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Vance to Hold Dinner Regarding Epstein Investigation; Kremlin Calls Meeting with U.S. Constructive; Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) is Interviewed about Russia; Combs' Legal Teams Approached Administration about a Pardon. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 06, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Strategy is on the menu tonight. Some of President Trump's top officials will gather at the vice presidents' home to discuss a united response to the ongoing Epstein scandal.

Sean "Diddy" Combs' attorneys are making a plea for a pardon. CNN sat down for an exclusive interview with a member of his defense team. What we know about their request to the Trump administration.

And the death toll is rising after a terrifying wall of water tore through a village. The desperate search now for survivors.

I'm Jessica Dean, with John Berman this morning. Sara and Kate are out. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, table for five, please. New CNN reporting that the vice president is hosting an extraordinary dinner party with top Trump administration officials to coordinate the response to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Expected to attend, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

On top of all of this, there is the tape. CNN, of course, reporting that Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, also the president's former defense attorney, met with Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. Now we know there was an audio recording of that interview. More than ten hours of it, we're told. That's according to a senior Trump official. And the Justice Department, and perhaps these officials meeting at the -- the official home of J.D. Vance tonight, weighing whether and how to release this tape.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House.

Alayna, you were part of this team that broke this -- the story of this really remarkable dinner set to take place tonight. ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. And when you

mentioned these tapes of the interviews that the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, had conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell over a period of two days, I'm told they have more than ten hours of audio that the Justice Department is currently going through, transcribing it, digitizing it, redacting it. And some officials here at the White House tell me that they could be making those materials public as early as this week, John.

And so, as all of these officials, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the vice president, of course, who is having them to his residence this evening, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, all of them convening at the vice president's home here in Washington to go over this strategy, really the handling -- this administration's handling of the Epstein case.

But also, you know, to discuss approaching a unified front on all of this, specifically after we had seen some divisions early on following that Justice Department memo that really created this entire fiasco for the Trump administration.

Now, just going back to what the other news we broke yesterday about the transcripts. I think, you know, there are two points. This is important to point out. There are two different kind of camps within the White House about how to approach this at this point in time. One side of it is, you know, the Epstein story has largely died down. Of course, we're breaking news, and so we're bringing it back into the narrative here. But they have felt that really the firestorm around their handling of Epstein had died down largely. And so, there's some people are thinking, why should we be the ones to kind of throw the grenade and resurface all of this? Maybe we should bide our time.

But then there's also people who believe that it's time for them to be more proactive here, and to really try and take control of the narrative and really be the ones calling the shots when it comes to the optics of all of this.

Now, behind the scenes as well, and I find this fascinating, John, there have been some discussions about having Blanche, again the one who conducted that interview with Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker, to have him do a potential sit down interview, potentially I'm told with Joe Rogan, though those conversations are very preliminary, or do a certain press conference, which we really haven't seen much from the Trump administration thus far.

All to say, we are seeing some of the puzzle pieces move into place when it comes to what their strategy is, really what -- we haven't known much about it thus far. They've been very quiet and really the strategy up until this point has been to try and distract away from it and get people to move on.

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But they recognize that isn't happening. So, all of that likely to come up at that, you know, very high-level dinner that they're having at the vice presidential residence.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, high profile, which does signify at least a shift in what they're willing (INAUDIBLE) people to know about.

Alayna Treene, at the White House this morning, thank you very much.

Jessica.

DEAN: Also breaking this morning, the Kremlin calling a meeting between U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin "constructive." It wrapped up not long after, about three hours. Part of the Kremlin's last ditch effort to avoid new sanctions from the Trump administration.

The president has set a Friday deadline for Russia to agree to a peace deal with Ukraine, or face fresh, punishing measures. But just ahead of today's meeting, Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least six people over 24 hours. That includes a deadly attack on a rec center in Zaporizhzhia.

CNN's Kylie Atwood is joining us now.

Kylie, things are a little bit different than last time when Witkoff was with Putin. What more are we learning about this meeting from today?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jess, things are really different than the last time that Steve Witkoff met with Putin back in the spring. This is their fifth meeting. And this time Steve Witkoff goes into the room with Putin having President Trump increasingly frustrated with the Russian leader. He has called the Russian attacks on Ukraine disgusting. He has said that his conversations with Putin have been meaningless. And he has also threatened action and taken action against Russia.

