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Epstein Files Cover-Up?; Trump Media Merger Raises Ethics Concerns; U.S. Chases Oil Tanker. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 22, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: High seas drama. Right now, U.S. forces are in active pursuit of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, as the latest escalation in President Trump's attempt at a total and complete blockade on sanctioned vessels is happening in and out of Venezuela.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Plus, we're standing by to see if and when more of the documents in the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public following this weekend's heavily criticized initial release. We will speak with one of the survivors ahead.

And caught on camera. Dramatic footage captures the moment a shoplifting suspect pulls a gun on a police officer. We have a closer look ahead.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: There is some new escalation and concern today off the coast of Venezuela, with the American military right now chasing down a third oil tanker.

Over the weekend,the Trump administration seized its second vessel in less than two weeks, which is the video that you are currently seeing here.

HILL: An official, though, tells CNN another ship refused to stop when the Coast Guard tried to board it and now U.S. forces are said to be in active pursuit of that vessel. At least one Republican senator is calling the move a -- quote -- "prelude to war."

Senate's Kevin Liptak is in West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago, where the president is spending time this week.

So, Kevin, what more do we know about where things stand with this active pursuit?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, it was a very dramatic weekend in the international waters off the coast of Venezuela, the U.S. working to interdict this tanker called the Bella 1 that was headed to Venezuela to pick up oil.

The U.S. says that it's under U.S. sanctions, that there's a warrant out for its seizure, that it was flying a false flag. But when the Coast Guard tried to board, the ship essentially fled. It turned around and sailed into the Caribbean sea, the U.S. close behind in what one U.S. official told me was an active pursuit.

Now, the pursuit still seems to be under way, but the fact that the ship is now sailing away from Venezuela and not toward it to load up with oil is what one official said was a success, as President Trump tries to cut off this most important economic lifeline for Caracas.

And this was the third ship that the U.S. has attempted to board. They were more successful on Saturday with this tanker called the Centuries, Kristi Noem tweeting quite a dramatic video of a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the deck as Coast Guard personnel tried to board that ship.

This is all part of President Trump's pressure effort on the leader there, Nicolas Maduro, trying to cut off the oil industry, which has allowed him to retain his grip on power, but it's also drawn sharp rhetoric from Maduro, who has called this psychological terrorism.

He's also ordered the Venezuelan navy to begin escorting tankers out of Venezuela, which, of course, ups the risk of potential armed confrontation. The big question, of course, is where this all heads next. President Trump has said that strikes on land will be happening soon.

He has been saying that for the last several weeks, but so far has stopped short of giving the final order there, guys.

KEILAR: And, Kevin, we are standing by to see President Trump this afternoon. The White House says that he will be making an announcement with his defense secretary and the secretary of the Navy by his side. What do we know about it?

LIPTAK: Yes, he will be speaking from Mar-a-Lago just here in Palm Beach. We understand this will be an announcement focused on shipbuilding and building up the Naval fleet.

The president has ordered up what he calls the golden fleet. He's criticized existing naval ships as being too rusty, not looking too great. And so we expect it to be focused on that. But, of course, the backdrop here is this massive military buildup near Venezuela. As much as 25 percent of the Naval fleet right now is in the Caribbean sea, as the president ups this pressure campaign.

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And so as he's there at Mar-a-Lago flanked by top military brass, it's certain, almost certain that the president will have a moment to comment on what exactly his objective is here as the tensions escalate.

HILL: All right, Kevin. Appreciate it. Thank you. CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand is also with us with a closer look at this escalation when it comes to U.S. action against these oil tankers.

So walk us through what more you are hearing in that space both in Washington and beyond.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has had kind of a mixed reaction on Capitol Hill.

Republicans are kind of coming out in -- some of them forcefully against this kind of policy new policy of seizing oil tankers, including Senator Rand Paul, who said just this past weekend that he believes that this is now serving as a prelude to war. Here's a little bit of what he said.

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SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): I consider it a provocation and a prelude to war. And I hope we don't go to war with Venezuela. It isn't the job of the American soldier to be the policemen of the world.

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): We have supported the opposition leaders, the past two opposition leaders in Venezuela. We put sanctions on them.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: And would you support it with arms?

LANKFORD: President Biden did that.

HUNT: With American arms and boots?

LANKFORD: Arms is a different issue. That's a very different issue on that, Kasie. We -- if you break it, you buy it.

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BERTRAND: I think there are a lot of questions still, including on Capitol Hill, about what the overall strategy is here, because dating back a few months, first, it was we're going to stop the flow of drugs coming to the U.S.

