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Kennedy Center Gets New Signage Bearing Trump's Name; Brown University & MIT Manhunt for Suspected Shooter Ends, Officials Found Body Inside New Hampshire Storage Unit After Six-Day Manhunt; Epstein Files Expected to Be Released Today; Military Lawyer Says Officers Should Retire if Facing Illegal Order; Trump Says Troops Will Receive $1,776 Checks Before Christmas; NTSB on Scene of NC Plane Crash That Killed Seven, Including NASCAR Driver Greg Biffle. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 19, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right. We are watching it be unveiled. And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

The manhunt is over. How police used a Reddit post to track down the suspected shooter of two Brown University students and an MIT professor. Plus, it is the final day for the Department of Justice to comply with an order -- not an order, a law actually to release documents related to convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. What we know, just ahead.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And later, federal investigators are on the ground in North Carolina, trying to figure out what caused former NASCAR driver, Greg Biffle's plane to crash. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: Today, the hunt for a motive is intensifying, just hours after officials say they found the body of the suspected Brown University killer, a man they also believe gunned down an MIT professor before taking his own life.

ROSALES: The dead suspect was discovered inside of a storage facility in New Hampshire, just last night. Officials say that he drove his rental car there roughly an hour after shooting the MIT professor on Monday. The suspect, at one point, changing his license plate after two students were killed at Brown. And it turns out, a tip on Reddit was the key break in this multi-day, multi-state search. CNN's Danny Freeman is live in Providence, Rhode Island. And Danny, you are learning more about what was actually discovered inside of that storage unit.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. We are learning more information about some of the key evidence that investigators found inside that storage unit. But, I want to just reset here because there are so many various details that led to the end of this frantic six-day manhunt, really two manhunts, not just for the shooter in the Brown University shooting, but also for the killing of that MIT professor.

It was an incredible search. It spanned three states, hundreds of tips, multiple agencies. But as Isabel, you and Brianna just mentioned, there were really two major breakthroughs that helped law enforcement officials crack this case. The first one came in the form of that Reddit post that was flagged to the FBI, and basically that Reddit post said in part -- excuse the wind and the rain here in Providence today -- the Reddit post said in part, "I'm being dead serious. The police need to look at a gray Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental."

Well, that tip was definitely in fact correct in that there was a rental car that had been in this area of Brown University on the day of the shooting, according to surveillance video -- according to law enforcement. But then also, that rental car was also seen nearby the Boston scene in Brookline, Massachusetts, where that MIT professor was killed as well. Then, there was also this man that police had been looking for that they said was in the proximity of the suspect that they'd been looking for.

That man turned himself in, came forward to police and gave incredible new details to law enforcement which enabled them -- which allowed them to narrow their search further. That man gave information about the suspect's voice, appearance, more on that car, and also details of a confrontation that had. And really, it was the Attorney General of Rhode Island that I want you to take a listen to, who said that man really broke this case wide open.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NARONHA, RHODE ISLAND ATTORNEY GENERAL: He blew this case wide open. That person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence, that matched the satchel that we see here in Providence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Now, I'll tell you some of the information that we learned from CNN's John Miller is that inside of that storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where law enforcement officials finally found the suspect here, 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente was also two 9-mm Glocks, also a body armor as well. So that's just part of the evidence. But again, the big question still, Brianna and Isabel, is what was the reason that may have driven this man to commit both of these crimes allegedly?

At this point, we still are no closer to learning a motive from police or investigators. But the Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, told CNN earlier today that he definitely still wants to find some of those answers to try and give closure to the Brown community and also to the Providence community at large. Brianna, Isabel?

KEILAR: All right. Danny Freeman, thank you so much. Right now, the Justice Department is racing to release documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files because today is the deadline to comply with a new law passed by Congress. DOJ lawyers have been working to make the redactions. Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche says they plan to release several hundred thousand documents today, with more expected in the coming weeks.

ROSALES: Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer firing back at that, saying failure to handover all documents is against the law.

