Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

House GOP Bracing for Mass Defections on Epstein Vote; Epstein Estate Disputes DOJ Claim that It Hid Evidence; Thousands of Parents, Guardians of Migrant Kids Arrested in Crackdown. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 14, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BEN MCADAMS, (D) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: In furthering the harm that's happening to our country, Donald Trump in the last 10 months has trampled over the Constitution, and Republicans seem to be accomplices in that. And so I think it's important for us to continue to stand up. The reason I'm running is I refuse to believe that America's best days are behind us.

I'm going to stand up to fight for the country, the America that I grew up loving, the country that I -- you know, the country believe in. And I think we need to fight to bring that country back to the ideals that American families deserve.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Ben McAdams, appreciate the time. Thank you for being here.

Everyone else, a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

This morning, looming Republican defections forced Speaker Johnson's hand, now fast-tracking the vote on releasing the Epstein files, realizing the tide has turned against the administration's efforts to block their release.

Also new this morning, rising tensions with Venezuela. President Trump presented with military options at the White House.

Plus, while everyone was focused on simply reopening the government, hidden inside the funding bill are new restrictions on hemp that could actually dismantle a multimillion-dollar industry in America.

I'm Omar Jimenez with John Berman. Kate and Sara are out. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, the new allegations of hidden evidence in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, with a big vote looming on releasing all the Justice Department's files in the case. Epstein's estate is now heading back after the DOJ accused it of concealing documents, including Epstein's private e-mails released just this week that do mention several Donald Trump by name.

Those e-mails are now raising new questions about the interview Epstein's longtime associate and now convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell gave to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in which she said she did not recall the president ever being in Epstein's house. Blanche now says that at the time he conducted the interview, law enforcement didn't have the materials Epstein's estate hid for years and only just provided to Congress.

Overnight, Epstein's estate responded 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 possibly for mass defections in next week's vote on releasing all of the Epstein files. With us now is Gloria Allred, the victim's rights attorney who has represented some 27 survivors of Jeffrey Epstein.

Counselor Gloria, always great to see you. Listen, with the release of these Epstein e-mails, what do you think? And what do the people you've worked with, more importantly, think is the most significant thing the public knows now that they didn't before?

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR EPSTEIN VICTIMS: Well, I think we're getting pieces of the puzzle, and that's very important. It's also very stressful for the victims and the survivors because they're just getting everything piecemeal, leak by leak, piece by piece. And this is very distressing to them.

The overall goal of many of the survivors is not just release of all of the information, which of course is important because they want to know the truth. They want transparency in the process. And most of all, if there are others who should be held accountable in the criminal justice system, then they want to know who they are and is there sufficient evidence to charge them.

Let's just remember that the system has failed over and over again to help the survivors. Failed in 2008 when the sweetheart deal was given to Jeffrey Epstein. It failed again when he died at the Metropolitan Center in New York and therefore couldn't stand trial.

It's failed over and over again. Now there's a political battle, not just the legal battle. In reference to the release of the e-mails from the estate which provided them to the House Oversight Committee, my experience with the estate on behalf of many of the survivors is that they have been very forthcoming.

And again, as they said, there are numerous civil lawsuits that have been filed against them. They have provided in what's called document discovery everything that was asked for. So the question is, why is, you know, why did Todd Blanche interview Ms. Maxwell, which was suspicious in the first place, for him to have done it, not having everything from the estate?

[08:05:03]

Why didn't they subpoena it? Law enforcement could have done that. So I think either the Justice Department has been completely incompetent or there's some sort of cover up.

And why this is important to survivors is, and to many, many people who are not involved in this case, but who are victims of child sexual abuse or victims of rich, powerful, famous men, women who have been abused by them, raped, sexually assaulted, sex trafficked, is there often is a suspicion that people who have so much more power than the victims do are going to get away with it. Because the powerful people will exercise their power and the truth will never be known, even in a court of law.

So what we need to do is have confidence in the system for the survivors. And I can tell you, it's, you know, questionable right now. They're not just interested in President Trump and is he involved with Jeffrey Epstein in a way that he was sexually abusing or exploiting children. We're talking about underage girls, children or adults. But there are others as well, who may very well be involved.

And they should also be held accountable.

