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Epstein Estate Disputes DOJ Claim That It Hid Evidence; Trump Briefed on Options for Military Operations Inside Venezuela; Wall Street Investors Brace for Wave of Post-Shutdown Data. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 14, 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]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, firing back. An attorney for Jeffrey Epstein's estate is responding to the DOJ's claim that it hid documents as House Speaker Mike Johnson fast tracks a vote on the Epstein files bracing for potential mass GOP defections in defiance of the President Trump.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump is briefed on options for a military strike with a huge new naval presence lurking off of South America.

And a wicked save, Cynthia Erivo comes to Ariana Grande's defense as she gets rushed by a man at an event.

Kate and Sara are out. The Patriots beat the Jets. And I'm John Berman with Omar Jimenez. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: This morning, new questions about what the federal government knew about the Jeffrey Epstein case and when it knew it. Epstein's estate is now hitting back after the Justice Department accused it of concealing documents, including multiple private emails from Epstein released this week that do mention Donald Trump by name.

Those emails appear to contradict the claim by Epstein's longtime associate, and now convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell, who said during an interview with the deputy attorney general that she did not recall the president ever being in Epstein's house. Todd Blanche now says at the time he conducted that interview, law enforcement did not have the materials Epstein's estate hid for years and only just provided to Congress.

But overnight, Epstein's estate responded in a statement saying it is inaccurate to assert that the estate has hidden anything. Rather, the estate has always complied with its document production obligations, including in multiple civil lawsuits in response to third party subpoenas, and in the current Congressional investigation.

All of this comes as House Republicans prepare for mass affections In next week's vote on releasing all the Department of Justice Epstein files. There have been questions about what the Senate might do if it passes the House. These comments from Republican Senator John Kennedy might indicate there's some support in the Senate too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): As a general matter, I think I've said repeatedly, I think they ought to though. I don't think this is going to go away. And as a moral principle, I think they ought to release the records.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And we are told that President Trump is bracing for that House vote with one senior White House official saying he understands it's now a, quote, inevitable reality. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Let's dig into this a little bit more. Joining us now is Stef Kight, a politics reporter with Axios. So, Stef, what is this back and forth between the Epstein estate and DOJ say to you?

STEF KIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: I mean, I do think we're going to be seeing a lot more documents. That's our understanding hearing from, you know, lawmakers, that this is really just the beginning as more documents get released to Congress, and this is even before we see these votes, you know, on the discharge petition requiring the Justice Department to provide more documents.

I do think it's notable that there is back and forth over what has actually been shared and how much we knew about Trump's own knowledge of what Epstein was doing. And, you know, while there is no smoking gun, it's not clear, you know, that Trump had any direct participation in some of the illicit activity.

It does show that he was potentially aware of what Epstein was doing beyond what we've known up until this point and it's going to continue to put pressure on Republicans to vote for this measure to release more documents.

This is something that many in the MAGA base, this is something that, you know, Trump himself, when he was campaigning, made a focus of his campaign and something many Republicans care about, and it's putting them in a very uncomfortable position and could, you know, put pressure on the Senate, even Republican senators, to vote for something like this and to try to pass this regardless of whether, you know, Trump would sign such a measure.

JIMENEZ: Well, and even the fact that Speaker Mike Johnson is at least expecting or to push for a vote next week in the House, can you just tell us a little bit about how different that is from maybe the dynamic a few months ago in terms of how Republican leadership was thinking about any new formal procedures tied to the Epstein files and formal votes?

[07:05:03]

KIGHT: Well, certainly, Speaker Johnson has been trying to put this off for a very long time, you know, delaying swearing in Adelita Grijalva, to kind of delay that, the 218th signature on the discharge petition. But there's sort of an understanding among House leadership that now that the signatures are there, it's in the House Republicans' best interest to move on quickly and especially in light of these new documents that have been revealed.

There's a sense that House Republicans don't want to continue sitting in this. They don't want to continue having to answer questions about Epstein, continue in this drama. They want to move on. If the vote is going to happen, they're going to make it happen and try to move on from this as quickly as possible, whether they're actually able to move on given that we are likely to continue to hear more and see more documents is still an open question.

JIMENEZ: And whether this actually passes in that in the Senate as well is another set of roadblocks that Majority Leader John Thune has not officially pushed for, but we will see if that changes.

Stef Kight, I appreciate you being here. John?

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, we're learning that President Trump has been briefed on military options for inside Venezuela. That's on top of strikes against what the administration says are boats carrying drugs in the region. Additionally, the Defense Department is using very specific language while talking about this action, which is raising a lot of eyebrows.