[14:05:00]

With us now is Will Sommer. He is a Senior Reporter for the Bulwark who has covered the Epstein case extensively. Let's talk about -- thank you so much for joining us. Let's talk about the Vanity Fair article that was seen around the world with White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles offering some revealing comments here about what she calls the Epstein files. She complained about Attorney General Bondi that she "whiffed" on the initial binder release, "full of nothingness," she said. She also says, "There is no client list and it sure as hell wasn't on her desk." Remind us how we got here.

WILL SOMMER, SENIOR REPORTER, THE BULWARK: I mean, this is a situation where I think Susie Wiles is right on here in terms of blaming Pam Bondi in part, saying the administration had hyped this up so much even before they took office. People like J.D. Vance were talking about how important these Epstein files were.

ROSALES: They ran on that.

SOMMER: Exactly. It was a huge part of the campaign. I think it brought a lot of new voters to Trump. Then you have a situation where people like Pam Bondi are saying, the client list is on my desk and they are handing out these binders that turned out to be full of already public documents. So, there was all this hype around it. And then suddenly, Donald Trump says, "You know what? We are actually not releasing them." And kind of there is a big reversal. He starts attacking his own supporters. So that is the bind.

I mean, ultimately, I don't think this is even Pam Bondi's fault. It is Donald Trump's fault and everyone else in the administration is kind of in this impossible role trying to satisfy him and now the law.

KEILAR: There was this division revealed inside the Justice Department and a tension between Dan Bongino, the Deputy FBI Director, and Pam Bondi and others. Right? We knew that was going on here in the last few months. And then he just revealed in the last day or so that he is actually leaving his post very soon here, just a couple days before these documents are released. How are you seeing any division right now within DOJ and the FBI? And does his departure, the timing of that, raise questions?

SOMMER: Susie Wiles hit at this in her Vanity Fair article where she said a lot of people in the administration, including herself, didn't realize how important the Epstein files were to the MAGA base. But people like J.D. Vance, who she said was a conspiracy theorist on this issue, Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, who come from a real right-wing media world, they knew the base cared about this a lot, as did some independent kind of Joe Rogan type listeners. And I think people like Dan Bongino, frankly, they were trying to also preserve their audience. As we see, Dan Bongino is now leaving FBI for a much more lucrative job in talk radio and podcasting. So it is very unusual to have this situation where people in an administration are saying, "Well, geez, can I keep my Fox News gig when I go back? Can I keep my podcast?"

ROSALES: Yeah. And Wiles also said Trump is in the file. We know he is in the file and he is not in the file doing anything awful. Now, a reminder here that Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. How is the White House viewing this release when it comes to the president?

SOMMER: I mean, I think the White House, frankly, has been really dragging its heels. I mean, were seeing today, there is this real reluctance to release all the files. They look like they are going to break the law, generate a new round of negative coverage. There are all these unanswered questions about what this search was like. Dick Durbin in the Senate has said, he heard from FBI agents who were reviewing the files and were told flag every mention of Donald Trump.

What happened to those files after Donald Trump's name was flagged? We don't really know. And I don't think we will know for years until the Democrats at some point, perhaps take back the House, Senate, have a little more investigative power.

KEILAR: Thomas Massie, who was the Republican really leading the charge on this in the House, said if the release does not include names of men who are accused, he said his expectation is there is like almost two dozen men who have been accused and that the FBI has documentation of that from victims. He says if those names are not in there, then that is a sign that this is very incomplete. How much pressure, knowing that they are kind of doing this in stages, how much pressure is there for those names to be out today?

SOMMER: I think there is a lot of demand from Trump voters, people who have been following this case, they want -- I mean, the whole reason Republicans were interested in this story to begin with is because they wanted to see high-ranking people, powerful, wealthy people, many of whom they suspected were Democrats, would be arrested or exposed as these real sexual criminals. And the idea that maybe we are going to put out some flight logs, we'll put out some blurry images, stuff like that. I don't think that is going to satisfy conspiracy theorists or regular people who I think are -- have legitimate concerns about this case.