So, first of all, he has backed a new U.S. effort to get American weapons to Ukraine that will be paid for by NATO allies. That effort is now underway. That happened back in July. And President Trump has threatened new sanctions against Russia as well. That is something that he had been hesitant to do for the first few months of the administration. But because Russia has not taken any concrete action to actually drive an end to the conflict in the Ukraine war, Trump has effectively come to the conclusion that this might be necessary.

So, what it would look like is, it would be sanctions on Russian exports to the United -- any U.S. imports to Russia, and it would also be secondary sanctions that would be on those who are importing oil from Russia, primarily, of course, China and India.

Now, I talked to sources who said that the administration is actively drawing up those sanctions, and they do believe that Trump would actually be in the mind space to put those sanctions into effect if there's no action by Russia to actually drive an end to this conflict. However, they also believe that he's likely to opt out if there's a legitimate offer from President Putin to actually take action that could end the war. And that's the key here. We don't know what this conversation between Steve Witkoff and President Putin looked like yet. U.S. officials are waiting for that readout from Steve Witkoff. But it is going to be essential because Trump said yesterday that this is the conversation, this is the meeting that is going to determine whether or not the U.S. puts those new sanctions into place against Russia, with that deadline being, as you said, on Friday.

Jess.

DEAN: All right, Kylie Atwood, with the very latest. Thank you so much.

And I do want to go to Fred Pleitgen, who is in Moscow right now, again, just outside where this meeting has taken place.

Fred, tell us more about what's going on on the ground there.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jessica.

Yes, right outside the Kremlin wall. Of course, what you see behind me is Saint Basils Church. And then the Kremlin walls behind me where that meeting took place and adjourned, I would say about 45 minutes ago. It was then seen that Steve Witkoff's motorcade appeared to be leaving that area. It's unclear whether or not he's heading straight to the airport. But normally when he's on the ground here, he does tend to come in and come out very quickly.

Now, we have had the Russians comment on this meeting now. It's quite interesting because we really only have the readout from one side. And this comes in the form of a senior Kremlin aide named Yuri Ushakov. And one of the interesting things that we've been seeing, Jessica, is as Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin were saying their hellos and the meeting was about to start, Yuri -- start, Yuri Ushakov was also in the room. So, he's a very important negotiator for the Russians. He's also extremely close to Vladimir Putin. And he called the meeting "useful and constructive." He also said that the main topic was the conflict in Ukraine, and that the Russians had received signals from the Trump administration and had in turn sent back signals to the Trump administration as far as Ukraine is concerned.

Now, it's unclear whether or not the Russians are budging on any of the things that President Trump would like them to budge on as far as the conflict in Ukraine is concerned, whether or not a ceasefire could be any closer or there could be some sort of other things that the Russians are willing to do. But certainly there did seem to be a broader discussion on that. And, of course, we know that the meeting was about three hours long, so there certainly seemed to be a lot to talk about.

On the other hand, though, one thing that we've seen from the Russians in these negotiations from the past and that we're seeing again now is that the way they're trying to frame this is that Ukraine is only one of the topics that's being discussed. They also said that relations between the U.S. and Russia, economic relations on a broader term, were discussed as well.

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And that's something that's been very important to them, where they say, look, we're speaking about Ukraine, the conflict in Ukraine, but we're also speaking about a major reset of U.S.-Russian relations.

Now, as you noted, and as Kelly noted, Kylie noted, it's unclear what the U.S. says to all of this. There's no U.S. readout for any of this -- what was said in the meeting. But right now the Russians are saying that that was also an important topic that was broached as well. But again, whether President Trump still feels that way is unclear, as, of course, he's been threatening those sanctions against Russia and possibly also tariffs against countries that are buying Russian oil and gas.

Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, it will certainly be important to hear what the Americans say about all of this, what the president says.

Fred Pleitgen, there in Russia for us, thank you so much for that.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York. He's the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

So, it's great to have you here with this breaking news.