Let's get to CNN's Zach Cohen who's got reporting on all of this. Good morning, Zach.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, John, good morning. Look, we're learning that President Trump just this week was briefed on a range of military options that, as you mentioned, include conducting military strikes inside Venezuela itself.

Now, obviously, if the president decides to move forward with an option that includes military strikes inside Venezuela, that would be a dramatic escalation of the ongoing military campaign in Latin America.

Our understanding is at, this stage, Donald Trump has not made a decision though how he intends to proceed. We also know that in the past he has voiced some reservations about conducting strikes with the intention of ousting Venezuelan Leader Nicolas Maduro.

At the same time the Trump administration has gone to great lengths to try to connect Maduro to drug trafficking and drug traffickers that they have since declared to be enemy combatants and terrorists. And those have been the targets of these 20 strikes, these 20 military strikes that we've seen in international waters to date. And those strikes continue even as Trump is mulling military options potentially for Venezuela itself.

And we're also learning that behind closed doors, the Pentagon and military officials are really going to great lengths to try to connect these drug traffickers to this theory that they are effectively the same as terrorists, and thus can be summarily killed without legal review. In a recent classified briefing, they were using phrases like enemy KIA to describe the some 80 individuals who have been killed in these strikes.

And as you mentioned, that's really raising some eyebrows with lawmakers who remember that phrase being used repeatedly in the war on terror, to describe those individuals and terrorists describe killed in airstrikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obviously, some lawmakers wary of conducting an operation under a similar pretense, but still that does seem to be the way the Trump administration is couching and casting this ongoing military operation in Latin America.

BERMAN: Yes, major unresolved legal questions here surrounding all of this.

Zach Con, great reporting this morning, as always. Thanks so much, Omar?

JIMENEZ: All right. We've got a live look at market futures after the Dow suffered, its worst day in a month. Now that the government is open again, investors are bracing for a data backlog that actually could have a major impact. We'll talk about it.

And an incredible rescue, a police officer crashes into a home, his patrol car on fire, some of this here, and his rescue caught on his own body cam. We'll show you the video.

And it's being called the most epic flight challenge ever, the world's highest obstacle course, unbelievable midair stunts. We've got the video.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

JIMENEZ: This morning, investors on Wall Street are hoping to recover today after stocks had their worst day in a month. Right now, U.S. futures are a whole lot of red going on there, so a quick translation, not great. Investors are bracing though for a flood of delayed economic data after the government shutdown ended.

I want to bring in CNN's Matt Egan. So, I mean, Matt, look, Thursday was not the best day for investors, but just take us through some of the dynamics that we're looking at here.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, look. Omar Wall Street is really suffering some significant turbulence this week. You're looking at live U.S. Stock Futures, signaling some more Selling today, almost a 1 percent decline for the S&P 500. Yesterday the Dow lost almost 800 points. The NASDAQ was down by more than 2 percent, you mentioned, the worst day for stocks in over a month. And Wall Street's fear gauge, the VIX, Volatility Index, it surged to the highest level in one month.

So, there's a few things going on here. First off, Wall Street's hopes of another interest rate cut at the next Fed meeting in December, those hopes are fading. So, a month ago, this looked like almost a sure thing, right, 94 percent chance priced into the market of a cut in December, but it's come down significantly. Now, it's basically a coin flip at 50-50.

And there's been this growing divide at the Federal Reserve. A number of Fed officials have come out in the last few days, and they've basically said, look, we need to tap the brakes on interest rate cuts because inflation is still too high.

[07:15:03]

There's other Fed officials who are still clamoring for a cut because they're worried about real weakness in the job market. So, that is just adding to the concern among investors.

It's also piling even more pressure on the biggest stars in the stock market, right? That's big tech and artificial intelligence companies. They'd all been -- already been under a lot of pressure. Investors worried that their valuations have just gotten out of hand. And if the Fed has to pause on cuts, that's just going to add to those concerns.

Look at these high-flying A.I. stocks, all of them down by double digit percentages off their 2025 highs, NVidia, Palantir, Meta. ORACLE has lost almost 40 percent of its value from the peak, and CoreWeave, which in an NVidia-backed cloud company, is down by almost 60 percent off the peak.

Now, the other thing, which you alluded to in the intro is the fact that we still don't know what's really happening in the U.S. economy, right? The shutdown is over, but the information blackout caused by the shutdown is not. And the White House says that that October inflation report, which was delayed by the shutdown, we may never get that because they didn't actually conduct the surveys and that the October jobs report will likely be incomplete.

