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2 Chinese Researchers Charged with Smuggling Bio-Pathogen into U.S.; Trump's 50 Percent Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Take Effect; Family of Firebombing Suspect Taken into ICE Custody, Visas Revoked; Another Accuser Takes the Stand Against Sean Combs. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 04, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'll be more of an implication for you, but you can see just how wet it's been across South Florida. Lots of showers and thunderstorms across the region. By the way, we were monitoring the potential for some tropical development off the southeast coast, but it looks like that will be more of an inland type thing.

And also something interesting to note, Kate, Saharan dust suppresses hurricane activity. So we want more of this, actually. Back to you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That is fascinating. Wow. OK. Derek, there's a twist I wasn't anticipating on this one. It's good to see you. Thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news, smuggling fungus. Now a brewing international incident.

Two Chinese researchers charged with sneaking a biological pathogen into the United States tied to billions of dollars in crop damage.

President Trump likes to say it's so easy to make deals, but a short time ago he lamented how hard it is to make a deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. This as he doubled tariffs on steel overnight.

And lies, a former lover and one hundred thousand dollars in cash. Explosive new testimony in the criminal sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs as someone he called his quote, angel is set to take the stand this morning.

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

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This just into us this morning. An alarming headline from the FBI. Two Chinese researchers have been charged with allegedly smuggling a biological pathogen into the United States, a dangerous fungus that could be used as an agro terrorism weapon. The FBI says the pathogen could devastate crops like corn, rice and barley and causes billions of dollars in economic losses already worldwide each year. CNN's Katelyn Polantz is joining me now. Give us some sense of about the details on these charges here and what these two people are being charged with.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, this is a case where the allegations are about agro terrorism and the weapon of fungus potentially being used or potentially coming into the U.S. in a way that could harm people and livestock, ruin crops and make you very, very sick if anyone was exposed to it.

It's a fungus that there was a researcher, a female researcher in China who she had worked on it. She had then come to the U.S. to work on other things, working in a Texas lab and then at the University of Michigan. And last year, that is when her boyfriend came into the U.S. on a tourist visa, allegedly bringing this substance into the U.S., fusarium, this fungus that can make you very, very sick.

The boyfriend did speak to the FBI. And now there are four charges that these two are facing. Defrauding the U.S., smuggling false statements and visa fraud. But the implication here from the Justice Department is this is a bigger threat than what these charges on their face look like because the potential damage of this agro terrorism fungus that was coming into the U.S.

These people did have the ability to have an affiliation with the University of Michigan. And we did get a statement from the attorney general, Pam Bondi.

Now, she says the Justice Department has no higher mission than keeping the American people safe and protecting our nation from hostile foreign actors.

Thanks to the hard work of our excellent DOJ attorneys, this defendant, who clandestinely attempted to bring a destructive substance into the United States, will face years behind bars.

One of the two people in this couple has been arrested and has already gone before a judge and is in custody, although we don't have a full indictment yet that would have gone through a grand jury or a pleading from this researcher. Instead, there's going to be a detention hearing tomorrow in federal court in Michigan.

It is a major case and it brings in a lot of questions about what has been happening and how the Trump administration is responding to people like this, how they will be charged eventually -- Sara.

SIDNER: Katelyn Polantz, some great reporting there and very good that you noted that this can make you sick as well as damaged crops. Really appreciate your reporting this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also breaking overnight, the new, new escalation in President Trump's trade war tariffs now doubled on all steel and aluminum imports coming into the United States. A move that could raise the cost on quite a lot, like building new homes, making new cars, appliances, even the cans used for so much that we buy at the grocery store. The president's executive order taking effect just after midnight, they've gone up from 25 percent to now 50 percent.

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The American steel industry is applauding this move, but economists are warning of the fallout that could come from it. Show you a live look right now of the markets, how the markets are reacting so far.

U.S. stock futures, they are up. They have been up all throughout the morning ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street next hour. Let's talk about the impact of this move going into effect today.