The Kremlin saying that the meeting between Steve Witkoff and Russian Leader Vladimir Putin was constructive and useful. I wonder what you think those words mean to the Kremlin, and what would be constructive and useful to you?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Well, number one -- thank you for having me -- but constructional and useful doesn't mean anything to me. Look, the fact of the matter is that the president had said during the campaign that this war would be over day one. It is not. My MAGA colleagues cut off weapons to Ukraine, waiting to see what would take place in the election. The president has said in the past that let Russia do whatever the hell they want in Ukraine. So, there's a credibility factor on the president.

We've seen him, in the first administration, go into Russia and take the side of the Russians over our own intelligence. Action speaks louder than words.

So, what we should be doing -- and I have a bill that is stronger than the bill, actually, that was even in the Senate, that should come out, that puts real sanctions on Russia, but also give Russia what it needs. The time that we were talking about -- Ukraine, giving Russia, giving Ukraine what it needs, excuse me. Giving Ukraine what it needs.

The time when we saw Ukraine winning, actually, is when the United States aggressively was given the Ukrainians what they needed to win in weapons. It's not enough to say that we're going to give some weapons to our allies or sell it to them, and then they can do what they will. We should be working collectively together with our allies, which is why we saw Sweden and Norway enter into NATO thinking, with the United States, that strengthens us, working collectively together. We don't see or hear that.

So, what the president should be telling Putin is that we're going to stop you from killing, because the killing has never stopped. Only the time that you saw Russia retreat some is when the United States was side by side with Vladimir Putin and Ukrainians giving them what they need and pushing them back. That's the only thing that Russia is going to listen to. And, you know, and I don't know, President Trump has said Putin is his friend. He visits him. And -- and he said, let Russia do whatever the hell they want. And that's exactly what Russia is doing.

BERMAN: Lately, he has been taking a tougher tone on Russia, saying that basically what Vladimir Putin is telling him hasn't -- hasn't borne truth, you know, called it BS. He has said that if Russia doesn't take steps toward peace or a ceasefire by Friday, that the president would push for the secondary sanction. That's -- that's in like two days from now, Congressman.

So, what would it tell you if we don't impose -- the U.S. does not impose those secondary sanctions?

MEEKS: That the words, you know, I trust what he said before, spontaneously, let Russia do whatever the hell they want to do, because that's what they're doing.

Just yesterday, Ukrainians were killed by Russian bombs. Just yesterday. And all I -- all of this talk has been taking place. Russia has not stopped at all. At all. And it's forced the Ukrainians --

BERMAN: What's your expectation? What's your expectation? What's your expectation for what will happen by Friday?

MEEKS: My expectation is for more talk. Another delay. I mean that's what has been the precedent. He'll delay it. Well, we had a decent talk. Now I'm going to give him another month. We'll see what takes place in -- in September. That's what this president does. We get to these deadlines. He'll say that we had significant talks. We got good talks. And so now we'll wait until September to see whether or not Russia does some -- some change. That's what has happened before.

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And I see no evidence of -- of doing anything differently. If something would be -- with their actions of the president saying, we're going to give, if nothing is done by Friday, we're giving the Ukrainians the weapons that it needs. You know, we were giving them ATACMS to push them back under the -- under the Biden administration. And my Republican colleagues was with me, pressing the Biden administration to give more weapons to Ukraine.

I hope they join me. They know what's happening. We traveled to Ukraine together. We saw the devastation that was taking place when we would go to -- to visit Mr. -- President Zelenskyy. I hope my Republican colleagues who say that they're with Ukraine, we can make this president give, the United States, the Congress, we should stand up and give our voice and show the unity that we want the Ukrainians to have, the weapons that it needs to stop the vicious killing and the attacks that are done by Russia upon their citizens.

BERMAN: Congressman Gregory Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, thanks for being with us this morning.

Jessica.

DEAN: President Trump now floating the idea of calling in the FBI to help track down and arrest Texas Democrats who fled the state to block a redistricting vote.

Also, California firefighters right now battling to contain a raging wildfire that's become the biggest in that state this year.

And a CNN exclusive with a member of Sean Combs' defense team. They've approached the Trump administration about a pardon, but the president says Combs past comments make pardoning him, in his words, more difficult.

