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FBI Agents Searching John Bolton's Maryland Home, D.C. Office; New York State Thruway Closed After Crash Involving Bus, Semi; Hegseth Orders National Guard Troops In D.C. To Carry Weapons; GOP Governors From At Least Six States Send Troops To Washington, D.C.; OpenTable Says D.C. Restaurant Reservations Drop Amid Federal Crackdown. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 22, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:31]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": New details as the FBI is searching the home and office of President Trump's former National Security Adviser, John Bolton. We have the latest on what they're looking for.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus, happening today, the Justice Department expected to hand over some of the Jeffrey Epstein files to a House Committee. So what new information could we learn from these documents? And President Trump touting his takeover of policing in Washington, D.C. Are National Guard troops though, keeping some restaurant patrons at home? We'll discuss as we follow these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: Breaking News, federal agents are right now still searching the Maryland home and Washington, D.C. office of President Trump's former National Security Adviser, John Bolton. Sources tell CNN this is about classified information, specifically whether or not Bolton, who is a frequent Trump critic, illegally disclosed classified details in his 2020 book to his clients or to the media. The president just moments ago again, said he did not know anything about the search beforehand, but said he does expect to get a briefing soon.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, I haven't spoken to Pam and the group yet, but I will be. I saw that just like everybody else. I try and stay out of that stuff. I'm allowed to be, and I'm chief law enforcement officer, believe it or not. I don't like to go around saying that, but I am. That's the position. But I purposely don't want to really get involved in it. I'm not a fan of John Bolton. I thought he was a sleazebag, actually. And he's -- suffers major Trump derangement syndrome, but so do a lot of people. And they're not being affected by anything we do. I don't know anything about it. I saw -- just saw that. I'll find out about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: CNN's Brian Todd is outside of Bolton's office. Brian, what have you seen there?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, I can tell you that John Bolton has just a few minutes ago, left the office here after being here for several hours today. He got into a black SUV with some security people. And I shouted a couple of questions at him. He did not answer them. And then he left. Moments before that, we also saw several FBI agents leave in several vehicles. We asked them, what did they find in John Bolton's office? Asked them to give us any other detail. They did not answer any questions. They got in their vehicles and left.

Now, does that mean the search is over in earnest? A little unclear. We believe most of the FBI agents have departed. We do know that John Bolton has departed. And as we've been reporting, they searched his home earlier today, early this morning. When CNN reached him earlier this morning, he said he was not at home. He said he was not aware of the search and that he would look into it. But clearly, he has been here at his office, we believe, for the last several hours as they were searching his home. And then we've seen FBI agents coming in and out of this main lobby area. And I was staking at the back of the building, when we saw some FBI agents coming out and putting materials into those vehicles in the back alley of the building.

So, we've had this building covered from the front and the back for several hours today. And that's what we were able to tell you. This of course, in relation to sources telling CNN, an investigation that has been reopened, that was closed in 2021 under the Biden administration. It is, according to sources who spoke to CNN, been reopened. This is into whether John Bolton might have divulged classified information in his 2020 book, his memoir, which included part of his time at the White House and sources with knowledge of the situation telling CNN, that he also could be being investigated over whether he might have revealed classified information outside of that book.

So, that is the nuts and bolts of what we can tell you this afternoon, a very busy day and afternoon here at John Bolton's office and at his home. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Brian Todd, thank you for the latest there, outside of John Bolton's office here in Washington, D.C. We're joined now by CNN's Senior Law Enforcement Analyst and former FBI Deputy Director, Andrew McCabe. Andy, the president threatened to jail Bolton after he published that scathing tell all book in 2020. Just take us through the complicated history that has led us to this moment.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST AND FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Yeah, sure. And it -- and a complicated history it is. So, John Bolton was terminated from his role in the White House in 2019. He then wrote a book. We understand that in -- at the end of that year, in December or so, he submitted that book to the National Security Council for, what we call, pre-publication review.

[14:05:00] That was required by the documents, the agreements that he signed when he took the job. And he did that. Thereafter, he had a very vigorous kind of long exchange with them over different aspects of the book.

