the White House for us. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, a new clue in the search for one of the Louisiana inmates that is still on the run now, weeks later, police are now investigating a social media video by a man claiming to be one of those inmates.

And sources say the acting head of FEMA told staff during a briefing that he was previously unaware that the United States had a hurricane season. The Department of Homeland Security says those comments were made in jest.

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BOLDUAN: New this morning, police and U.S. Marshals are investigating a video that appears to show one of the remaining escaped inmates who broke out of that New Orleans jail last month. The video, which was posted to Instagram and then later taken down, shows a man identifying himself as Antoine Massey.

In the video, the man declares his innocence and then begs for help from the likes of Donald Trump, Lil Wayne and Meek Mill.

CNN's Ryan Young joins us now with much more on this. This video could be crucial for investigators, but what are you hearing about this?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This video, this story has all taken another twist and another turn. First, there was that escape that everyone sort of scratched their head at because they're still trying to figure out how the men got through that hole inside that jail. But at the same time, this video does give some context clues in terms of maybe where he is, maybe they're trying to track the cell phone, maybe they're trying to track the account. These are all things that they have been doing. And for the past 18 days, we've been calling our sources across four different states to ask what's going on with this search.

Antoine Massey looked directly into the camera. He basically said, hey, I'm innocent, but, look, let's just take a listen and see what he says himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what I'm saying? When I get back in custody, I'm asking you all please to come and help. Yes, I'm saying I'm asking the world, so I'm letting you all know I'm not (INAUDIBLE), man. I'm none of that, none of that. I'm a good person.

My name is Antoine Massey. I'm asking for help. I was one of the ones that was let out all this parish jail on May the 16th, on May the 15, 2025. So, please, Meek Mills, Donald Trump, Lil Wayne, please help me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So, you see how that has been put together at this point, and he's begging for someone to help him.

Now, one of the things he claims in this video is that he's being held on a charge that should have gone away right now, he actually is holding an affidavit and he's saying that, look, I've been cleared of this crime. And you can hold me on this one, but it goes into that, conversation there.

Let's not forget the reward has been raised at $50,000 in connection with tips to find and capture this man. The Orleans Parish posted on Facebook that they are aware of the video and they hope that Massey turns himself in. It doesn't seem like he's ready to do that yet.

As you look at the video screen next to me, you can see all the people who have been captured so far. Groves is still on the run. One of the things we talked to investigators about is they believe that these two men, Groves with Massey, would not get on the internet and they would be smart enough to sort of avoid a digital footprint. It seems like Massey, who's escaped before, wanted to get his message out there, and he's done that at this point. Let's not forget the Marshal Service is still out there searching for these two men.

BOLDUAN: That's exactly right. All right, Ryan, thank you for putting it all together for us. Let's see what the next turn in this one. I really appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, President Trump turning the screws on members of his own party behind closed doors as he races to get the centerpiece of his legislative agenda across the finish line.

[07:25:05]

And then one of the biggest upsets in sports history, really, how the 361st ranked player in the world managed to defeat the world number three at the French Open.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, we're getting a look inside the filing from Harvard University, arguing how the Trump administration cutting off funding for the university is hurting more than just Harvard.

[07:30:04]

The university says a Defense Department official warned the Trump administration that canceling a $12 million.