KEILAR: Will Sommer, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. It is a big day obviously, and were watching to see what all transpires. Still ahead, don't resign, retire. That is the advice that military commanders are getting from the top if they're concerned about an illegal order. What exactly does that mean? We have CNN's exclusive reporting ahead.

ROSALES: Plus, investigators are hoping the wreckage from yesterday's plane crash that killed NASCAR driver, Greg Biffle and his family, will give them some clues into what went wrong here. KEILAR: And she was abducted four decades ago. Now, she's been found and her mother is behind bars. We have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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[14:14:36]

ROSALES: Now to a CNN Exclusive. Sources telling us a top lawyer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said officers should retire rather than resign in protest if facing an unlawful order.

KEILAR: It is part of the fallout from that controversial video where six Democratic lawmakers urged U.S. troops to disobey illegal orders. CNN National Security Correspondent Natasha Bertrand is joining us now on this. You have some exclusive new reporting, really interesting stuff on this. Walk us through it.

[14:15:00]

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think this sheds some light on how senior military officials are thinking about this issue, which has really come to a head over the last month in so many conversations about, in particular, whether these boat strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific are illegal. Essentially, what happened was last month, the Democratic lawmakers released that video and they urged troops to disobey unlawful orders, reminded them of their duty to do so.

General Caine then went to his lawyer, who is a one-star general, and asked him, what is the latest guidance on this and what is the latest thinking on what constitutes an illegal order, how to determine that, and what a commander or senior officer should do if they feel that they are confronted with one. And the advice that he received, the kind of recommendation, the guidance was that if a senior officer or commander believes that they have received an unlawful order, if they have gone through all of the steps, if they have consulted with lawyers, and they still believe that this is truly illegal, then they should take the step of considering requesting retirement rather than resigning in protest, which could be seen as a political act, and also refrain from kind of picking a fight internally to try to get fired.

And so, again, I think that this is interesting because it shows that these conversations are happening at a very high level. This particular advice was meant to inform conversations that the chairman was having with other senior military officials about this because, of course, it dominated national news for quite a while and enraged the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

But, many former and current officials that we spoke to, they have some consternation about this because they believe that doing so, kind of urging people to quietly retire, that could perpetuate a culture of silence and lack of accountability. And so, one former senior defense official said, "A commissioned officer has every right to say this is wrong and shouldn't be expected to quietly and silently walk away just because they are given a free pass to do so."

So, there are plenty of academic papers that talk about civil-military relations that say that look, resigning or requesting retirement is a perfectly reasonable way to show your objections to something, but it also comes with its own costs, not to mention the fact that you are starting to bleed talent among very senior officers and commanders who might fundamentally disagree with the orders they are getting.

ROSALES: Let me pivot to these checks, $1,776 that the U.S. President Trump says that troops will get before Christmas. What have you learned about these checks and where that money is coming from?

BERTRAND: Yeah, so they've already started to hit bank accounts, according to service members we've spoken to. The $2.6 billion cost of these bonuses, that is being taken out of the $2.9 billion in extra funding for basic allowance for housing, which is essentially a stipend that service members get for cost of living expenses.

ROSALES: So, not tariffs?

BERTRAND: Right. And it was appropriated by Congress in July, actually, this extra $2.9 billion as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill. And active-duty service members at the rank of O-6 are lower, they are going to be receiving this as well as reserve component members who are on active-duty orders as of November 30th. And some troops who currently don't get that basic allowance for housing money, they could actually also be eligible to get this bonus. So, it is definitely, I think, welcome for a lot of service members. But it is important to note that it does come out of payments that were already appropriated by the Hill earlier this year.

KEILAR: So just to be clear, what they would have gotten kind of in sequence monthly, is it being kind of mushed together and given to them in a lump sum or will they still get their monthly -- where they already going to get this, some of them?

BERTRAND: Well, I think it is unclear at this point because another benefit of that is that its tax free. So I think that, they are still going to get their stipend, but this is a kind of lump-sum bonus that they are getting. And Trump is calling it a warrior dividend. It is kind of a rebrand.