BERMAN: You're saying this is about transparency. I want to follow up on one specific thing you said, because because the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is saying overnight, he's saying, look, when Ghislaine Maxwell told me she had never seen Donald Trump at Jeffrey Epstein's house, you know, I didn't have these e-mails where Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were talking about Trump allegedly being at Epstein's house. But you're saying that's not enough.

You're saying that's not enough of an explanation. Why?

ALLRED: You know, I've been a lawyer for 50 years. My job is to be prepared for my clients. And I think anyone investigating something as serious as sex trafficking, she was convicted of that, needs to be prepared with all of the facts, you know, and before they ask questions. That's what an investigator would do.

My experience, by the way, with the prosecutors in the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein was that they were very well prepared and they were trying to do their best, very sensitive to the victims. So all I can say is if he said he didn't have all the information, now he has it.

Go in and interview her again. But actually, more importantly, it would be great if there weren't some kind of independent investigator instead of the deputy attorney general who was formerly the criminal defense attorney for the president.

BERMAN: And again, to the issue of transparency in the process is what you say you want. And more importantly, what the survivors want. What do they see when there is a meeting in the situation room?

ALLRED: Yes.

BERMAN: With the attorney general, deputy attorney general, all these people with members of Congress who have a vote next week on releasing all the Epstein files. ALLRED: Well, why would they just kind of take one Republican member of Congress and have her in the situation room when she's indicated in advance that she wants all the files released? Again, suspicion by the survivors. What is going on here?

The more there's resistance to releasing all the files, the more there's political pressure at play. The more suspicion is going to be by the survivors that once again, they're not going to win any kind of justice or accountability. So let's remove the veil from all of this.

It's hard to say we shouldn't look at the president. We should look at the president or anybody else who knew Jeffrey Epstein. I've been urging for years, by the way, that Prince Andrew -- well, Andrew, formerly known as Prince -- come before the law enforcement --

BERMAN: Right.

ALLRED: -- which he's declined to do. And also now come before Congress and testify. He could restore his reputation if he does it. And by the way, King Charles could help.

BERMAN: I'm going to take the under on Prince Andrew or Andrew --

ALLRED: Yes, right.

BERMAN: -- whatever his name is now testifying before Congress. Gloria Allred, it's great to see you. I know you rang the bell at the Nasdaq yesterday.

You were honored by the United Nations for the work you've done for years for victims and survivors. So we appreciate you and appreciate you being with us.

ALLRED: Thank you very much.

BERMAN: Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. Up ahead. New CNN reporting this morning, thousands of parents and guardians of migrant children arrested as part of the immigration crackdown. So we'll tell you what this means for the kids.

Plus how a thief walked away with nearly ten thousand dollars worth of collectible cards from a shop owned by Tom Brady, where the search for the suspect stands this morning.

And a grand debut for an AI humanoid doesn't go well. The robot faceplants as it struts the runway. We will show you the details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: In a CNN exclusive, we are learning the Trump administration has arrested thousands of parents and guardians who allegedly paid for kids to cross the border into the United States. In some cases, agents were actually directed to levy charges, such as smuggling, against those caretakers, leaving the children really in limbo. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has this exclusive reporting. So Priscilla, what can you tell us?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Omar, the Trump administration has been hyper-focused on migrant children who cross the U.S. southern border alone, especially under the Biden administration. So over the course of the year, they have launched multiple operations to, they say, locate those children.

[08:15:00]

And what we are learning is that, in addition to that, there have been arrests of the caretakers of these children, many of whom are parents or relatives. So the data that we obtained shows that nearly 3,000 people have been arrested. These include parents, guardians or potential caretakers as part of these ongoing operations.

According to Homeland Security spokesperson, many of these arrests are primarily the result of human smuggling investigations. What this reveals as a whole is that there is an intense crackdown by this administration to arrest these parents and guardians and to charge them with human smuggling. The reality is, Omar, the population of people we're talking about here are unaccompanied minors who are typically fleeing conditions in their origin country and reuniting with someone in the United States that's typically a parent.

And in many cases, they are people in the U.S. who are undocumented. And in addition to that, almost anyone who crosses the border does have to pay a smuggler to cross. So this creates a population of people that the administration can easily locate and arrest.