Then, publicly, some administration officials, including Marco Rubio, including the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, started to say, well, actually, this is about pressuring Maduro. And now we're kind of back to another narrative, which is, this is about returning the stolen assets that Maduro took from the United States, something that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also echoed on X this weekend.

He said that this policy of seizing these sanctioned oil tankers is going to continue -- quote -- "until Maduro's criminal enterprise returns every stolen American asset." Now, it's unclear exactly what that means, because, while the U.S. has sanctioned many of these ships that are operating in this area for ties to Iran, for carrying sanctioned oil, the oil itself on those ships not necessarily under a judicial seizure warrant, making it possible for the U.S. to legally seize that oil itself.

So I think that there are a lot of questions still about just what the administration is trying to do here. All signs at this point are pointing to trying to choke off the Venezuelan economy, right, because they rely so heavily on their oil experts, but -- oil exports, but at this point they say that they're going to continue.

But the fact that they weren't able to board this particular tanker is also very significant. We still don't know what kind of resolution is going to come from that.

KEILAR: Yes, we will be watching closely.

Natasha, thank you so much for the report. Really appreciate it.

Still to come: some growing outrage after the Justice Department's partial release and heavy redactions of the Epstein files. We will speak to an Epstein survivor about how she feels about how this was all rolled out.

Plus: the ethical questions now being raised after a $6 billion merger was announced involving Trump Media and a nuclear fusion firm.

HILL: Also ahead: deadly flooding hitting California. The threat of even more rain continues -- that and much more ahead right here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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HILL: Accusations of a cover-up growing louder today amid the Trump administration's slow release of the Epstein files.

The Justice Department says it will release more documents on the late convicted child sex offender days after Friday's congressionally mandated deadline. And take a look at some of the redactions that came in that initial release, entire pages in some cases blacked out.

KEILAR: Wow.

The DOJ withholding more from the trove of information than the law requires. The Department of State aired on the side of -- quote -- "over-redaction" to protect victims.

We're joined now by survivor Liz Stein.

Liz, thank you so much for being with us.

Have you seen information in the newly released files that might speak to your own story? What are your main takeaways so far?

LIZ STEIN, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Thank you for having me.

So I haven't found anything that specifically points to my own story, just me personally. But I have found images and documents that have been triggering to me, kind of taking me back to when I was being exploited.

We don't know what's coming out. Just like everyone else, we're going through these files when everyone else is. And it can be difficult because, as you're clicking through images, you might be going through a bunch of images that are mundane and then click on something that takes you right back. So...

HILL: I think, in some ways, it might be surprising to people that you don't know what's coming. I spoke with another survivor over the weekend who told me, while there was, of course, a letter sent to Congress, you all weren't notified.

And yet we're hearing in the initial letter to Congress from the deputy A.G., he says: "This unprecedented disclosure highlights our commitment to following the law, being transparent and protecting victims."

Do you believe that's what's happening right here?

STEIN: Well, I can tell you that we haven't had any contact with them.

And that's been incredibly frustrating to us, because this is our personal information, and it's really sensitive. And to have to go through it when everyone else is going through it is really difficult. And also we're being asked questions, have you seen this, have you seen that? And we're really just trying to work through it like everyone else.

KEILAR: I want to ask you about Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's accomplice.

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You made a victim impact statement at her sentencing. And you also said that you learned about her move to a lower-security prison through media reports and that the White House and the DOJ had not contacted you. Have you heard from them since?

STEIN: I have not. And that is the general consensus among us as survivors. They have not reached out to us personally and they haven't given us any heads-up as to what we will be seeing. And they haven't asked for our help in releasing any of these documents.

And I think that, particularly for us, as victims of this crime, we would have hoped that there was more sensitivity around this from the DOJ.

HILL: How does this leave you feeling in this moment?

STEIN: I think that there's a mix of feelings. I can't say that I'm surprised at how this rollout has taken place, but I'm definitely disappointed.

We had an opportunity for real transparency here. And I think that what is most upsetting to me is the fact that this has been so highly politicized, when it's not a political issue. This is a crime. And it's a crime of sex trafficking. And our government has admitted now that there are over 1,200 victims of this crime.

And so where is the thoughtfulness on the part of the DOJ for all of those victims?

KEILAR: And you -- Deputy A.G. Todd Blanche was asked on "Meet the Press" yesterday about similar feelings from survivors. A lot of them are outraged in general. They're outraged about his July meeting with Maxwell that preceded that move to a lower-security prison.

