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Epstein Survivor Recounts What Happened to Her as a Teenager; Israeli Military Chief Approved Main Concept for Gaza Attack Plan; Trump: Administration is Looking At Reclassifying Marijuana. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 13, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: We're learning that Jeffrey Epstein fallout could extend to the federal prosecutor who set aside a 60 count indictment on Epstein nearly 20 years ago and instead cut a deal with him on lesser charges. Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna just told the Palm Beach Post that Alex Acosta, the U.S. attorney in southern Florida back then, quote, can be called to testify at any time to the House Oversight Committee. Luna is a member.

Now, one Epstein survivor from that time is speaking out also. She says the recent firestorm is, quote, delaying her healing. More now from Randi Kaye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HALEY ROBSON, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: It was a room inside of his master bedroom and there was steam shower and he came out in a towel. I ended up in my underwear.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How did you end up in your underwear? Did he ask you to take your clothes off?

ROBSON: Yes. He asked me to take off my skirt.

KAYE (voice-over): Haley Robson still remembers the moment she met accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

ROBSON: Things got really uncomfortable as I was in my underwear. He was naked and that's when he was touching me in some very private areas on my body and it went on for about an hour. He pleasured himself, made me watch.

KAYE (voice-over): Haley was just 16 years old at the time, a high school student.

ROBSON: The only thing I could think about was how am I going to get out of here? Like, how am I getting out of this situation?

KAYE (voice-over): Haley says Epstein tried to use sex toys on her and she refused. That's when she says he made this proposition.

ROBSON: He just looked at me and said, well, you can bring me your friends and for every friend that you bring me, I will compensate you for.

KAYE: So he was going to pay you to bring other young girls?

ROBSON: Correct.

KAYE: How much?

ROBSON: $200.

KAYE: Per girl?

ROBSON: Per child, per girl, yes.

[14:35:00]

KAYE (voice-over): Haley agreed and for two years she recruited girls like herself for Epstein.

ROBSON: I think at the moment it was an act of me trying to just survive and get out of the situation because I didn't know what to expect next, I didn't know what was going to happen. I think I brought around 8 to 10 girls, but I bought them. I brought them to his house more than one time.

KAYE (voice-over): Haley remembers feeling devastated in 2007 when Epstein, who was facing federal charges for allegedly abusing young girls, cut a sweetheart deal with the government to avoid federal prosecution. Years later, when he was arrested again in 2019 in New York to face federal charges.

ROBSON: I wanted to have hope because it happened in New York. And I was like, OK, New York's going to come in. They're going to fix what Florida did or didn't do. This is going to be OK.

KAYE (voice-over): But it wasn't. A few months later, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell. Haley never met Ghislaine Maxwell.

Still, when Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking, among other charges, for her role in Epstein's alleged crimes, Haley says that felt like justice. Maxwell appealed her conviction. And now with Epstein and Maxwell back in the news, it's been a struggle.

ROBSON: It delays your healing because you get to a point where it's like, how can I move past this trauma when every day I wake up, it's in my face, it's in the news, it's on my phone?

KAYE (voice-over): The fact that Maxwell has been moved to a minimum security prison, plus all the talk of a possible pardon for her and testimony before Congress hasn't helped.

ROBSON: I don't think Ghislaine has anything to say. I think it's all rubbish. I think it's dishonesty. It's a huge mistake for her to have been moved in the first place. If you pardon her, you will be making a huge error.

KAYE (voice-over): And as far as that so-called list of names goes, that many wanted to be made public.

ROBSON: The government has been gaslighting the public with a list that doesn't exist for political gain.

KAYE (voice-over): Until this all blows over, Haley will build on her years of therapy.

ROBSON: I'll probably be in therapy for the rest of my life, just from this whole situation with Jeffrey.

KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

FREEMAN: All right, thanks to Randi Kaye for that reporting.

Still to come, Israel's defense chief has approved a new attack plan in Gaza, and it follows Israel's announcement that it plans to escalate the war by taking over Gaza City. We'll have a live report from the region coming up next.

[14:40:00]

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: New today, the Israeli military says its chief has now approved the, quote, main concept for a new attack plan in Gaza. There is no indication yet, though, about when the attack would begin. This follows last week's vote by the Israeli security cabinet to expand the war and take control of Gaza City, despite domestic objections and global condemnation against Israel's handling of the war.

The expansion could bring Israel closer to fully occupying the already devastated Palestinian enclave.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live for us in Jerusalem. Oren, what more are you learning about this plan?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Boris, in the statement from the Israeli military, we don't have details of the plan itself, but the intent here is clear. The military planning to move forward with what the security cabinet approved just a few days ago, the takeover and occupation of Gaza City.

And it's worth noting here that the military is moving forward with this, even over the objections of the IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, who had warned that such a move -- and he pointed out these objections in subsequent meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other high-ranking security officials in Israel -- would endanger the hostages, it would endanger soldiers, it would increase the burden on the military, as well as worsening Israel's international standing and worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.

On that, in the overall situation in Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said earlier today that over the course of the past 24 hours, more than a hundred Palestinians had been killed in Gaza. So that gives you an idea of the worsening humanitarian situation that

we have seen over the course of the past weeks and months. That is just a fraction of the warning that the Israeli military chief gave to the security cabinet, and yet they overruled him, brushed his concern aside and are moving forward with this plan.

And that's what this is, the military presenting its plans on how to proceed with this. The first stage of that is the evacuation of Gaza City, up to a million Palestinians, as well as what Israel calls the expansion of humanitarian aid. But that aid only available outside of Gaza City, which means Palestinians looking for aid will have to leave.

And the question, will they ever be allowed back in?