He claims that ultimately, the staff-level person who was in charge of that review told him orally that they had completed their review and that they were no longer concerned about any of the parts of the book. With that understanding, he had his publisher move forward and publish and bind copies of the book. It was only after that staffer, that non- political staffer made that determination that one of the higher-level political folks in the White House rescinded it and said, no, we're going to do a second review and you can't publish the book. Well, Bolton had already distributed some copies.

I think the media had copies. That's when the administration sued him both to restrain him from publishing the book and to take the money that he was being paid for having written it. That suit did not go well for the administration. They ultimately lost and Bolton was able to go forward with his book. After that, they -- DOJ opened a criminal inquiry. They convened a grand jury. The grand jury issued subpoenas, and ultimately, that effort was handed over to the Biden Justice Department in 2020. The case remained open for about a year, and then ultimately, DOJ closed the case without bringing any charges.

So, if Mr. Bolton is now charged and we don't know that he will be, it's possible he isn't. But if he's charged with classified material relating to the book, DOJ is going to have to explain why other colleagues of theirs walked away from the case in 2021 or whenever that would've been, and why they're bringing it back now.

SANCHEZ: Andy, we've heard the President and those in his orbit repeatedly decry the weaponization of the Justice Department now for years, claiming that the search at Mar-a-Lago, for example, was illegal. I wonder what is in place now to prevent whatever is happening to John Bolton to ensure that it's not some kind of weaponization, to ensure that it's not happening because he's been so critical of President Trump.

MCCABE: Well, Boris, that's a great question. The short answer is there's essentially nothing in place. All the things that used to be in place to prevent that, all of what we call norms and policies, most of which were put into place in the 1970s, in the aftermath of the revelation of all sorts of intelligence, FBI and CIA activities going beyond their -- the legality of their -- what they were able to do and abusing people's rights. And so, we came in with things like the White House Contacts Policy, which basically prohibits anyone from the FBI or DOJ from speaking to the White House about criminal investigative matters.

Attorneys general from both parties have scrupulously abided by those rules and norms for decades. But that period is over now. We know that President Trump believes, you heard him say it himself today, that he can tell them to open an investigation. He can get as many updates as he wants on how that investigation is going and consequently exhibit his approval or disapproval of those actions. So, the White House is very tied to the department now, which brings you back to your first comment. The irony or maybe hypocrisy of Donald Trump and his supporters really decrying this alleged weaponization of the Department of Justice; they are doing exactly that now by using the department to open many cases and investigations against people who they see as their enemies.

KEILAR: And looking at some of the other actions that have been taken in DOJ and the FBI, when you're thinking about it in terms of kind of loyalty tests or people who have worked on things that the president didn't like in the past, what is the message to the rank and file about how they might proceed on something like this? And how do you expect them to proceed?

MCCABE: Well, I can tell you, it's got to be head-spinning for the men and women of the FBI. I know that it's having a significant impact on morale right now, just from the limited people that I speak to. The people in the FBI have always thought of themselves as a bit different than every other agency, government agency, in (inaudible) political influence at the FBI. There's only one political position. It's the Director and directors have had these policies in place to kind of be careful about never getting too close with the administration.

[14:10:00]

That's behind us now. Kash Patel is very close to Donald Trump. That's why he got the job. And so, FBI people are having to wake up to this new reality that

their organization is becoming very political. Their director is very political. He, despite what he told the Senate during his confirmation hearing, is following through on his promises of going after people he thinks are enemies of the president, his great enemies list that he attached to the book that he published a few years ago.

So, it's disturbing to people in the FBI who, whatever their political persuasion is, they believe strongly that their work should be done independent of politics. They are very quick to become wary of anything they think is political intrusion into their work. And essentially, they're seeing that every day now.

SANCHEZ: Andrew McCabe, appreciate the perspective.

MCCABE: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: So we're also following major developments in the Jeffrey Epstein files saga. Today, the Justice Department is expected to hand over records related to the convicted sex offender to House Oversight Committee investigators.