KEILAR: Yeah, really interesting. Natasha, thank you so much for all the great reporting. Investigators have begun sifting through wreckage from that plane crash that killed former NASCAR driver, Greg Biffle and his family. We have details on what they are hoping to find ahead.

ROSALES: Plus, some of the Epstein files are set to be released today. What is expected to be revealed in those documents? You're watching "CNN News Central."

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[14:23:58]

KEILAR: New Today. Federal investigators begin sifting through the wreckage of that business jet that crashed in North Carolina, killing seven people, and among them, beloved NASCAR driver, Greg Biffle, his wife and two children.

ROSALES: Horrible. Surveillance cameras captured that fiery crash at the Statesville Regional Airport. You can see it right there, the flames on the right edge of your screen. CNN's Dianne Gallagher joins us now live from North Carolina. Dianne, what are you learning?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so there's still kind of a shock here in Charlotte. The NASCAR community is extremely tight knit, everybody kind of knows everybody. So, they're waiting for every bit of information that they can get right now. NTSB investigators have been out at the crash site at the Statesville Regional Airport all day. And we are expecting our very first briefing from those investigators in a little more than half an hour.

So at that point, we expect to see what they've learned, but also what they're looking for here. And basically, it seems like they're trying to piece together exactly what caused the Cessna Citation C550 plane to turn around Thursday morning, minutes after taking off, and then it crashed as it returned to that airport.

[14:25:00]

Now, there were seven people on that plane at the time, according to authorities. The family members of those seven released a joint statement basically expressing their grief, but also their gratitude for the outreach. On that plane was, of course, retired NASCAR driver, Greg Biffle, his wife Cristina, their son Ryder, and Greg's daughter Emma, as well as Dennis Dutton and his son Jack, who was a student at Auburn University, and Craig Wadsworth.

Now, we do not know a lot about that. We know that there were several licensed pilots on that plane at the time. We're not sure exactly who was flying the plane. All of these are things that we do expect to learn from those investigators or if they're going to try and figure out. NASCAR and the community itself, the motor sports world is in mourning at this point. Greg Biffle was named one of the 75 greatest drivers in the history of the sport. His family was actually there just a few months ago as he got his name on the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame. They were there together. And he is also a nominee for the NASCAR Hall of Fame just this year.

KEILAR: Yeah, Greg Bickel's daughter, by the way -- I've been thinking about this, Dianne, he had her with his first wife, so she obviously was not on that plane.

GALLAGHER: Yeah.

KEILAR: And she has lost her daughter. I am struck by what her pain must be since this happened. But talk to us a little bit about Greg Biffle because he was a really big-deal driver in NASCAR, in the lower series racing series as well. And he also had done a lot of humanitarian work, especially there in North Carolina.

GALLAGHER: And Brianna, you're right. My heart also goes out to Nicole, Greg Biffle's ex-wife and the mother of Emma. I just cannot imagine what she's going through. I do know the motorsports community has tried to sort of wrap its arms around her, here in the Charlotte area right now. Greg Biffle was, he was a champion of the two lower series of the Truck Series and the Xfinity Series and was very competitive. NASCAR calls him fiercely competitive. He was known for that in the Cup Series itself.

But a lot of people today are remembering his second act off the track, that rescue -- that relief work that he did after Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. Biffle himself was a licensed pilot and he took his personal helicopter up and made dozens and dozens of rescues, literally saving people who were trapped in the aftermath. And then, he and his wife Cristina, went back for months on end, delivering supplies and aid to the victims of that storm. Everyone from the governor, U.S. Senators, fans are remembering him for that second act as well as being the wheelman he was on the track.

ROSALES: Yeah. So difficult to hear the details. Just incredibly heartbreaking and a family devastated. Dianne Gallagher, thank you.

GALLAGHER: Yeah.

ROSALES: Well, today's the day that the Epstein files are supposed to be released, by law. How much we will learn about the convicted sex offender and his years of abuse of young women and underage girls. You're watching "CNN News Central."

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