Joining us right now is William Hauk, associate professor of economics at the University of South Carolina. Thanks for being here. Let's start with just what we're seeing this morning in the markets, if you could.

Why do you think that the market seems to not be reacting to the news of new tariffs going into effect?

WILLIAM HAUK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA: Possibly a lot of it may already be priced in. This has been announced now for a few days. And you saw a big jump when it when it was first announced -- or really more decline when it was first announced.

And so some of this is already priced in, could be a little bit longer before we see it more downstream in consumer goods. But it's definitely a very large increase.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and that's what I wanted to ask you. The steel industry has applauded this move, saying, and I'll read for you, it says, quote, This action will strengthen a vital industry that has suffered from global overcapacity, largely driven by China.

What do they hope is going to happen? Let's just start there.

HAUK: I think the steel industry would like to see less competition from overseas. That's what a protective tariff is going to do, is it's going to make imports more expensive. Now, this would hopefully over time, from the steel industry's perspective, allow them to expand capacity, expand employment.

And when we've done this in the past, we've seen that a little bit. But it comes at a very large cost to downstream industries that use steel and aluminum, which is quite a few.

BOLDUAN: How significant is this increase to what you're talking about the downstream influence and when we will see that?

HAUK: Yes, so this is the largest across the board steel and aluminum tariffs that we've seen really since the 1930s. We haven't seen anything like this in a very long time. Now, when we've seen it before, like the 25 percent level, like we had back in 2018, it's estimated that it costs somewhere on the order of about 75,000 manufacturing jobs. Now, if we're talking double that, I mean, we can extrapolate. It's a little bit hard to say because we've never seen it this high before. But you would not expect this would be good for many American manufacturing as a whole.

BOLDUAN: And that's something that Matt Egan, one of my colleagues, brought that data in that you were just mentioning, brought that data into me yesterday. And it was something I was thinking about because he had this data that showed what happened last time, which is the hope is right, they -- Trump wants to bring -- using the tariffs to bring American manufacturing back.

Last time that he did this, it didn't seem to happen. Yes, you see the steel industry gained a thousand jobs, but manufacturing, as you just noted last time around, lost about 75,000 jobs. And so is there, in your view, any way that it could be different this time or just be worse?

HAUK: I think the most likely outcome is that it will be worse. Again, it's hard to quantify in some ways because it's just higher than we have ever seen in a very long time. But all of the indicators have shown in the past that when we increase steel and aluminum tariffs, most of that cost gets passed along first to the manufacturers to use it and then eventually to the downstream customers who are buying cars, refrigerators, home appliances, new home construction.

All of that gets hit as a result of these tariffs.

BOLDUAN: The president's commentary overnight about the now stalled negotiations over trade with China is he called the President Xi Jinping, which I don't know if it should be surprising, but did say that he is very tough and extremely hard to make a deal with. How much does this deal, renegotiating trade with China matter to the success or failure of Trump's entire tariff agenda? Because that's part of what these steel and aluminum tariffs are targeting.

HAUK: Sure. I mean, I think we can to some extent separate out what's going on on a bilateral basis between the U.S. and China and what's happening with the U.S.'s other trading partners around the world. You know, there are some national security arguments that argue for being tough on China and great.

But I think the thing that's really disturbing about these tariffs is that they don't target just China. They target everybody. And I think that's what is really potentially damaging to the economy.

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So, yes, deal with China would be nice. But I think there's two tracks here. One, there's trade with China and two, there's trade with everybody else. And this is affecting trade with everybody else.

BOLDUAN: William Hauk, thanks so much for coming in this morning. Appreciate your time -- John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, the family of the man charged in the anti-Semitic attack in Colorado has been detained, now facing expedited removal from the United States.

We're moments away from new testimony in the criminal sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs. New details on a trail of money and an alleged cover-up as Combs faces the potential of life in prison.

And President Trump uncharacteristically quiet this morning after Elon Musk called the centerpiece of his legislative agenda a, quote, disgusting abomination.