KEILAR: This marks the first batch of files sent to the committee following a congressional subpoena earlier this month. We have CNN's Katelyn Polantz who's with us now. What do we know about these new documents? We were just hearing from a Democratic Congresswoman on the committee who said they didn't have them yet. Do we know sort of about the timing here, when the public might see anything?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN JUSTICE AND CRIME REPORTER: When, when, when, and what will it be? This is going to be the question until we actually see something released. One of the things that you have over and over again in these issues, these moments where the Justice Department says, yes, we're willing to disclose records in Jeffrey Epstein's case. When they put some out at the beginning of this year, when they went to three different federal judges and said, let's release grand jury transcripts, not much of that was going to be new. So that's the question that is top of mind, waiting to see what happens with the House Oversight Committee.

There may be Epstein files; there will be Epstein files going from the Justice Department to the House Oversight Committee at some point. The House oversight Chairman James Comer saying it's going to be today, those productions will begin. But whether that's the whole Epstein files or more of the Epstein files than anyone has ever seen, huge question. There also are very likely going to be redactions and the possibility that the House will take a beat before putting things out publicly, just to make sure that victims' names aren't released or that other information that is very sensitive about child sexual abuse is not put out in the public sphere when it shouldn't be.

So, take a breather. We're not sure exactly what will be in this release. One thing I'm looking for though, specifically, is that there is a significant document that was created a month ago when Ghislaine Maxwell spoke to the Deputy Attorney General. There's a transcript of that, we understand. Will that be turned over? And how much would be redacted there?

KEILAR: Yeah, that's a very good point. Katelyn, thank you so much for taking us through that. As we await some of these files, when are they coming? We don't know, but we will keep you posted. Also happening this afternoon, stocks soaring on this news. Comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggesting an interest rate cut is on the horizon. The Dow is now up more than 800 points. It's in record territory after Powell said during an annual conference in Wyoming that the balance of economic risk appears to be shifting. We'll be following this closely before the closing bell at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

Still to come, President Trump claiming his policing initiatives have made it safe to go back to D.C. restaurants again. We'll find out if the military presence is helping or actually hurting business for local restaurants.

SANCHEZ: And later, signaling the start of a new strategy, Israel launches deadly strikes into Gaza City. That and much more, coming up on "CNN News Central."

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[14:18:50]

KEILAR: We have Breaking News out of New York State. That is where authorities are rushing to the scene of this crash involving a bus and a semi truck along the New York State Thruway. These are pictures coming to us moments ago. And this is an accident that happened along I-90 near the town of Pembroke, which is just east of Buffalo. Governor Kathy Hochul says she's been briefed on the crash. She's calling it tragic. Hochul describes the vehicle as a tour bus, but information about what type of bus was involved or the number of injuries has not yet been made available.

The New York State Thruway is currently closed in both directions near this crash site and we're going to be following this closely. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Today, we're learning that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered National Guard members patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C. to begin carrying their service weapons. This as President Trump has called himself the chief law enforcement officer of the nation today, announcing not a single homicide has happened in D.C. since his troop deployment began last week.

[14:20:00]

A new CNN analysis though shows that while Republican governors are boosting the number of National Guard troops in D.C., some of their own cities face even higher crime rates. CNN's Marshall Cohen is here to break down all of this for us. Marshall, take us through the data.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Boris, there's a lot of talk. There's a lot of spin, but the numbers don't lie. So we pulled the latest FBI violent crime statistics to find out what's going on. You just mentioned the National Guard troops. There are 2,000 of them here in our nation's capitol. Half of them from the D.C. National Guard, half of them come from these six states. Republican governors in these states sent troops here to join the D.C. Guard, Ohio, West Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. And we looked at the data and there's actually 10 cities in those states that have a higher violent crime rate than D.C.

Look at this. Cleveland, Toledo, Memphis, they were number one last year in the nation for violent crime.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

COHEN: Nashville, Charleston, West Virginia, the capital city there. And then two down in Louisiana, Shreveport and Lafayette. They all had a higher violent crime rate last year. But if that's not bad enough, Boris, look at this. The homicide rate, the murder rate, last year in D.C., it was 27 per 100,000. Not saying that's good, that's not good. It's too high. But look at this, 77 last year in Jackson, the capital city of Mississippi. And that's why the critics of this are saying, it's not really about public safety, because if that was the case, you'd be looking at some of these other states. It's more to put on a show for Donald Trump.

SANCHEZ: It is a significant point. What are Republicans from those states now saying?