We're probably not going to get the unemployment rate, but we'll find out how many jobs were added or lost during that month. And the White House is estimating that the shutdown wiped out about 60,000 private sector jobs.

Now, all of this does seem to be kind of adding to the bad mood on Wall Street. Now, Market Veteran Edward Deming, he said, look, when the government was shut down, we could kind of believe whatever we wanted to believe about the economy. He said, now, we've got to be data dependent, and that may not be so fun.

And Omar, again, looking at futures, it does look like today could be another bumpy ride with Dow futures set to open about 300 points in the red.

JIMENEZ: Well, one thing economies do not like is uncertainty, just all of that data that you laid out that. Is not there might be incomplete doesn't do well to turn some of this around, but we will see.

EGAN: Yes.

JIMENEZ: Matt Egan, I appreciate it, as always.

All right, just ahead a big win for Democrats in the ongoing redistricting battles. Could this one seat swing the balance of power in the House? We'll talk about it coming up.

And a father and son clinging to their overturned boat, we will show you the amazing coast guard rescue that ended up bringing them to safety.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. This just in, I stayed up way too late last night watching Kate on primetime, of course, but also the New England Patriots who beat the New York Jets.

Here now, CNN's Andy Scholes. It was truly a glorious night, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I'm sure it was for you, John. Your Patriots, they already have more wins this season than they had the last two seasons combined, and they're guaranteed now a winning season with nine wins already. And it's rather ridiculous after two decades of Tom Brady that the Patriots already have another superstar quarterback in Drake Maye.

And Maye right now is the betting favorite to win MVP this season, the 23-year-old. Another solid performance he threw for 281 yards and 1 touchdown. That touchdown went to rookie Running Back TreVeyon Henderson right here. Henderson also had two rushing touchdowns in this game.

Patriots took care of the jets easily 27 to 14. They've won eight in a row. They're now 9-2 on the season, which is the best record in the NFL.

Now, earlier this week, Ronaldo told CNN next year's World Cup in the U.S. will be his last. Well, he may now miss the first game because, for the first time in his international career, he was shown a red card and sent off. So Ronaldo initially got a yellow card for throwing an elbow in the box. He was giving a crying gesture to all the fans and the Ireland team as they went to review it. And after that VAR review, the ref then changed it to a red card.

Ronaldo is set to be the first ever to play in six World Cups, but because of the rules surrounding Guinea kicked out for violent conduct. He could in fact be suspended for Portugal's first game in the World Cup. The fate for Ronaldo now is in the hands of FIFA's disciplinary committee.

All right, award season for baseball are wrapping up with the MVP announcements last night, and it appears to be a new rule that you can't accept the MVP award without your dog. Aaron Judge, he edged out the Mariners' Cal Raleigh for the A.L. award, and he had his two dachshunds, Gus and Penny, right there by his side, along with his family. It was a really close race between Judge and Big Dumper, Judge getting four more first place votes than Raleigh.

Meanwhile in the National League, it was not a close race, Shohei Ohtani winning by unanimous decision for a second straight year. His wife and dog, Decoy, right there with him once again. Ohtani has now won MVPs in four of the last five years. All of them were unanimous. Only Barry Bonds has more MVP awards than Ohtani. Bonds has seven.

But, Berman, you know, dogs make everything -- I think you should have a dog running around the studio right now. How much fun would that do?

BERMAN: As long as they don't mind not having a chair. The dog can come in the studio and you can go wherever it wants. He can go wherever it wants. Kate loves dogs. And also the Big Dumper, she's going to be very upset that Aaron Judge etched out the Big Dumper there. But the Dumper had quite a run.

Andy Scholes, thank you.

SCHOLES: It was a tight race, tight race, yes.

BERMAN: Thank you very much.

So, who do you trust to keep humanity safe from artificial intelligence? How about A.I. itself or the companies building it? What could possibly go wrong?

[07:25:00]

And then space collision, what happened to three astronauts after likely space debris cracked their window.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: This morning, the White House is bracing for impact as the momentum builds within the GOP to release all the Justice Department's files in the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Now, after a handful of Republicans signed a discharge petition to force a vote in the House on it, House Speaker Mike Johnson actually changed up his strategy and quickly scheduled that vote for next week.

Now, a senior White House official tells CNN President Trump was made aware that was happening beforehand and now understands that it is a, quote, inevitable reality.

[07:30:05]

I want to bring in CNN's Alayna Treene who's at the White House for us.