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BERMAN: So tomorrow the suspect in the anti-Semitic firebombing attack in Colorado will appear in state court. He faces dozens of state charges in addition to the federal hate crime charge. Now his wife and five children have been detained, their visas revoked, and they face expedited removal from the United States.

With us now is the attorney general of Colorado, Phil Weiser. Thank you so much for being with us. Let me first ask you about that federal decision to detain the family and apparently very shortly to remove them from the United States.

What is your view of that?

PHIL WEISER, COLORADO ATTORNEY GENERAL: My view is it's critical that our immigration system work under the rule of law, according everyone due process of law. Expedited removal is a rare, but it's a constitutional procedure. The critical fact of our immigration system is we have a backlog of over a million people who've gone through procedures like this, who haven't yet actually been deported.

That's where our focus should be when we talk about immigration. The climate of fear we're in, where so many people who are in a range of different statuses are being targeted often in haphazard ways. And obviously we've talked a lot about denial of due process.

This procedure will go forward. And if the individuals don't have any basis for staying here, they can be removed. As long as the procedure goes forward under the rule of law, under due process of law, that's how our system works.

BERMAN: And you would support that removal if it goes forward under due process?

WEISER: The important part about due process is if someone has a basis to stay here, they have a legitimate claim for asylum that they're threatened, that's going to get evaluated by a independent fact finder. And that's how our immigration system should work. It should work based on the facts, based on the law.

It shouldn't be targeting people in ways that are haphazard, in ways that deny due process, or in ways that are based on fear, not based on facts.

BERMAN: But just, are you saying this is haphazard or based on fear?

WEISER: This is a procedure that's been used before, an expedited procedure. And the point is, they may have a claim for asylum, they may not. That'll get decided by the process. And that's how it should work.

BERMAN: As I said, there is a state hearing tomorrow for the man charged in this attack. A lot is already known, but what questions do you still have in this investigation, in this case?

WEISER: One of the questions that's still out there, and this is part of the process of asking what could we have done differently, what do we learn, is this individual tried to buy a firearm. That's something that is unlikely to come up directly into the state case, but as we learn more, it's worth understanding that our Colorado system did work here. There was a denial of this requested purchase of the firearm, and that information should have been given to the federal government, could have been looked at, again, we're not sure what happened on that front.

With regards to the case itself, the individual has basically said, I wish I had killed people, I came wanting to kill people, I'm sorry I didn't kill people. So this is not a situation where there are a lot of facts in dispute. It's clear what he was trying to do, it's clear it was motivated by anti-Semitism and by hate, and the charges are very severe, both federal and state.

It's quite clear that there's going to be accountability here to the full extent of the law.

BERMAN: Attorney General, obviously this case happened in your state, but you also note that it is somewhat personal to you, how?

WEISER: My family came here after surviving the Holocaust. My grandmother actually gave birth to my mom in a Nazi concentration camp and was liberated by the U.S. Army, and my family's life story is United States of America promises safe and security to everyone. George Washington actually wrote a letter to a Rhode Island synagogue saying that in America's land where everyone can live safely under his own vine and fig tree, that was popularized in the Hamilton musical, and that was something that my family lived.

And I lived during a time when anti-Semitism was not at the levels it is right now. I've seen it rising in recent years, that's even before October 7th, and we're now looking at this incident as an ugly face of what anti-Semitic hate and violence can look like. We've got to look in the eye and we've got to say never again.

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We've got to make sure we don't tolerate it. We take accountability seriously and we protect the Jewish community in Colorado and in America.

BERMAN: Do you understand why there are Jews in this country now who say they don't feel safe to live their life out in the open? WEISER: I understand that fear, and that's part of the challenge that we've got to come to grips with. There's a saying, the whole world is a narrow bridge and the important thing is not to be afraid. That's not to say we can't feel fear, but we can't be paralyzed by it.

I am proud of my Jewish heritage and I am going to continue to be open and proud of my Jewish heritage. And I want people to know -- Sunday we're having a Boulder Jewish festival, that it's safe to come and that we should come in numbers. We should make a statement standing together, both as Jews and as Coloradans and as Americans, that we don't tolerate this type of anti-Semitic behavior, that we are together and that we're going to protect one another.