COHEN: Well, they are pushing back pretty hard. They say, look, Ohio Governor's office, we reached out. They said that the president asked for help. And when the president asked for help, we respond.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

COHEN: And they said, we did the same thing when Democratic governors, Democratic mayors, and even the Biden Administration asked for assistance as well. So they say it's business as usual. We also reached out to the folks down in Mississippi and they said it was ridiculous to suggest that they can't do two things at once. They can help out the president with his crime crack down here in D.C. while also tackling issues at home. And if you ask them, Boris, they'd say things in Jackson are looking a lot better this year than last year.

SANCHEZ: Interesting. Marshall Cohen, thanks so much for that reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: The president's crackdown on crime is also having another effect. Some D.C. businesses say they have seen a dramatic downturn in foot traffic. OpenTable, which tracks restaurant reservation, says the number of diners has dropped 31 percent compared to a year ago. But just a short time ago, the president had this to say.

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TRUMP: The restaurants since we are doing this, are doing great. And many new restaurants are going to open. Because as you know, many closed, many restaurants closed because the crime was so bad. This will be one of the safest places anywhere on Earth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's talk to someone whose business is directly impacted by these deployments in D.C. Ruth Gresser is the Founder of Pizzeria Paradiso. Ruth, wonderful restaurant by the way. Talk to us a little bit about what this takeover of D.C. Police has meant to your business and specifically the one in D.C.

RUTH GRESSER, FOUNDER, PIZZERIA PARADISO: Yeah. Well, first, thanks for having me on. I think that this is a bigger -- we could have a much bigger conversation than just what's happened in the last two weeks because D.C. has kind of suffered a threefold impact over the last few years. We first had COVID and then we have the reduction in the federal workforce, and now, we have the latest of troops on D.C. streets. And altogether, the numbers that I'm hearing, just from overall, from the restaurant community, from direct conversations with colleagues and my own businesses, our businesses are down from anywhere between 3 percent from last year to as much as 30 percent from last year.

And in the last couple of weeks, people are definitely responding with business declines in the kind of the range of 15 to 25 or 30 percent.

KEILAR: I mean, that's huge. OpenTable numbers show that dip we mentioned, but we should also say this week is Restaurant Week in D.C. It is a week later than last year, so it's interesting to compare because this is a big draw in what you'd expect to see when it comes to restaurant traffic in D.C. then would be it's a whole lot higher than it was a year ago this week when it was not Restaurant Week. And yet, OpenTable (inaudible) 22 percent lower than a year ago. Are you hearing from customers, what are they telling you about not coming out and maybe waiting to come out later?

[14:25:00] GRESSER: Yeah, I think that there are a lot of people who just aren't moving around in the city right now. I mean, you have to recognize that Washington, D.C., we're a government town first, where -- that's our highest, our first economic driver and the second is tourism. And both of them have severely been impacted, by the idea that D.C. is dangerous, that it's unsafe, and with the workforce declining, people are just choosing to stay home. And there have been changes also in just habits. Over the years, people are staying at home more, eating at home more. And this has really intensified it.

I think the destabilization of the local economy here is real and it could take years, frankly, to rebound. My hope is that -- is that we survive. I've been -- I've lived in D.C. for almost 40 years now, and I've had businesses in D.C. for 34 years. And it has been an incredibly vibrant place to live. And my hope is that -- is that we can return to that. And we'll have to -- we'll have to see. One of the things that I know that our restaurant community is doing is relying on our local restaurant association, RAMW, and the IRC nationally helps a lot of restaurants just deal with these kind of crisis situations as well as the ongoing issues that restaurants are dealing with, with higher wages, maintaining staff, dealing with inflation of products and services that we just need to operate. So, it's a hard time, it's a hard time to be operating a restaurant right now.

KEILAR: Yeah. The sort of the hits keep on coming, as you were showing us. Ruth Gresser, it is great to have you and I have thoroughly enjoyed your restaurant. Thank you so much for being with us and just giving us the lay of the land. It's really important.

GRESSER: Thank you, yeah.

KEILAR: And we're going to have more ahead on that bus crash in New York. We're learning some new details about fatalities and also that people are trapped there at the scene. It's a very serious situation. We're following this, so we will bring us some more details.

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