SANCHEZ: And speaking of global condemnation, Oren, the Prime Minister of New Zealand says that Netanyahu has, quote, lost the plot. He calls Israel's planned occupation of Gaza City utterly unacceptable. Does it change anything for Netanyahu to hear world leaders describing him and the country's ambitions this way?

LIEBERMANN: As long as those world leaders don't include President Donald Trump, the answer is, realistically, probably not. This is now another member of the key Five Eyes security alliance that is at least considering at this point the recognition of a state of Palestine next month. We have already seen Canada, the U.K. and Australia say they intend to move forward with those plans to recognize a state of Palestine.

[14:45:00]

It's an incredibly important symbolic move, perhaps more than that. It's an indication of where the international community is moving, but it shows no signs of being able to avert what much of the world, frankly, sees as Israel's catastrophic decision to move forward with a plan to expand its war in Gaza.

SANCHEZ: Oren Liebermann, live for us in Jerusalem. Thank you so much for the update.

Still to come, President Trump thinking about reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug in the coming weeks. We'll discuss what that could mean for medical research and more when we come back.

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[14:50:00]

SANCHEZ: President Trump says the White House will make a decision in the next few weeks on reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we're looking at it, some people like it, some people hate it. Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana, because if it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than children. But we're looking at reclassification and we'll make a determination over the next, I would say, over the next few weeks. And that determination hopefully will be the right one.

It's a very complicated subject, the subject of marijuana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: A few days ago, CNN reported the president was considering moving marijuana from its current classification as a Schedule 1 drug to Schedule 3, which includes drugs that have some medical use and can be prescribed by a doctor. Nearly six in 10 Americans are actually interested in going a step further, legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes.

Raphael Cuomo joins us now. He's a globally recognized biomedical scientist and professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Sir, thanks so much for being with us.

What would it mean from a practical standpoint for marijuana to be reclassified to a Schedule 3 drug?

RAPHAEL CUOMO, PROFESSOR AND SCIENTIST, UC SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 drug is an indicator -- is a signal from the government that it is a less safe substance. It does mean that for research purposes, we will have access to the drug to do more research. Broadly speaking, it's more appropriate to consider it within the category of Schedule 3 drugs, although I believe that that signal has areas of pros and cons when it comes to the safety of public health.

SANCHEZ: Talk to me about that. What are -- first what are the cons? What could be some of the ramifications in a negative way of having more people have access to marijuana?

CUOMO: Right. So three in 10 users of marijuana will develop a clinical addiction to marijuana where they're using it in such a manner that is causing an issue in their life, whether it's a psychological issue or a legal issue or an economic issue. They will develop an addiction to the substance.

And among these users, we see increased risk for psychosis and schizophrenia, for cardiac arrhythmia and heart attacks, for testicular cancer, lung cancer, oral cancer, and among women who are pregnant, low birth weight and preterm birth for the baby. So there are a number of risks associated with marijuana use when it is in higher doses, when it is used more frequently.

I should also say that there are certain benefits of it when used for certain clinical applications, for epilepsy, for multiple sclerosis, certainly for chronic pain. When it is used in clinical application for patients that are suffering from these conditions, there are benefits as well.

But for the general public, if you're using it in high doses, you can be putting yourself at higher risk for the development of mental health and other kinds of serious morbidities. So I am concerned that reclassification is going to signal to the public that you can use this at much higher doses, that it's much safer than it really is.

You know, even though you can use it in low doses and use it responsibly, there are unfortunately going to be people that are going to take this messaging and think that you can use it very frequently and very often and in high potency and develop these disorders.

SANCHEZ: As we've heard about all manner of substances, including alcohol, for example, moderation is key, right? I wonder just for clarity on the research, some of the specific comorbidities that you described, including the cancers. Is that just from ingesting marijuana generally or is that specifically from smoking marijuana?

CUOMO: Some of these are much more associated with smoking marijuana. For example, oral cancer and lung cancer are going to be much more strongly associated with it. Many of the compounds we see in cannabis smoke are going to be the same kind of compounds like polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons and benzene that are seen in tobacco smoke that are causing lung cancer and oral cancer from tobacco.

There are additional effects from marijuana that you don't see as strongly in tobacco, and those are hormonal and immunological downstream effects that are going to increase your risk for things like testicular cancer or other kinds of cancers as well. For example, our immune system is, you know, has certain capacity in it to try to clear cells that have mutated and may become cancerous. And high doses or very frequent use of cannabis, the THC in cannabis, will blunt the immune system's ability to protect us from the development of cancers.

SANCHEZ: That is so interesting. What about the more sort of societal argument that marijuana, as I remember hearing in class growing up during a DARE program, that marijuana is a gateway drug, that it in itself may not cause huge immediate ramifications the way that other drugs might, but that it using it could lead you down a road where these other drugs might become appealing. Does data actually back that up?

[14:55:00]

CUOMO: So there are some limited data to suggest that there are individuals who are prone to experimenting with multiple drugs. The direction is not necessarily one such that you use cannabis and as a result of the use of cannabis, you're going to suddenly experiment with many more dangerous drugs. There aren't strong data to support that, but there are individuals who will experiment with many drugs and sometimes use these drugs together, polysubstance use.

And for those individuals, more potential for increased risk of lots of short term adverse effects, which will send you perhaps to the emergency room with high doses, as well as long term potential chronic effects on things like the development of cancer, heart attack, dental disease and so forth.

SANCHEZ: Such an interesting conversation. Raphael Cuomo, appreciate the expertise. Thanks for joining us.

CUOMO: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin, President Trump is warning the Russian leader of severe consequences if he does not agree to end the war. More when we come back.

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