This is a crucial moment for Colorado, for America to make that statement.

BERMAN: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, thank you for your time this morning. I appreciate it -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead soon.

WEIDER: Thank you.

SIDNER: Court will resume in the sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs, who we expect to take the stand today, another accuser.

Plus, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering the Navy to rename a ship named after assassinated gay rights icon Harvey Milk. Those stories and more ahead.

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SIDNER: A dramatic outburst in the trial of Sean Combs, a member of the public, screaming at Combs and removed from the courtroom. But the testimony has been just as dramatic. And today, we could hear from another accuser.

Already this week, former hotel security officer Eddy Garcia testifying that Combs paid him $100,000 for that now infamous video of Combs assaulting Cassie Ventura. Garcia said he gave the video to him and even signed a nondisclosure agreement.

CNN's Kara Scannell is outside the courthouse.

Garcia made several claims. What else happened in court and what are we expecting today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Sara. Yes, Eddy Garcia described in great detail this exchange, $100,000 for a copy of that hotel surveillance video. He said he had just begun his shift and was about an hour into it after everything had taken place that morning.

When there was a call to the security desk, he said he answered the phone. It was a woman describing herself as an assistant to Sean Combs. She wanted to see that video.

He told her he couldn't show it. But then not that long after, she showed up at the hotel, was in the lobby. He met with her. She asked to see it again. He said, off the record, it's not good.

And so then he said that it was then the next day that he was at home. And he received a phone call on his personal cell phone from the same assistant. She passed the phone to Sean Combs.

And according to Garcia, Combs said, He stated that I sounded like a good guy, that I sounded like I wanted to help, that something like this could ruin him.

This was all part of this effort to try to get the video. He testified that Combs told him he would take care of him. So when Garcia said he went into work that day, he met with his boss, and his boss said he would do it for $50,000.

Garcia then called back Combs and told him that they had a deal.

He testified that Combs said to him, Eddy, my angel, I knew you could help. I knew you could do it.

And they arranged to meet at a place for this exchange. Garcia testified that he arrived at a high-rise, met with Combs. Combs had, he handed over to Combs the USB drive with the video on it. And Combs had asked him, was this the only copy? So he called his boss, Garcia said, and he checked and he affirmed to him that it was.

Combs also wanted the driver's license copies for every security guard involved. His boss texted him over. Garcia gave them the Combs. He said Combs then returned with an NDA, a nondisclosure agreement, with his name already filled out on it, Garcia's name, and asked him to sign it, and also a sworn statement attesting that this was the only copy of that hotel surveillance video.

Garcia said that he did that. And then Combs returned from another room with a brown bag of money and a money counter, and he ran stacks of $10,000 through the machine, totaling $100,000. Now, this deal was only for $50,000, but Garcia said he understood this was Combs doing what he said he was going to do, which was to take care of him, and so he split the remainder with another security guard.

And then later in the testimony, the prosecution showed a contact from this personal assistant's cell phone. That contact said, Eddy, my angel in it, matching Garcia's phone number. So the prosecution linking this to Garcia's testimony.

Now, they also heard yesterday from the former chief financial officer of Bad Boy Records, who was testifying with bank records showing this -- confirming earlier testimony from Cassie Ventura's mother about a $20,000 payment that she made to Combs, which she said she made because she was scared for her daughter's safety, and that money went then back to Cassie Ventura's parents.

Now, also today, we're expected to see a government expert witness, a video forensic expert, who's going to testify about the hotel surveillance video. The prosecution really wants to get in the entire sequence of events and have the jury watch this video one more time -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Kara Scannell, thank you so much for all the reporting there. So many dramatic moments -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, Iran nuclear talks stalled. Why Iran's supreme leader is dismissing the U.S. proposals.

And in a twist, a wild video of a very huge elephant raiding the snack aisle, apparently hungry, at a very small convenience store.

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