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BERMAN: All right, this morning, a CNN exclusive. A defense attorney for Sean Combs tells our Elizabeth Wagmeister, they approached the Trump administration about a potential pardon. Combs faces sentencing in October for transportation to engage in prostitution. Found not guilty last month on different charges, more serious charges against him.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister joins us now.

So, what did you learn about this -- this pardon outreach, Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

So, there have been reports swirling over the past week or so about the Trump administration strongly considering a pardon for Sean "Diddy" Combs. But I had actually been hearing from my sources that those reports were all premature. So, I couldn't help myself but ask his defense attorney in this exclusive interview about that. Take a look at what she told me.

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WAGMEISTER: Have people in Sean Combs' orbit, have they had conversations with the Trump administration?

NICOLE WESTMORELAND, ATTORNEY FOR SEANA COMBS: Yes. My understanding is that we have reached out. WAGMEISTER: Reached out is one thing. Having a conversation is

another. Do you know if there have been active conversations about a pardon?

WESTMORELAND: Yes. We've -- it's my understanding that we've reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon.

WAGMEISTER: President Trump, when he was asked about this pardon, he said, quote, "I was very friendly with him. I got along with him great. And he seemed like a nice guy. I didn't know him well. But when I ran for office, he was very hostile." And the president indicated that a pardon is likely not on the table because of that break in his relationship with Mr. Combs years ago. How is he feeling now about the chances of a pardon, given the president's commentary?

WESTMORELAND: I think that Mr. Combs is a -- a very hopeful person and I believe that he remains hopeful.

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WAGMEISTER: So, look, right now, pardon or not, according to the president's comments a few days ago, seems unlikely. But that attorney right there, Nicole Westmoreland, that I sat down with, you heard her say that Sean Combs is a hopeful person. Well, John, she is one of the very few people who is actually in direct contact in seeing Sean Combs all the time. She visits him in jail at the MDC in Brooklyn. So, she tells me that he is remorseful, that she does think that he still has a lot of good to do in the world, and that he is grateful for this second chance since the jury did acquit him of the most serious charges.

BERMAN: I have to say, Elizabeth Wagmeister, that interview you did there, you sounded like the prosecutor getting that follow up question. Reaching out is one thing. What about actual conversations? Good for you on that.

Obviously, the criminal case of Sean Combs, you know, convicted of the trafficking for, you know, purposes of prostitution. Not convicted of the more serious charges. But what about all the civil cases against Combs? What's the attorney saying about that?

WAGMEISTER: You know, I'm so glad that you asked, John, because, look, this criminal case, make no mistake, it absolutely was a huge legal victory for Sean Combs and his defense. But the criminal case is entirely separate, as you have pointed out, from these civil cases of which he is facing around 70. So, just to be clear, the defense believes that the criminal case was completely bogus. She told me that she does not think that the government should have ever even brought about this case. But I wasn't going to let her off the hook with those civil cases. Take a look at what I asked her.

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WAGMEISTER: Each of those cases does have to play through the courts individually. So, I understand that he denies them, but those are still active cases. WESTMORELAND: True. But let me, let me, let me say this to you.

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We are talking about the United States government. This is the federal government, all right. It doesn't really get any stronger than that. And so they, obviously, fully investigated Mr. Combs. And, obviously, threw the book at him, right? And so, if you think for a second, if the government really thought that there were minors out there hanging in the balance, if the government really thought that there was drugs in the baby oil or something of that nature, do you -- you think the government just wouldn't have brought that up in a full-fledged criminal trial? Absolutely not.

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WAGMEISTER: So, look, we shall see because there are dozens upon dozens of these civil suits. And as I said there, they do all have to play through the courts. But, of course, Sean Combs denies all of them. But right now, him and his defense, they are focused, John, on this sentencing, which is set for October 3rd.

And final point I will make, they have been relentlessly fighting for his release from jail ahead of that sentencing, while just earlier this week the judge denied his most -- second motion for bail.

BERMAN: Elizabeth Wagmeister, a terrific news-making interview, thanks so much for coming on this morning. Appreciate it.

Jessica.

DEAN: The Department of Homeland Security announces a new migrant facility in Indiana, calling it the speedway slammer. We've got new CNN reporting on that ahead.

Also, the NFL makes a bold play in the media game. What it could mean for how you watch your favorite teams.

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