He was pressed on if he'd met with survivors, which is something, to a survivor, they have said they welcome. Here's part of his response on that.

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TODD BLANCHE, U.S. DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: First of all, they have to want to speak with us. The attorney general and I spoke with the victims rights group as recently as Thursday, OK? And if folks want to talk to us next week or the week after or in the coming months, they know how to get ahold of us and we will always talk to survivors and victims' families.

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KEILAR: What do you say to that, Liz?

STEIN: Well, they know where we are and they know that we're willing to cooperate with them, but they haven't reached out to any of us.

And I am not unique in the fact that I haven't been reached out to. We are a pretty tight-knit group these days and we speak to each other regularly. And my experience is not unique. I haven't heard of any other survivors who have been contacted. And that's a real point of frustration for us.

HILL: Yes, and I think understandably for so many people.

Liz, thank you for joining us and thank you, as always, for your courage in speaking out.

STEIN: Thank you.

HILL: Still to come here: the Trump Media empire planning to merge with a nuclear fusion company, raising some serious ethics concerns.

KEILAR: Plus: A new proposal by DHS could soon have major implications, not just for immigration policy, but also military families. We're breaking down what the change is and what has some of these families so concerned on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:22:45] HILL: A $6 billion merger between Trump Media and a nuclear fusion company is sparking major ethics concerns. So that merger, which was announced late last week, still needs to be approved by federal regulators.

But it could mean that the president would then have a financial interest in a company whose very success is influenced by the government he controls.

CNN's Matt Egan joining us now to break this down.

So critics of this, right, are waving big red flags, saying this is a clear example of conflict of interest. What do we know about where this stands?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, well, Erica, you're right.

Ethics watchdogs, they are really alarmed by this deal, because, yes, it means that the president of the United States is going to own a big chunk of a company whose fortunes are going to be directly influenced by the government that he presides over.

Now, TAE Technologies is not a household name, but it's been around for almost 30 years, backed by some big names, including Google and Chevron. And, next year, it's aiming to launch the world's first utility-scale fusion power plant.

Now, fusion is often looked at as the Holy Grail of clean energy. It could provide almost limitless clean energy by harnessing the same process that powers the sun and the stars. But it's not commercially viable, at least not yet. Experts say it's going to need some of the deep pockets from the federal government, not to mention the government's regulatory approval.

Now, this deal really set off shockwaves on Wall Street. This is a look at the share price of Trump Media, and it was really trending down, having a terrible year, until the deal got announced and the share price skyrocketed by 40 percent one day alone.

And this instantly boosted the president's net worth. The value of the shares that the president owns through a trust went up by half-a- billion dollars in one day alone.

Now, Richard Painter, the former top ethics official in the George W. Bush administration, he told me that this is a clear conflict of interest. He said virtually anyone else in the federal government, such as the energy secretary, would have to recuse themselves from any matter dealing with fusion if they owned a stake in a fusion company.

However, the president and the vice president, they are not subject to the criminal statute of -- conflict of interest statute. And so that's why this looks bad, but Painter says it's not anything that's actually illegal or would run afoul of the conflict of interest rules.

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But, clearly, this is a concern for ethics experts -- Erica.

HILL: Yes, and understandably.

So what does the White House have to say in all of this?

EGAN: Well, the White House, they're criticizing the news media's focus on this.

And Karoline Leavitt, she put out a statement saying that: "Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged or will ever engage in conflicts of interest."

But one of the concerns here is that this could cause the federal government to play favorites, right, potentially preferring the Trump nuclear fusion company over all the other ones. And there are dozens of other companies out there.

And I talked to Don Beyer. He's a Democrat from Virginia. He's the co- chair of the House Fusion Energy Caucus. And he told me he hates the thought of a president who puts his name on the Kennedy Center putting his foot on the scale of who the winners and losers are in fusion energy.

And I talked to TAE Technologies, their CEO. And he said they're not looking for any special treatment here, but some on Wall Street suspect they will get special treatment, because you're talking about a situation where their leading shareholder would also be the leader of the free world.

One last point for you here, Erica, ethics experts say the simple solution here is divesting, right, having the president divest not just from fusion, but also from social media and from cryptocurrency as well. But obviously that does not look imminent. If anything right now, Erica, this is a business empire that is growing. It's not shrinking.

HILL: It certainly seems to be that way.

Matt, really appreciate the breakdown.

EGAN: Thanks, Erica.

HILL: Thank you.

Well, with health care premiums about to skyrocket for millions of Americans, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is now projecting confidence over the future of Obamacare. We will discuss next.

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