And that has been one way that sources tell us White House officials have viewed this as ramping up deportations of this population. Now, Trump administration officials also view this as a way or rather operations that could be viewed as humanitarian because in some cases they are finding children who are in dangerous conditions. The Department of Homeland Security provided a list to me that included, for example, a Venezuelan woman who sponsored three migrant children while she was in the possession of fentanyl and then other cases of labor trafficking.

So in the best case scenario, they can find a child that is in a dangerous situation. But the concern here is the worst case scenario where a child who has been settled in the United States with a parent is suddenly in limbo. The other issue here, of course, is those kids who are still in government custody and who advocates tell me have been feeling immense pressure because they don't want their parents to come forward to retrieve them, fearful of what may happen next.

Now, an HHS official told me and my colleague the following quote, "Unless we put our foot down and say that we're not going to accept this as a nation, that we don't want kids smuggled across the border, it's going to continue unless there's a punishment for it." So that gives you sort of a glimpse into how the administration is

thinking about this. Lastly, I'll note that we also learned that this week the Department of Homeland Security launched an operation in Florida with its local partners there to essentially do door knocks and do what they're calling welfare check-ins of these children.

So certainly they are ramping up and building on the operations that have already been ongoing over the year -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you for that reporting.

All right, straight ahead, another Trump critic could face scrutiny from the Justice Department over alleged mortgage fraud. We'll tell you what Congressman Eric Swalwell is saying about the claims.

And a first of its kind death caused by a tick bite, the bite triggering a fatal allergic reaction to eating meat. We'll explain coming up.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, this morning, voting underway for the 2025 CNN Hero of the Year, and we are reintroducing each of the top five heroes.

Hollywood productions, as you may know, involve hundreds of people working behind the scenes, often fueled by gourmet meals provided on set. The craft services table is wonderful. Assistant director Hillary Cohen was always disturbed that leftover food ended up in the trash. So she took action.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY COHEN, FOUNDER, EVERY DAY ACTION: Working on a film set with this whole team of people, a props department, the costume department and electric department, and a lot of people that need to be fed. There's just so much food that's available, steak and salad, so much good food every day. When lunch was over, they would just throw it out.

It doesn't make any sense. I really was always told we can't donate the food. It's too hard.

If someone gets sick, it's liability. As an assistant director, I was the logistical planner of a set. This is just the logistical problem. I think it's so easy to solve.

Every Day Action picks food up from film sets, corporate events, grocery stores, to deliver the food to those in need.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice to meet you.

COHEN (voice-over): We're the grub hub. We take it from point A to point B. At the beginning, it was just me and Sam, one of my co-assistant

directors in the heart of COVID. We have this big cooler from Walmart, thermal bags, just picking food up.

COHEN: I always like to see what the fancy meal is of the day.

COHEN (voice-over): Film and TV set, that's like our bread and butter. All you have to do is give us a call sheet, sign liability over, and the food's ours.

STEPHEN FAUST, EXECUTIVE CHEF: For decades, it broke my heart to throw food away, so we're happy to do it. It's just like clockwork. They show up.

COHEN: Hi, it's so good to see you.

FAUST: We pass off the food, and we're all set.

COHEN (voice-over): We pay production assistants and background artists, and then they drive the food from place to place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Salads, tuna fish.

COHEN: There you go, Jess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

COHEN (voice-over): So it started with Encampments.

COHEN: Would you like some free food?

COHEN: Then it's food pantries, non-profits, anyone that's struggling with food insecurities.

COHEN: Here's three meals, and I'm going to get you some sides too.

COHEN: Giving someone that's hungry food is the best thing one can do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

COHEN: Of course.

COHEN (voice-over): And that's about 80,000 meals a year that we save from landfills. I feel like my skill set is like called to do this.

Now more than ever, we have to help each other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:25:00]

BERMAN: And you can go to cnn.com slash heroes right now to vote for Debra for CNN Hero of the Year. You can vote for her or any of your favorite top five heroes.

All right, President Trump briefed on possible plans for military strikes on land as a huge U.S. naval president lurks off the coast of South America.

And did you know that Tom Brady owns a card shop? And did you know that it has Pokemon cards? And did you know that thousands of dollars of worth were just stolen with the thief still on the run? Now, I know a lot about Tom Brady, and I didn't know any of that.

We've got the latest on the investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)